More Incarceration Is Not the Answer

[marmar]

from YES! Magazine:



More Incarceration Is Not the Answer
In California, the headlines about prisons always seem to be the same: out-of-control costs, inhumane living conditions. But it doesn’t need to be that way.

by Ruth Wilson Gilmore
posted Aug 19, 2011


Last month, more than 6,000 people in prisons throughout California went on hunger strikes to protest inhumane living conditions—especially long-term isolation. Their protest followed the U.S. Supreme Court’s May ruling that found the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to be in violation of the Eighth Amendment, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. The Court’s ruling mandates that the Golden State reduce its population of prisoners by nearly a third over the next two years.

In a state buckling under the social and financial weight of a gargantuan prison system that prioritizes incarceration, this could be good news: a chance to transform the way the state defines and promotes justice.

What California needs is a true “realignment” (Governor Jerry Brown’s buzzword for reworking the state budget) of the prison system—away from mass incarceration and toward the many alternatives that are less expensive and more effective.

End the Focus on Incarceration

So far, the state’s plan for reducing the prison population relies heavily on simply shifting prisoners from state lockups to county jails and out-of-state rental space. But many other states are setting examples that California could follow. A recent report by The Sentencing Project notes that, to date, 13 states across the nation have closed or are considering closing facilities, reversing a 40-year trend of prison expansion. ..............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.yesmagazine.org/peace-justice/ruth-wilson-gilmore-in-california-more-incarceration-is-not-the-answer

[ZombieHorde]

1. Recommended. nt

[GKirk]

2. Save billions...

...stop the war on drugs. But we must continue locking up violent criminals.

[ixion]

3. end the so-called 'war' on (some) drugs and release the non-violent drug offenders

problem solved.

[littlewolf]

4. K&R However I have to insist that the use of "I was high"

is no excuse when/if someone commits a violent crime .... they go to prison not for the drug use
but for the violent crime .... also if someone sells to anyone under 18 ... that is a crime ...
other then that I am good with the idea ... use to work in the prison system ....
60 percent were in on selling dope .... 20 percent more were violence due to drugs
(turf wars .. drive by's etc) 20 percent were other crimes ... murder rape etc ....

[Jackpine Radical]

7. Sure, but much drug-related violent crime would disappear

if hard drugs were regulated and available to addicts. People commit violent crimes to get the money to support their expensive habits; there's no reason a heroin addict couldn't push a broom to earn enough to support himself and his habit it the smack didn't cost so much. Meth became a problem after people got cut off from (or priced out of) their coke due to waves of intensive interdiction efforts.

Things like pot could just be legalized, licensed & taxed.

The DEA is a price-support mechanism for the drug cartels, & the existence of the cartels continues to justify the existence of the DEA. A perfect symbiotic relationship..

[NICO9000]

5. Sadly, for this country, it's their only answer

:mad:

[bemildred]

6. Gosh, I sure miss "three strikes" Pete Wilson, the creator of this mess.

And the Drug War, of course.

[Demeter]

8. It's that the Wrong People Are Incarcerated

Put the criminal corporate class in the clink, euthanize the zombie banks, pronounce the death penalty on murderous companies, and the transformation will astound the world.