Rethinking California’s Prisons
By Anthony Gregory on Feb 9, 2009 in American History, Criminal Justice, Drugs, Personal Liberty
A three-judge panel has tentatively ruled that “[t]he California prison system must reduce overcrowding by as many as 55,000 inmates within three years to provide a constitutional level of medical and mental health care,” according to the New York Times.
Taxpayers rightly resent the price tag of the prison system, and many might understandably think that prisoners should have no right to expensive care at their further expense. But if the prisons cannot afford to care for its prisoners, we obviously have far too many.
Now is a good time to seriously reassess the whole system altogether.
There were virtually no prisons in this country when it was founded. The modern criminal justice system grew out of the institution of slavery (1, 2, 3). Prisons exploded in their growth in the 20th century. The Progressive Era, whose leaders dreamed of recreating society and redeeming mankind through an active and expansionist state, accelerated the development of today’s system. It grew steadily. Before Reagan’s presidency, there were half a million Americans in prison or jail and fewer than one and a half million on parole or probation. Now there are more than two million behind bars and seven million total in the correctional system. In California, prisons grew by 500% from 1982 to 2000.
This is madness. And it’s expensive. Some worry about the strain on social infrastructure if prisoners were mass-released, but they could not possibly cost the state more than they do now. They would also at least have the chance to create wealth as workers and consumers in the market, rather than just being a drain in the public sector.
Each prisoner costs taxpayers thirty-five thousand a year. Victims are not made whole, but forced to foot the bill to house their perpetrators.
The state used to have some restitution centers through which white-collar convicts could work and pay back their victims as well as some of their detention costs—but these were closed down last month. State officials said the program was too expensive. Only government could lose more money making people work than just locking them up, feeding and clothing them.
Most offenders never get the opportunity to pay restitution, but are simply jammed in obscenely overcrowded cages. California’s system is designed to hold about 100,000 but instead holds 171,000.
Judges used to have wide discretion in sentencing, which minimized overcrowding. In 1977, Democratic governor Jerry Brown stripped judges of this authority. “Over the next decade, California’s legislature, dominated by Democrats, passed more than 1,000 laws increasing mandatory prison sentences,” according to the Washington Post.
Brutal violence is all too common. Human Rights Watch estimates that nationwide one out of fifteen male inmates is raped. Many prisoners are effectively the slaves of their cellmates. Gang violence is endemic. The institution has become a totalitarian hell for those inside.
What’s worse, most people incarcerated should not be. A quarter of the inmates are locked up for non-violent drug offenses. They committed no act of violence against anyone’s person or property, and their imprisonment is part of a destructive drug policy that has boosted crime, trashed civil liberties, uprooted the social order and corrupted the whole legal system. Many others are in prison for other non-violent offenses against the state—unapproved gun ownership, tax evasion, and so forth. Many petty criminals do not deserve anything like today’s prisons, and their incarceration helps no one. Most prisoners can and should be released. The number of those who actually must be isolated from society would not lead to overcrowding or be an ungainly financial burden.
California’s recidivism rate is the highest in America. The system does not work. Indeed, people go in as small-time thieves and come out far worse. They go in as drug users and come out desensitized to savage violence. They go in as burglars and come out as rapists. Prisons increase crime.
Conservatives talk about the good old days when there was more civility, more freedom, lower taxes and less crime. There were also far fewer prisons. Until the modern system is rethought, we can never restore the liberty and social peace we once had.
Two key references to address prison issues are the following Independent Institute books:
Changing the Guard: Private Prisons and the Control of Crime, edited by Alexander Tabarrok, with a foreword by Charles H. Logan
To Serve and Protect: Privatization and Community in Criminal Justice, by Bruce L. Benson, with a foreword by Marvin E. Wolfgang
David Theroux | Feb 9, 2009 | Reply
What would it take to begin sending convicts to private, for-profit restitution centers where they could be subject to forced labor? Does that require constitutional changes? Legislative changes? Or could judges simply begin to sentence prisoners to serve time in private penal labor institutions instead of the public prisons?
