From: "Wahome, Kimamo" <WAHOMEK@uwec.edu> Date: Mon, 10 Mar 2008 14:59:06 -0500 Subject: Statue/Statute of Liberty Message-ID: <E3F0E607B3CF71418CE725F002B5F604415A56CF95@CHERRYPEPSI.uwec.edu>
Published on Monday, March 10, 2008 by The Guardian/UK<http://commentisfree
.guardian.co.uk/juliet_lyon/2008/03/statue_of_liberty.html>
Statue of Liberty?
America's penal system is a state of crisis, a new report reveals. So why i
s Britain in such a rush to emulate it?
by Juliet Lyon
It took the US prison population less than 40 years to rise from 300,000 in
1972 to 2.3 million people today<http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/mar/
01/usa>. America has become the undisputed global leader in the rate at whi
ch it imprisons its citizens, easily outdistancing other high incarcerators
such as Russia, Iran and China. Yet, according to a report just published
by the respected Pew Centre<http://www.pewcenteronthestates.org/initiatives
_detail.aspx?initiativeID=31336>, harsher sentencing and growing prison n
umbers are "saddling cash-strapped states with soaring costs they can ill a
fford, and failing to have a clear impact either on recidivism or overall c
rime".
Here heads are turned to the American primaries as the election roadshow ro
lls on. What we don't see, or hear about, are the millions who will not be
voting for Clinton, Obama or McCain - who will not, in fact, be voting at a
ll. In many American states not only are people stripped of their voting ri
ghts as they are jailed but they are also permanently disenfranchised on re
lease. Human rights lawyer Bryan Stephenson, member of Penal Reform Interna
tional's American board, estimates that around one-third of black men in Al
abama are no longer eligible to vote. Last time round, the Democrat's failu
re to right the wrong of disenfranchisement, which they had identified but
classed as a low level priority, is thought to have cost them the pivotal F
lorida election and then the country.
So why does our government, committed as it is to social inclusion, turn fo
r ideas to America where excessive levels of incarceration are creating and
maintaining a growing underclass? Why seek answers from a country which ja
ils one in 30 men between the ages of 20 and 34 and for black males in that
age group the figure is one in nine. Admittedly, in the main, British dele
gations are studying ways in which states are trying to dig themselves out
of a hole: sentencing commissions to regulate prison numbers in Minnesota,
prisoner re-entry in California, the start of Atlantic Philanthropies' work
to examine the damaging imprisonment of the mentally ill, the success of R
ed Hook drugs court and widespread attempts at justice re-investment in Kan
sas, Texas and other states, diverting prison monies into effective communi
ty solutions to crime.
Nonetheless, rather than spending much time looking for answers across the
Atlantic, politicians could look closer to home for solutions in the UK and
among our European neighbours. It would be useful to look to countries tha
t have set out to use imprisonment sparingly, like Finland and Denmark, or
to Germany which locks up 92 people per 100,000 compared to England and Wal
es, where a frenzied prison building programme is set to propel prison numb
ers to a shaming 178 per 100,000. In Scotland new ministers are working sys
tematically to reduce prison numbers and to rebalance the criminal justice
system.
Last week, in a shadow green paper on prison reform (pdf)<http://www.conser
vatives.com/getfile.cfm?file=SecurityAgendaScreen&ref=GENERALFILE/3585&
type=pdf>, the Conservative leader acknowledged the need to reduce prison
numbers but restricted his party to doing so "in the long term in the only
acceptable way by driving down re-offending". Meanwhile, he would be prepa
red to build a further 5,000 places on top of Labour's promised 15,000. Whe
n it comes to prisons, politicians of all parties fall too easily into cost
ly macho posturing.
Only a few months ago, at the Local Government Association conference in Bi
rmingham, David Cameron said<http://www.lga.gov.uk/lga/aio/34160> he was no
t prepared to tolerate what he described as: "a depressing journey ... of t
hree-letter acronyms from an EBD unit to a PRU. From the PRU to a YOI. And
finally to an HMP." This would be an excellent place to start by responding
to the needs of troubled young people before they get sucked into the yout
h justice system for the first time, as an extraordinary 93,730 children di
d in 2006-7. Some time ago a young woman in prison told me:
"We've all been through social services, foster [homes], children's homes,
getting kicked out of school, secure units ... I'm sure we've all been thro
ugh that road, it's like a journey and we've all collected our tickets alon
g the way."
For 15 years, successive governments have allowed prisons to rot in a polic
y vacuum. Now the Tories have turned the spotlight on our most neglected le
ast visible public service, Gordon Brown must reach beyond party politics a
nd establish a royal commission on the nature and purpose of imprisonment.
This would be a disciplined, independent group with knowledge and integrity
and a mandate, not to wring hands about the mess we're in, but with the po
tential to relocate prison as a genuine last resort. This would enable pris
on to be placed at the far end of an integrated framework for the developme
nt of sensible, long-term social and criminal justice policy. The commissio
n would heed, but probably not dwell on, a timely warning from America.
Juliet Lyon is director of the Prison Reform Trust<http://www.prisonreformt
rust.org.uk/>.
Guardian Unlimited (c) Guardian News and Media Limited 2008
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6 Comments so far
1. medusa March 10th, 2008 12:29 pm
I wonder why, among the industrialized democracies, it is the English-speak
ing countries that have such a high rate of imprisonment. Where does Canada
fit in the list?
1. danielnolan March 10th, 2008 12:55 pm
According to this web site:
www.sentencingproject.org<http://www.sentencingproject.org>
These are the incarceration rates for Canada:
1991-92 35,235 (123)
1994-95 38,516 (131)
1997-98 37,401 (126)
2000-01 35,533 (117)
2003-04 34,154 (108)
In Canada, the prison population has a disproportionate percentage of first
nations people.
1. andersdl March 10th, 2008 1:08 pm
The best revenue source for business in the US is the military industrial m
edia complex.
The second best revenue source is the US prison industrial media complex.
British businesses no doubt want to create the same economic opportunity in
the UK that their US brethren enjoy.
1. Jan Steinman<http://www.EcoReality.org/> March 10th, 2008 1:27 pm
"So why does our government, committed as it is to social inclusion..."
Now, that's a strange assumption!
It seems to me that the current government is working on a deep belief in "
social exclusion." In the "ownership society," you are expected to be rich
(or trying to get rich) or poor (or trying to keep from becoming poor). It
is not a government of "social inclusion," it's a government that encourage
s people to amass wealth, and if they don't, they're on their own.
I expect the return of Dickensonian "debtors prisons" to return in a big wa
y as we slide down the back of the fossil fuel energy spike.
1. lizard March 10th, 2008 2:20 pm
It should be made clear when a sentence is passed that the prisoner will be
beaten, sodomized and otherwise abused while he is in prison. It isn't jus
t time behind bars is it? The lack of protection of prisoners is extra puni
shment and illegal.
1. forextrader March 10th, 2008 2:41 pm
America loves it's prison system. It makes great TV on MSNBC's "Lock Up". A
merica should just lock everyone up and get it over with.
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