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California's Prison Disaster
A couple of weeks ago I described California as "a penal colony with a nice coastline." The coastline is still nice, but a three-judge panel has finally ordered the state to get off its ass and do something about our wretched and overflowing prison system:
California’s prisons are so overcrowded that the state is violating inmates’ constitutional rights, three federal judges ruled today in a decision imposing a cap on the prison population that will force the state to release nearly 43,000 prisoners over the next two years. The 185-page opinion also accused the state of fostering “criminogenic” conditions, compelling former prisoners to commit more crimes and feed a cycle of recidivism.
A combination of dumb drug laws, dysfunctional parole policies, "three strikes" laws passed by initiative, an endless procession of tougher-than-thou politicians, and a famously thuggish and politically powerful prison guards union has gotten California into this mess. James Sterngold wrote about it for us last year:
California's archipelago of 33 prisons houses more than 170,000 inmates, nearly twice the number it was designed to safely hold. Almost all of its facilities are bursting at the seams: More than 16,000 prisoners sleep on what are known as "ugly beds" — extra bunks stuffed into cells, gyms, dayrooms, and hallways. [Governor Arnold] Schwarzenegger has referred to the system as a "powder keg."
....Even as Schwarzenegger has promised reform, the corrections budget has exploded during his term, from $4.7 billion in fiscal 2004 to nearly $10 billion in fiscal 2007, or about $49,000 for each adult inmate.
....For more than three decades, California has been trapped in a self-perpetuating cycle where putting more people in prison for longer periods of time has become the answer to every new crime to capture the public's attention — from drug dealing and gangbanging to tragic child abductions. Spurred on by a powerful prison guards' union and politicians afraid of looking soft on crime, corrections has become a bottomless pit, where countless lives and dollars disappear year after year. And now that it has metastasized to the point where even a tough-guy governor and the guards agree that the prisons must be downsized or else (see "When Prison Guards Go Soft"), every attempt at change seems stymied by inertia. The sheer size of the system has become the biggest obstacle to finding alternatives to warehousing criminals without preparing them for anything more than another cycle of incarceration. "The public believes the prison population reflects the crime rate," says James Austin, a corrections consultant who has served on several prison-reform panels in California. "That's just not true. It's because of California's policies and the way it runs the system."
So will the judges be able to make a dent in all this? Hard to say. Every attempt to date has failed, and the LA Times quotes a spokesman from the California Attorney General's office saying, "This order doesn’t release anybody from prison, it just orders the state to come up with a plan. 
We have no immediate plans to appeal this particular order, but there would definitely be thought given to appeal any order that would ultimately order releases."
In other words, they're going to keep stalling. Mark Kleiman comments:
It wouldn't be hard to shrink prison populations drastically while reducing crime, by doing a better job of supervising prison releasees on parole using drug-testing and position monitoring with swift and certain, but mild, sanctions for each violation of the rules....That's the big finding from Project HOPE in Hawaii. So far, though, there's no indication that the Governor or the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation are thinking along those lines. Instead they'll fight the case all the way up to the Supreme Court, and then blame the judges when their failure to do their jobs leads to a crime increase.
What a mess. And it's not just California, of course. We're just the worst. For a look at the big picture, check out our special package on the American penal system: "Slammed: The Coming Prison Meltdown."
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Slammed: The Coming Prison Meltdown
We're locking up 1 in every 100 American adults—and going bankrupt in the process. Are there alternatives to a total meltdown? Inside America's broken—and broke—prison system.
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Slammed: Welcome to the Age of Incarceration
What happens when you lock up 1 in every 100 American adults?
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Photo Essay: Women in Prison
This Alabama prison houses more than 900 women inmates.
Clearly one of the answers
Clearly one of the answers is to raise taxes on the wealthiest 5% and build more prisons.
No, clearly the answer is to
No, clearly the answer is to reform the stupid drug laws. And we clearly need to raise taxes on the wealthiest 5% because we need the money for other reasons besides prisons -- such as healthcare, education, and infrastructure.
I agree with that!!
