The January/February issue of American Prospect magazine contains a special report on what has become a system of mass incarceration in the US.
The report points out that, right now, nearly 1 percent of the American adult population is imprisoned—a rate unprecedented in American history. Between 1980 and 2008, the US population grew 34 percent, while the prison population grew 375 percent.
Most of those locked up will be released. And a high percentage of those reentering our communities will offend again because the rehabilitation and re-entry policies we’re using are inadequate, nonexistent or, in many cases, aggressively counterproductive.
For most of you reading WitnessLA, this is not exactly new news. But what is interesting about this report is that it focuses on a series of strategies that could help the US might reduce its prison and parole population while still keeping a strong focus on public safety.
Take a look for yourself.
PEACEFUL STRIKE AT 7 GEORGIA STATE PRISONS CONTINUES
Prisoners at up to seven Georgia prisons have organized a nonviolent demonstration to protest living conditions et al in the state’s correctional institutions.
The strike, which was into its third day on Sunday, is expected to continue into Monday. (It is being billed as the largest prison strike in American history although I’ve not been able to independently verify that claim.)
Curiously, there is almost zip media coverage of the strike inside Georgia, save some by alternative media.
Monday, however, the New York times is running an article about how the strike was coordinated though the use of contraband cell phones.
LA TALKS ABOUT 5-YEAR PLAN TO END HOMELESSNESS
Monday’s NY Times also has an article on LA’s plan to end homelessness within 5-years. (Or at least that’s what the planners hope).
Here’s how the story opens:
At a time when cities across the country have made significant progress over the past decade in reducing the number of homeless, in no small part by building permanent housing, the problem seems intractable in the County of Los Angeles.
It has become a subject of acute embarrassment to some civic leaders, upset over the county’s faltering efforts, the glaring contrast of street poverty and mansion wealth, and any perception of a hardhearted Los Angeles unmoved by a problem that has motivated action in so many other cities.
For national organizations trying to eradicate homelessness, Los Angeles — with its 48,000 people living on the streets, including 6,000 veterans, according to one count — stands as a stubborn anomaly, an outlier at a time when there has been progress, albeit modest and at times fitful, in so many cities…
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What is it about the incarcerated that attracts you so much Celeste? I look at something like this.. “Most of those locked up will be released. And a high percentage of those reentering our communities will offend again because the rehabilitation and re-entry policies we’re using are inadequate, nonexistent or, in many cases, aggressively counterproductive” and wonder with the economy and fight for funds for education and so many other places why you believe that people who, “TIME AND AGAIN”, have shown they can’t be trusted to behave should be the recipients of funds best spent elsewhere?
How is society as a whole supposed to be able to figure out what time will be the last time a habitual criminal decides to straighten up? Isn’t the safety of the majority more important than trying to “guess” when that might take place?
Don’t get me wrong, I’d like people to be rehabilitated but the fact is they usually don’t go that way. I don’t care how many cases you can point to where people have the simple fact is most don’t and it’s not because there isn’t some program they could get assistance from, it’s that they don’t want to be rehabilitated.
I went to a high school football game the other night with five guys I played ball with starting in junior high. Two are teachers, one has worked for CYA for over 20 years (He thinks CYA will close within a year, one is an accountant and one high up in a local water district.
When we spoke of the guys we knew, and were close with and liked or even loved like brothers, the ones we knew of who started doing drugs and petty crimes had all stayed the same or moved on to more serious criminal activity. One was the brother of one of the guys with me and it saddened all of us that they never decided to change. They all had family support and numerous chances but chose their paths and stayed on them.
That’s the norm Celeste, just like it’s the norm that few people don’t go to “prison” on a first offense unless it’s plenty serious, not these days where we do our best to keep people out of prison that leads at time to tragic ends for law abiding people everywhere.
I want prison to be an experience one never gets comfortable with. I would like it to be so structured and so lacking in the normal comforts people are used to on the outside that people will pick changing behavior over a live of crime. A reward system should be a part of every long term custody program. Behave and participate in programs, workshops or job training and you earn your “comforts”, refuse and get nothing, zero, nada, zilch.
We’ve become way to soft as a people and need to realize that to move forward, at some point some have to be left behind.
SF: We can entirely agree on this point: “A reward system should be a part of every long term custody program. Behave and participate in programs, workshops or job training and you earn your “comforts”…”
The HOPE probation program in Hawaii has very sure and swift sanctions (jail) when people mess up, and clear rewards if they make progress. And the recidivism has dropped precipitously.
As to why I write about those incarcerated: Look at it this way, if each one of us picked one of the societal problems that faces us and worked to make it better—pick a problem any problem that draws you—we’d all be in better shape. Prison and incarceration policy would not be your choice. But you made a career in law enforcement so clearly you chose to contribute to making society better. We don’t all need to be drawn to the same cause. But I do believe that one’s life is made much happier by putting time and attention into something that helps make the world around us a bit better.
As to why gangs and incarceration policy are among my choices….that’s a far longer discussion.
It is my understanding that unless a first time offender commits a serious violent crime, they aren’t sent to a maximum security prison. Don’t they have a bunch of rehabilitation programs at these lower level prisons?
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