Federalist | Feb 11, 2009 | Reply
This article tells it like it is. Having done some “civic duty” in helping ex’s try and get established I can tell you with certainty that a very large portion are just kids who got caught doing something “dumb”. And oh, for God’s sake don’t let sex be involved.
Thanks for an enlightening article.
Dan
Dan Tilley | Feb 11, 2009 | Reply
I think there’s a larger context for this: what Catherin Austin Fitts calls the engineered move to private for-profit prisons.
Marco Polo | Feb 11, 2009 | Reply
Right on.
Dain | Feb 12, 2009 | Reply
I was an inmate at a Restitution Center in Los Angeles. We had to find a job within a certain amount of time and once we found a job, our paychecks were given to the center. One third went supposedly to pay for our being there, one third went supposedly to the Victim’s Restitution Fund, and the final third we could request in increments to buy our needed items.
I was returned to CIW because of health issues 4 months prior to my release. The money I had on the books that was my share was never sent to me, either while at CIW or once I got on parole. When I reported for parole, I found out that the approximate $2,000 I had earned for restitution was never credited and since my only proof had been left at RC and was now lost, I would have to pay the entire amount owed.
The State of California is so broken, nothing can fix it. Maybe it is time to delete it from the United States and let whatever happens to it, happen.
JT | Feb 12, 2009 | Reply
To: “Federalist” – be careful what you wish for. When slavery is the solution for a broken system, we are finally at the last stage. If you can’t look around you and realize that any such attempt (private jails) would make the corrupt system even more so, you need to step back and think. The system is broke – bankrupt – busted. Giving those in charge an opportunity to make money by jailing more of the population in an attempt to pay off debt will not fix the problem. Trust me when I say that the greed will win the day every time when you are talking government.
We are where we are because of the attempt to legislate morality. End that, and we can return to sanity. Making it profitable is the LAST thing that we should want.
joe4liberty | Feb 17, 2009 | Reply
Hi,
I have been thoroughly researching the case of imprisonment and corruption in America. I am shocked to hear that the one of few “great democracies in the world” could treat citizens or anyone in the matter of cruelty, manipulation and violation. I am not one to revolt and see myself as a moderate person. I have started paying interest on cases, since some family issues, leading me to the conclusion that the Californian system is corrupt and results are all the District Attorney and Court want.
They don’t care about their citizens, they waste the taxpayers money and just send whoever to jail.
The system has and should change. A new government on the horizon, changes should be made, the public need to support a uniting front, not a separate front. A democracy should be a freedom and freedom of will and the imprisonments in America are wrong, disgusting and people find themselves there without committing a crime.
What I have been writing hear is my input, possibly does not mean much. Just think, the American system would do a massive favour if they actually consider a psychological input on the so-called “people committed a crime” before coming to a conclusion of imprisonment
Ariel | Feb 17, 2009 | Reply
Do you understand how much money california will be saving to let inmates out? More than not, prisoners serving full sentences are less likely to duplicate the same act as before. They have learned their lesson’s. So I think that the State should reduce the percentage of time spent in prison. The government should be more serious about who they just “throw” in prison. They all have their rights too. And even the guards are getting sick and bringing deadly diseases home to their little ones and spouses.
Thanks for reading my thoughts.