Todd DiRoberto
http://www.newsguide.us/art-entertainment/movies/Todd-DiRoberto-of-Ameri...
if you build more prisons,
if you build more prisons, you have to fill them. i think that policy reform is the only answer. instead of finding new places to put prisoners, we need to ask ourselves why so many californians are incarcerated.
alexandria gutierrez
more prisoners,
more money for the guards union. It's always the money.
Over Worked! For a couple
Over Worked!
For a couple years I've been blaming it on lack of sleep and too much pressure from my job, but now I found out the real reason:
I'm tired because I'm overworked.
The population of this country is 237 million.
104 million are retired.
That leaves 133 million to do the work.
There are 85 million in school, which leaves 48 million to do the work.
Of this there are 29 million employed by the federal government, leaving 19 million to do the work.
2.8 million are in the Armed Forces, which leaves 16.2 million to do the work.
Take from the total the 14,800,000 people who work for State and City Governments and that leaves 1.4 million to do the work.
At any given time there are 188,000 people in hospitals, leaving 1,212,000 to do the work.
Now, there are 1,211,998 people in prisons.
That leaves just two people to do the work.
You and me.
And you're sitting at your computer reading jokes.
paper cutter
Lets outsource the prison to
tagged as:- solution
Lets outsource the prison to Afganisthan...put them to work to develop a country that saves money and teaches prisoner to be creative and help a society...and afganisthan also will earn soemthing by doing so...
This is what happens when
tagged as:- solution
- result
This is what happens when the death penalty is rarely applied and takes decades of appeals. Appropriately calibrated punishment for severe felons would resolve this problem in a matter of just a few years.
Wonderful, state-sanctioned
Wonderful, state-sanctioned mass murder is now advocated as a solution for high prison populations. Time to dust off old sparky.
Gee, Kevin, you really seem to be attracting the tin-foil-hat crowd lately in comments.
Correction:
The state of California is a trend setter. Your state will be following along soon, the only question is when. Prisons are often a commercial industry that is probably not necessary and probably could be eliminated. There'd be less complaining about discharging prisoners if all prisons were run by state agencies that might not have as much clout at budget writing time as lobbyists for the correction industry.
I don't understand this
I don't understand this comment. From Kevin's post is sounds like Ca. prison costs are driven by population, not infrastructure, which is insufficient given the population. The high population is caused by bad, inflexible criminal laws, that's the source of the problem, according to him, not lobbyists for the penal industry.
I'm no advocate of privately run prisons, but that doesn't seem to be the source of the problem here. And I don't think lobbyists are the source of the inflexible criminal laws, which are generally popular and get broad support.
Jail Hogs
I've seen it noted that there is pressure from the prison guard unions to keep the three strikes law. Don't have a link handy.
Here's some understanding...
... and a good example of what happens when prisons become a profit oriented industry.
Judges Plead Guilty in Scheme to Jail Youths for Profit
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/13/us/13judge.html
But the wealthy have more
But the wealthy have more and if you think about it they provide more incentive for the criminals. I mean if you're going to steal why would you steal from the poor? You're not mostly. So the rich actually are one of the reasons the prisons are overflowing. So shouldn't the rich be paying their fair share towards the cost of confinement?
With all of tax increases coming our way- California and well as Federal surcharges on millionaires- the rates only take 57% of income. That still leaves a pot of 43% we can go after. Our economy did quite well in the 50's and 60's when top marginal rates were 90% so clearly we have a bit more we can take without hurting growth.
Sure, let's liberalize the drug laws but let's make sure we get our fair share first from those that can afford to pay.
The poor are the major
The poor are the major victims of crime. If you don't know that, you know nothing. But your post is specious, so I have no reason to respond further.
I was being factious, not
I was being factious, not specious, not any more specious anyway than thinking that the rich can pay for everything when 50%+ of Federal tax payers pay no federal income tax. And since the Democrats seem to think that the solution to everything is to raise taxes on the rich, why not apply the same logic to the California prison situation. Is it idiotic? Of course, but not any more so than legalizing drugs.
"With all of tax increases
"With all of tax increases coming our way- California and well as Federal surcharges on millionaires- the rates only take 57% of income."
First of all, liar.
Second, I'm sure you are really sweating that tax on incomes over $1,000,000. In your fantasy life, that is.
