WORD COUNT 650                                                                                                                                                                            JUNE 10, 2009

A RAY OF HOPE FOR PRISONS – by William A. Collins

Out of sight,

Is out of mind;

But prison budgets,

Help remind.

It is an ill recession that blows no good. Long ignored like a hidden tumor, our cancerous prisons are finally getting some much-needed therapeutic attention. They’ve now become too expensive to overlook. Astonishingly enough, two “throw-away-the-key” states, Texas and Kansas, are leading the way.

All at once in these harsh places, prisoner welfare has attracted accountants. Long derided concepts like education, mental health care, drug treatment and humanity have slipped in through a crack in the punishment door. No, it’s not that inmates deserve to be treated like people -- perish the thought – but corrections officials are discovering that by investing a pittance in their care and welfare we can deter quite a few from earning a return stay. That may be OK for Texas and Kansas, but so far others are lagging.

California was like that, until the courts intervened. Crowding there was so severe that the delivery of almost any sort of health care was virtually impossible. Now the focus is on who can safely be let out to reduce the population to a civilized level. Turns out there are a lot. Whoever Dracon was, draconian punishments were far sterner than necessary for California’s public safety.

The same goes for Rockefeller in New York. Reexamination of his drug laws is showing that those arbitrary sentences were legislated more for “tough on crime” politics than out of any desire for fair treatment of prisoners or any notion of the causes of recidivism.

Part of the problem is lack of media concern. Life in U.S. prisons is remarkably uneven, making generalizations hard and difficult to write about. Conditions are often based on personality variation of jailers, wardens, and commissioners. Some are true humanitarians while others seem to have been educated at the deSade School for Boys. The rest are doubtless just trying to make an honest buck, but soon fall into a defensive posture because of a few deranged or violent inmates. Christian love works hard in that setting but has now encountered competition from Muslim discipline. This all makes reporting hard.

Few Pulitzer Prizes grow out of jails either, since the press has long ago concluded that readers and advertisers will not reward coverage of such a dismal topic (riots only, please). Conditions therefore fester, as they invariably do in secret. Further, any reporter entering this minefield is subject to letters from inmates in book form describing in elaborate detail every aspect of their case and of the unfairness of the system. They may be right about that last part.

Not to say that humane treatment will somehow quell the gene of crookedness that infects many malefactors. But what it will do is deflect the relentless descent into crime by plenty of minor offenders who get caught up in today’s harsh system of punishment. Especially as the “Drug War” has become such a religion of its own that rational discussion of it is no longer possible. Also the massive sentences it entails have been such a bonanza for prison guards, unions, lobbyists, prison builders and suppliers…the Prison-Industrial Complex…that reformers often simply get shouted down.

So let’s give credit to our new president who has appointed a drug czar from a different faith. He has deleted the term “War on Drugs” from the government lexicon and is pushing treatment instead. Given the stress of the recession, the nation may just be ready. Prisons are fettering state budgets, and the false war that still fills them up is burdening our local police departments and lessening our own personal safety.

Somehow Europe, as often happens, is ahead of us again. They imprison few and rehabilitate many. We do it the other way round. That leads to a lot of voters feeling smug in their hearts, but it also leads to more of us getting bopped over the head for our wallets.

-- 

Columnist William A. Collins is a former state representative and a former mayor of Norwalk, Connecticut. A photo of Bill Collins is available CLICK HERE

# # # # #