Column
The dreadful U.S. prison scene
By ROBERT F. DRINAN
Twenty-five years ago the United
States became addicted to prisons. With no national debate and no planning, the
number of prisons quadrupled. The nation’s current prison population of 2
million prisoners includes 750,000 African-Americans.
The number of women incarcerated has increased seven-fold. In 1980
there were 12,000 women prisoners; in the year 2000 there were 90,000. Texas
led the states with 12,714 female prisoners in the year 2000.
A new book Invisible Punishment (Free Press) contains 16
essays by experts on the series of bad judgments that have led to the
incarceration in the United States of 700 out of every 100,000 persons. The
rate in Europe is 100 out of 100,000. While the United States went from 645 in
1997 to 702 in 2000, Canada’s rate fell from 115 in 1997 to 103 in
2000.
There is new information in the book on the devastating impact on
families and children caused by the imprisonment of men. This is particularly
visible in Washington where some 10 percent of all African-American men are in
prison and where many more are under some form of correctional supervision.
This is comparable to the situations in the inner cities of America, especially
in the South. The high rate of incarceration of urban males means that some 1.5
million children have a parent in jail. Not a few of these children are placed
in foster care, especially if their mother is in prison.
The growth of privately organized prisons is graphically related
in Invisible Punishment. In 1980 the conservative think tank The
Heritage Foundation urged the privatization of prisons. The Crime Corrections
Association opened with a stock worth $50 million in 1986; in 1997 it traded at
$3.5 billion. The thought of profit-making on the operation of prisons is, for
many, simply appalling. The private prison industry brought its institutions to
rural areas where the citizens of these depressed areas welcomed them. As a
result, the majority of prisoners from the New York City area, for example, are
jailed in remote upstate New York making it difficult for their families to see
them.
The prison scene in the United States does not seem to offer many
rays of hope that things are getting better. Everything is dreadful, especially
for black males between the ages of 18 and 30. In New York state, for example,
there are more black males in this age group in prison than in all of the
public universities in the state.
The only glimmer of hope that Americans seem to be rethinking
their harsh view of criminals is that a few states are about to repeal
statutes, which deprive former felons of the right to vote. Some 4 million
individuals -- many black -- are prevented from voting because they are former
felons.
Invisible Punishment offers some glimpses into the prison
world, which for the most part is carefully hidden from the world. The high
walls and razor wire symbolize the warden’s determination to keep out the
press -- especially television. In May 2001, 10 guards at a prison facility in
the District of Columbia were indicted on federal bribery charges. But there
was no follow-up in the press.
There is little public discussion of the astounding increase in
the number of prisoners or the scandalous rate of recidivism. No one except a
tiny group of academics, criminal defense lawyers and some religious personnel
seem to care. The vast majority seem to be able to convince themselves that the
crime rate demands tough measures. Few want to admit that the easy availability
of guns is at the heart of the problem.
No one, of course, is opposed to all prisons. Violent and
incorrigible individuals have to be isolated. And even the critics of the
present system say often -- with some vehemence -- that the white-collar
criminals involved in the Enron debacle and similar disasters should do
substantial “hard time.”
The former Soviet Union still has an incarceration rate close to
the United States, but since 1991, 19 countries of the former bloc have joined
the Council of Europe and have agreed to the requirement of humanizing their
prisons, which are to be used only as a last resort.
The organization Penal Reform International, based in Europe, has
helped the Russians to civilize their prison system. The reform group has just
opened a new office in Washington. Its mission is to persuade the United States
to follow at least the minimum standards of penal reform adopted by virtually
every democracy in the world.
Jesuit Fr. Robert Drinan is a professor at Georgetown
University Law Center. His e-mail address is
drinan@law.georgetown.edu
National Catholic Reporter, December 13,
2002
|