Lair? About what? The 57%
Lair? About what? The 57% rates? Try addition. California taxes its top income earners more than 10 percent, meaning that between state taxes, federal taxes, Medicare taxes and the proposed health care surtax, a couple would face a total tax rate of more than 56 percent on part of their income.
Laloo the Prime
Laloo the Prime Minister
Laloo becomes PM (if you haven't cut your throat yet, read on) and goes to Pakistan for a one-on-one with Nawaz Sharif. They decide to meet without aides and are closeted for about 5 minutes.
Laloo then emerges from the room. Reporters clamour for a statement. "Nawazbhai will make the announcement" is all Laloo says.
Nawaz Sharif comes out and drops a bombshell - Pakistan has decided to give up all claims on Kashmir, with no strings attached!
The world is stunned. Laloo has achieved in 5 minutes what others had failed to in 50 years! How did you do it, what did you promise, the press clamours.
"Sab Akai-waalon ka kamaal hai," says Laloo. "Woh kehte hain na, TV loge tho fridge free doonga, video khareedein to cellphone free... tho ham bhi Nawazbhai se keh diye: "aapko Kashmir chaahiye na? Le jaayie. Magar saath mein bihar free milega, bas!"
paper cutter
America needs a New Bastille
America needs a New Bastille Day.
The problem, as with every
The problem, as with every other problem, is Republicans. The problem isn't us, it's who they are.
Why should we have to live in the same country with these people?
If you don't like
If you don't like Republicans why not move to a country where there are no Republicans? I'm sure you'd love Cuba or Venezuela.
I'll take France, thank you.
I'll take France, thank you.
I've been to Norway and it
I've been to Norway and it is pretty nice, too. I don't think there is a single gun-totin', pick-up drivin', beer-swillin', bible-thumpin' right-wing moron (Republican) in the entire country.
There's nothing wrong with
There's nothing wrong with driving a pick-up or swilling beer, just not at the same time.
Response
tagged as:- solution
When you leave to go to France take all your communist friends with you and dont let the door hit you in the ass. You ungrateful bastard. You should be ashamed of yourself.
Ca liberal majority state legislature, Hispanic caucus, and socialist unions are why this state is bankrupt. Programs. Basic accounting classes should be mandatory for Democrat leaders or they should hang from a tree.
Re: Prison overcrowding - upwards of 20% - 25% are unlawful aliens or 1st generation Mexicans from broken families, w no respect for this American or human life. Enforce the laws of this Nation and ship the maggots back to their country of origin,
make Republican crimes capital crimes
If tax evasion or withholding of earned wages by employers were capital crimes, there would be a lot less Republicans in America.
You’re right. There's
You’re right. There's Daschle, Geitner, Marshall, Solis, oh wait they are all Democrats.
those are cloth coat Republicans
Those are cloth coat Republicans, and their removal would benefit society almost as much as removing the other, much worse, card carrying Republicans.
I was thinking it would be a
I was thinking it would be a more practical alternative to fund the relocation of Republicans to some area they would feel more comfortable, like Afghanistan, or Waziristan.
Places full of people they can understand.
Like communist dictatorships these places are just another expression of social conservatism organized to facilitate the interest of an elite minority, whether military dictators or corporations.
No, Putin's Russia, it's a
No, Putin's Russia, it's a conservative's paradise. Instead of having us install super-wealthy oligarchs and rule by nationalist thugs, they should just move to Russia.
common cause with North Korea and every other criminal cartel on
I don't care where they go as long as it isn't physically contiguous with the US.
You know wherever it is they will justify anything they do by antagonism to us, quickly set about constructing a huge nuclear and bio warfare arsenal, 'fer pertection', and make common cause with North Korea and every other criminal cartel on earth.
CA Prisons
What the US and CA need is to construct prison colonies in Africa and pay African nations to run the prison colonies. All prisoners serving more than 25 years would be transported to one of these colonies. African authorities could probably do this for us for about $5 per day per prisoner and still make a profit.
African prison colonies
Hard Labor Prison Colonies located in remote locations that have a extremely hostile climate and vile living conditions would do wonders.
