<html>
<body>
<font size=3><br>
Prison Overcrowding: A Partial Solution<br>
By Kalima Aswad<br><br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>
Overcrowding in California prisons is one of the hot topics these days
in<br>
public discussion. What to do with the many thousands of men and
women<br>
who have over-populated the system to the point where it reached the<br>
crisis stage has yet to be answered.<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>Federal
courts have now found it necessary to intervene because it has<br>
become so bad that proper medical care, among other things, is
nearly<br>
impossible to obtain. The state has been forced to admit that
the<br>
overwhelming number of people in California’s prisons has also had a
big<br>
impact on its inability to provide rehabilitation and other programs in
an<br>
increasingly out-of-control and expensive system.<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>The
problems California faces with federal courts over overcrowding did<br>
not come about by accident. They are the result of political
choices to<br>
lock up and keep people imprisoned for much longer periods of time.<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>A quartet
of governors, George Deukmejian, Pete Wilson, Gray Davis, and<br>
now Arnold Schwartzenegger, have overseen a prison construction
program<br>
that cut so deeply into the state’s annual budget that several
essential<br>
services have been cut in order to accommodate the prison system.<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>Now,
Governor Schwartzenegger has embarked on another plan to build even<br>
more. AB900 authorizes 53,000 beds to be added to the existing
33<br>
prisons. That is an innocuous-sounding figure, but we should not
be<br>
lulled to sleep by it. What it means is the equivalent of 10
more<br>
prisons, each housing more than 5000 people.<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>If the
existing system that has resulted in the warehousing of human<br>
flesh and a burden on the taxpayers that has seen schools,
libraries,<br>
higher education, health care and even some critical public services
such<br>
as police departments, fire stations, road and levee repair suffer
because<br>
of the bite prisons have taken up, just think what is in store with
at<br>
least 10 more.<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>After they
get built, then what? Judging past performances, they will<br>
immediately become filled, then over-populated, and leave the state
with<br>
the need to build even more. The consequences of all the
"punishment, not<br>
rehabilitation" is coming back to haunt public well-being.<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>The
problem has gotten so far out of hand that federal courts have
gotten<br>
involved. It is not because the state can’t fix its own mess,
but<br>
politicians are too weak to resist plans to keep the system growing.<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>The mess
is too entrenched for any one approach, but one thing that would<br>
help the state remain free of the federal takeover would be a release
of<br>
the elderly and medically incapacitated. In addition, they should
release<br>
those others who were sentenced under the Indeterminate<br>
Sentencing Law (ISL), who fall under that law and not the laws employed
by<br>
governors to keep them locked up.<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>The ISL
stipulates a timeframe to be used for those who were sentenced<br>
under that particular sentencing law. It has been said that
"this is a<br>
government of laws and not of men." If that is not a lie about
our<br>
government, then why are men in positions of power allowed to
circumvent<br>
the laws they are sworn to uphold?<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>Governors,
including the current one, contend they are "protecting the<br>
public safety by not letting these ‘dangerous criminals’ out on
early<br>
release." They have also acknowledged in a round about way
they are in<br>
violation of the law by claiming "if we have to err, it is better to
err<br>
on the side of safety." They have been able to get away with
these sound<br>
bites because we have no effective voice.<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>Even if
the politicians who are responsible for the current state of<br>
affairs were well-intended, the fact remains there is a big mess and
they<br>
have been dishonest with the public in efforts to justify their<br>
violations of the law.<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>First, it
has been very well known in official circles that persons who<br>
have served life sentences are the least likely of all prisoners to
commit<br>
other crimes when released from prison. It is known that fewer than
1<br>
percent repeat their crimes and fewer than 3 percent commit any
felonies<br>
at all, compared with the over 70 percent return rate among other<br>
prisoners.<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>The second
myth, in referring to lifers, is the so-called "early
release"<br>
propaganda. We hear it in the governor’s current speeches, in his
fight<br>
to resist federal takeover, in talks about his "refusal to give
dangerous<br>
criminals an ‘early release’ from prison." The truth is that
these are<br>
not early releases by any stretch of the imagination. Those
sentenced<br>
under ISL laws were mentioned earlier, and even the last person
sentenced<br>
under it has been eligible for release for 23 years. Some have
been<br>
eligible for parole for thirty, thirty-five, and a few even forty years.
<br>
There is nothing early about that. There are provisions already in
place<br>
that allow authorities to reject parole for those lifers who have
refused<br>
to adjust their lifestyles to acceptable social norms and there are a
few<br>
who do remain committed to their former lifestyles. The vast
majority,<br>
however, has changed their lives around and would fit into the less than
1<br>
percent category if only given a chance.<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>An
excellent recent example of the warehousing mentality of the state’s<br>
political machinery is the case of John Rodriguez, an old man serving
a<br>
life sentence for second degree murder who I wrote about in a piece<br>
(CALIFORNIA PRISONERS FOR WORTH BIG MONEY) in 1999, discussing how
four<br>
men in their eighties had all been termed a "threat to the
public<br>
safety." All but Rodriguez have died in prison.<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>Johnny,
now 95, is still locked up, and according to Gov. Arnold<br>
Schwartzenegger, is still perceived as a threat to public safety,
despite<br>
the fact that his own hand-picked board on six prior occasions found
him<br>
suitable for release. Now, according to an Associated Press
release, the<br>
board has found him suitable for a seventh time, leaving the ball in<br>
Schwartzenegger’s court once again.<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>This is
but one in a long line of examples of how politics have been used<br>
in building the state prison system into what it has become. There
has<br>
been no accountability for these actions.<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>The bottom
line is that there are thousands of lifers, elderly, and<br>
medically incapacitated prisoners in California who could be
released<br>
without constituting a threat to the public. It certainly would not
be<br>
THE cure for California’s overcrowding woes, but their release (if<br>
eligible for release) would provide a benefit in three ways:<br><br>
1. It would be one of the ways that the state can move to solve its<br>
overcrowding problem so the Feds won’t have to step in;<br>
2. It would help alleviate the ability of the federal receiver on
medical<br>
issues to help avoid the need for the federal takeover. ISL
prisoners<br>
have grown old and many fit within the elderly category, which
constitutes<br>
a huge drain on the medical resources, along with the medically<br>
incapacitated.<br>
3. It would be a big benefit to the public in that many of those
being<br>
released are those who are beyond the stage of committing another
crime.<br><br>
This group, particularly lifers, has been removed from release<br>
consideration. Yet, each man and woman in this group, the least
threat of<br>
all, also suck up the resources that would normally be required for
three<br>
young, healthy prisoners, the ones said to be most susceptible as
threats<br>
to public safety. If it seems like a waste of money to keep the
elderly,<br>
lifers, and medically incapacitated locked up, then consider using
the<br>
huge sums being wasted on them towards rehabilitation of those
considered<br>
susceptible.<br><br>
Kalima Aswad (s/n Robert Duren) # B24120 <br>
CMSJ 106L <br>
PO Box 2000 <br>
Vacaville, CA 95696-2000 <br><br>
<br><br>
</font><x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
<font size=3 color="#FF0000">Freedom Archives<br>
522 Valencia Street<br>
San Francisco, CA 94110<br><br>
</font><font size=3 color="#008000">415 863-9977<br><br>
</font><font size=3 color="#0000FF">
<a href="http://www.freedomarchives.org/" eudora="autourl">
www.Freedomarchives.org</a></font><font size=3> </font></body>
</html>