lauren | Feb 18, 2009 | Reply
Having a husband currently incarcerated in California has been a real eye-opener into the corrupt world of CDC. The corruption starts with the correctional officers and goes all the way to the top. I am completely disgusted the way some people are horrified that we could have possibly tortured terrorists and yet they let our own citizens be tortured and tormented. Personally I am horrified at the physical and mental abuse that goes on in California prisons. It is difficult to get anyone to even listen let alone help. All citizens should be given all the facts of what goes on in prisons. Hiring young, uneducated (they only need a GED) correctional officers is just one of their many mistakes. Correctional officers jobs are to keep the prisons safe, including staff, but also the inmates. Corcoran C/O’s that blew the whistle on this very subject have been shut up by CDC and nothing was made better for inmates. With the prisoner’s bill of rights gone, inmates do not have any rights left, very few privileges and nothing to encourage them to better themselves. Lifers really have it bad. The lock ‘em up and throw-away-the-key mentality is their life. What happened to the rehabilitation that California boasts about. It does not exist, in fact it is very much the opposite. My friend’s husband, a lifer, was deemed suitable for parole after serving 25 years. The governor denied it. About a month later he was diagnosed with cancer and was given a death sentence if you will. The governor still refused to release him. He passed away alone on prison. Instead of releasing him the state ended up paying for all his medical care, housing, special services, etc., instead of releasing him to his family. These kind of stories are many, this type of cruelty and inhumane treatment is so prevalent in the prison system it is scary. Each inmate needs to be evaluated individually and not grouped together as some are not able to be rehabilitated but many are. C/O’s seem to feel their job description states that they are to punish inmates not rehabilitate them. Their punishment is being in prison, not to be tormented by employees with exaggerated senses of self-worth. The lady who said there should be a psych component to it was right on. Employees who deal directly with inmates should have a psych background. I have talked with psychiatrists that used to work for CDC but they end up quitting because they found out that what they say has nothing to do with parole or treating inmates. They leave very discouraged with our prison system, and rightly so. The Department of Corrections in California is so corrupt I can’t see how it can be corrected. I realize I have gone on for a long time but there are so many areas of corruption I could go on and on, because I have been doing this for over 15 years and I have heard and seen many things that should be illegal but who cares? Not many unless they have a loved one who is incarcerated and they witness these things. Visitors are not treated much better. I believe that whenever we have a chance to speak on this issue we should take it and I do. I don’t care if I am standing in line at the grocery store and I hear prisons brought up. It’s on, there is my soapbox. Educate the people who don’t know and things could be different. Thank you to all who read this. I hope that you will take what I have said and continue your education into our prison system. I guarantee you will be disgusted.
linda | May 20, 2009 | Reply
I totally agree that the prison system is a mess and is not only corrupt but inhumane and a serious violation of human rights and basic human dignity.
But here’s the thing: members of the “public” are frightened and terrified of crime. Many of them demand that government “do something” to protect them at any cost. The government really can’t do anything tangible in advance of a crime, they can only respond afterward. Of course, we could address social inequality and poverty, but it’s hard to correlate that with quick “results” in terms of crime rates.
I would really like to see some changes and see fewer people go to prisons. But to be anti-prison or not address the reality or fear of crime leaves you in a weak position to do anything. Let’s talk about specific solutions that you think the general public would buy into.
Along those lines, let’s remember that democracy is very much an experiment and prisons may well be the dark side of American, consumer-oriented democracy. It sucks…yes it does.
Jeff | Jun 10, 2009 | Reply
Linda,
I agree with you regarding the corrupt prison system. However, I have to wonder what it was that your husband did to be incarcerated as well as what your friend’s husband did to get life. I personally feel that depending on the crime, once you’re in prison you’ve lost your “rights.” You stated “C/O’s seem to feel their job description states that they are to punish inmates not rehabilitate them.” Allow me to enlighten you.
1) Not ALL C/O’s feel that way or act that way. My husband gets along quite well with all the inmates on his yard. There is mutual respect between both the inmate and officer.
2) As for the reform and rehabilitation for inmates, that is to be done in the classroom with the teachers. The C/O’s have nothing to do with that. I don’t agree with the money that is being spent on inmate reform and rehabilitation. What pisses me off even more is that the state of California will continue to pay for education even after the inmate is released. No one paid for my schooling. Apparently I should’ve committed a crime (enough to do time but not life) at a young age, gone to prison and gotten my education that way.
Heidi | Jul 10, 2009 | Reply