Also reinstate Corporal Punishment (public whiping ect.) for lesser crimes.
I'm of the opinion that criminals have no rights andshould treated as second class citizens.
California Prisons and California Law
Terrible problems for California and its diversified population and for democracy.
Why does the United States have more citizens in jail percentage wise than any other modern industrialized country? No easy answers. Generally, it is always about money and profits and resources and unrealistic laws that do nothing to treat the causes of the "democratic" crimes committed in free societies. Why has the war on illegal drugs never been won while the presence and misuse of legal drugs is growing disproportionately in our society to the profit of the big drug companies?
What about the injustice of three-strike laws that keep human beings in jail for what amounts to life because apprehended shoplifting became the crime of completed larceny to justify the subsidy of civil recovery laws for the American Retail Industry?
Why did the Supreme Court agree to hear California's appeal to the decision of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in California in which the 9th Circuit did determine that the sentencing under California law, only in the instance of a few cases that involved "shoplifting" and three strikes, was cruel and unusal? Why did The Supreme Court (the Business Court) in a 5 to four decision (political?) overturn the 9th Circuit?
How have the Civil Recovery Laws for Shoplifting (the great government subsidy of the retail industry) and the relatively new treatment of apprehended shoplifting as the completed crime of larceny and three-strike laws impacted the California prisons? Why are prisoners serving life sentences because apprehended shoplifting, in which there is generally no loss to the merchant, can be counted as a third strike?
We now see that there is a double standard in the law and that moral turpitude in the behavior of corporations is treated much differently under the law than the moral turpitude of the common citizen.
If the "for profit" corporations will in the future run the prisons, isn't it a given that there will be even more people in prison?
If prisoners are released from prison in great numbers because of Court Orders and there are no jobs for them in a recession that looks like a depression, and in a State that is broke, isn't this a disservice to the law abiding population of California who pay most of the taxes?
Why shouldn't the rich pay more in taxes when they have used their money to influence the laws that enable them to become obscenely rich and to steal as needed, as revealed by Bernie Madoff?
What planet do you live on?
What planet do you live on?
California Prisons are on Planet Earth
I live on the same planet you live on --- but my orbit of influence is small. I only get to vote once but the "special interests" only have to buy the votes of the Committees in the State Legislatures or the Congress who are educated by the "special interests" and who make the laws I live under and that you live under ----that is, if you live on this planet with me?
But thanks to the really FREE Press like Mother Jones and to reporters on Mother Jones, there are no topics that are off the table. Are there?
Part of the problem
has to do with how we treat people upon release. Trying to find a job in this economy is tough, trying to find a job with a felony conviction can be a nightmare. Felony convictions can be a block to holding professional licenses, being employed in many industries, and shunned for an outcast even if one has paid their debt.
In many cases it's easier to remain in the penal system than to live outside of it, that and the stupid drug laws, plus the three strikes lock em away laws.
California is just the tip of the dead fish, the rot will spread across the country.
Getting into prison
Pretty soon, when mob rule kills health care reform, people with cancer and heart disease will be committing crimes just to get INTO prison. It will be their only source of health care.
Ruth Wilson Gilmore's,
Ruth Wilson Gilmore's, Golden Gulag, has never been more relevant. In a state whose prison population is reaching that of Russia, there has to be a better solution. In a state where more black males between 18 and 24 are in prison than in college, there has to be a better solution.
The majority of those incarcerated are being imprisoned for non-violent crimes, crimes against property and drug possession/distribution. The notion that somehow all prisoners are murderers, rapists, etc. has been perpetuated from the left and the right, the conservative and the progressive, women's groups and the for-profit prison companies. All of this against the backdrop of a racialized criminal.
The prison boom in California can be traced back to a governor of a not so distant past, Ronald 'Free-thinking' Reagan. The desire to limit the power of the state to provide social welfare in the form of accessible housing, education, and medical care only realigned state power and capital, now a surplus, towards the interest of 'corrections.' While the private prison boom has never been a realistic or ominous specter, as Wackenhut and CCA stock reports indicate, the public prison in CA has loomed large in the minds of disfranchised communities made idle and turned into surplus themselves by deindustrialization and marginalization.
Don't think that Reagan as governor is disconnected from the President Reagan who spoke about the impropriety of the so-called, 'welfare queen.' This less than opaque masterpiece of racial propaganda only solidified his attack on communities of color in America, begun while he was still the Golden State's governor.
Prison has never been about actually reforming the individual, even if we hope to reference Bentham's Panopticon. Crime does not exist in a void, it is not abstracted from socio-economic-political contexts. It serves as a means of physically and geographically dislocating populations that we in the majority deem unfit for citizenship, for humanity. Prison accepts lambs and produces hyenas. Look for studies on the success of prison; there aren't any, yet we continue to lock folks up and ignore the recidivism rate. Until we end defining our own freedom on prisoners' lack of, then we cannot truly experience our own.
The system is screwed. 49-k
The system is screwed. 49-k per inmate per year. That's about twice what the state doles out in welfare for single moms. The system should be sub divided into at least two categories. Repeat violent offenders should be dealt with using tough measures and perhaps, farmed out to private (even out of state) facilities where 25-k per prisoner would still suffice. The non violent, example drug users or other less dangerous offences should be set into a work camp where they share their revenue with the prison. Less budget would be needed because less security is required.
Why should a drug user be in
Why should a drug user be in prison? That makes no sense.
all drug prohibition laws are political
All drug prohibition laws are political. They are not based on natural law. All drug related incarcerated persons are political prisoners, whether they are users or sellers or whether the contraband is pot or heroin or crack. No one should ever be imprisoned for violating drug prohibition laws. The costs to society of incarcerating these political prisoners are much greater than the costs of drug use, which would be much less if drugs were not illegal. Prohibition opportunity costs include organized crime, police and political corruption, black market monopoly rents, burgeoning prison populations and, perhaps worst of all, demagoguery by the corrupted politicians, which makes it very difficult for reason to be applied to public policy. The War on Drugs was always a war on good governance.
Free Charles Manson.
Free Charles Manson.
Hollywood Becomes Reality?
Esacape from L.A. is becoming a reality, it's all part of Schwarzenegger's private agenda, In 2010 he is going to trigger a massive earthquake causing all of California south of San Francisco to separate from the contiguous United States . Bam! you got your prison colony.
California's Prison Disaster
There exists better examples:
Finland Is Soft on Crime
Dan Gardner
http://www.wpunj.edu/~newpol/issue43/Gardner43.htm
Finland's incarceration rate is just 52 per 100,000 people, less than half Canada's rate of 119 per 100,000 people and a tiny fraction of the American rate of 702.
5 minute video about Bastoy Prison, in Norway. It is an island, with 115 inmates, who are NOT locked up. Indeed they have a boat! And their rooms look like a motel!
Sometimes it is interesting to look at what other countries do with inmates, so that you can see that America's answer is NOT the only way!
http://current.com/items/88860207_free-range-jailbirds.htm
However, probably you feel only save in a nation of highest prisoner rate and merciless fellow citizen.
You can't build your way out of the crisis
tagged as:- solution
Here in the UK it seems as if we are slowly heading towards a US-model penal system, and it scares me beyond belief. I work for the Howard League, the world's oldest penal reform charity, and this year the Commission on English Prisons Today published some 'blue-sky' thinking on the future of the criminal justice system - looking at both the Scandinavian and American models, amongst others - you can read the report here http://www.prisoncommission.org.uk
Our current Justice Minister, Jack Straw, went to see one of these prisons with the gyms filled with bunk beds – not necessarily in California, not sure where – when he visited the States a year or so ago. I have it on good authority he was quite impressed! This petrifies me even more!
... release all prostitutes
tagged as:- solution
... release all prostitutes and nonviolent drug users IMMEDIATELY !!!
It has been set as precident
It has been set by precident that Republicans do not have to obey courty orders. Arnold can just ignore this order and keep overflowing the prisons. See how easy it is to govern if you are a Republican?
Well, they can just deport the illegal immigrants immediately.
Just charter a fleet of buses, stuff 'em in and drive 'em south. The Mexican Government can give them guns and let them shoot up the cartels and both countries will be forever grateful. Instant pardons for all of them!