prisoner reentry
A Proposal on Cell Phone Jamming
Published August 06, 2009 @ 07:08AM PT
A bill headed to the floor of the U.S. Senate would allow prison officials to use cell phone jamming technology inside correctional institutions to stop prisoners from using illegal phones. While there has been some controversy over this bill, it has focused around the privacy line we're crossing in allowing the use of jamming technology for the first time. There has been too little discussion of the reason most prisoners want and use cell phones - not to plan crimes but to call loved ones.
It's true that some prisoners have used mobile phones to plan crimes, and this should be stopped. Evidence is anecdotal, however, and I seriously doubt there's a crime epidemic originating from cell phones in cells.
If jamming can be conducted efficiently, however, I support it. It's prevention rather than punishment. But this bill should address the wider problem by taking on the issue of access to family contact and the cost of telephone calls inside prisons. After the jump, take action to urge a compromise on this bill that considers the prisoners.
Arts and Rehabilitation
Published August 03, 2009 @ 03:23PM PT
Since our prisons (usually) claim that the goal of incarceration is rehabilitation, they should offer opportunities for creative expression. The arts are an important form of both training and therapy, they offer avenues for self-expression while also helping artistically inclined prisoners develop skills they can continue to explore and use after release.
Former prisoner Erwin James writes about prison issues for the Guardian; I’ve linked to his great reporting here before. This week, he writes about three winners of a playwriting contest for prisoners in the U.K., sponsored by theater group Synergy, which conducts playwrite training in British prisons and uses theater as a tool for crime prevention.
James tells of three exceptional plays by prisoners, two of whom weren't at the event because they couldn't be released for the event. The winner, David, got permission to attend, however. He took the stage at the Royal Court Theater to thank the audience and Synergy for supporting his work. “Thank you for shining a light in a dark place,” he said.
If you know a prisoner with writing talent, please encourage them to submit stories to Think Outside the Cell, which is hosting a writing contest with Resilience Multimedia and the Ford Foundation. More information is here, and the contest is open to prisoners, former prisoners and their loved ones.
Restore Felon Voting Rights
Published July 31, 2009 @ 09:32AM PT
Last week, Sen. Russ Feingold and Rep. John Conyers introduced parallel bills in the House and Senate that would restore voting rights in federal elections to more than four million people convicted of felonies and currently denied this civil right
Please join me today in urging Congress to act quickly on the Democracy Restoration Act of 2009, which could, with the stroke of a pen, show millions of formerly incarcerated Americans that they are welcome members of society and that we are committed to including them in our democracy.
Will 'Tough-on-Crime' Derail the California Budget?
Published July 22, 2009 @ 05:43AM PT
Hours after California lawmakers reached a tentative agreement on a budget deal Monday night to begin the process of bailing the struggling state out of debt, Republicans balked at the details behind $1.2 billion in anticipated cuts to the prison budget.
The plan would send some sick elderly prisoners to non-prison hospitals, transfer some non-violent prisoners to house arrest for the last year of their sentence and shorten sentences for non-violent prisoners who earn a GED. A sentencing commission would review the state's policies and recommend adjustments that aren't such a budget drain. These are sensible reforms, and it's a shame that it takes a budget crisis to bring them about. But we'll take progress any way we can get it, and the enemies of sensible prison policy will stop it any way they can - usually by screaming about how 'dangerous' these non-violent prisoners will be when they get on the street.
"Budget negotiations depend on the good faith actions of all parties," Assembly Republican leader Sam Blakeslee of San Luis Obispo said in a statement.
A proposal to release inmates early was "never discussed or agreed to by Republicans," he said. "We made it abundantly clear during negotiations that such policies would endanger the public and were unacceptable."
Leigh Graham wrote yesterday about the deep cuts proposed across the California system, and I share her sadness over for the many Californians who will be harmed by cuts to health insurance, public schools and public housing. It upsets me even more that one of the few lines in the budget that could be improved through some serious cuts - the bloated and overcrowded warehouses of state prisons - is among the hardest to cut.
I've written before about the budget woes forcing states (including Kentucky, Washington, Michigan, Alabama and North Carolina) to reconsider sentencing and prison policy. As I said above, it's a shame that it's the budget - rather than compassion or increased awareness of alternatives to incarceration - that bring us to these crossroads, but money is often at the root of reform.
These cuts and reforms are among the best hopes we have for holistic sentencing improvements in our country, and we may need to wait a few years for the cutbacks to have a statistical impact. Shortening sentences and offering incentives and alternatives to incarceration are smart policy. They don't increase the crime rate, they decrease it by providing people a way out of the system. It would be a grave mistake for California to miss this opportunity.
Conviction Kitchen
Published July 21, 2009 @ 02:38PM PT
"Conviction Kitchen," a new reality show set to air in Canada this fall, puts 13 formerly incarcerated people to work in a fine-dining restaurant as chefs Marc Thuet and Biana Zorich train them to cook and serve. Thuet transformed a Toronto restaurant and renamed it 'Conviction,' opening in May with his staff of former prisoners. He has high hopes for the show's success, both in the ratings and in convincing viewers that it's okay to hire people who have served time behind bars. But an article on the show in Playback Magazine is - sadly but realistically - less hopeful about the chances of a show like this in the U.S.
(The show's production company,) Cineflix, has already fielded offers from international broadcasters to acquire the Canadian series. Securing a U.S. deal is more problematic. U.S. broadcasters have already told (Cineflix President Simon) Lloyd a series about ex-cons will never fly in an American society where the concept of "rehabilitation" has little value. Thuet's French accent also doesn't help the cause.
It's sad that it's an accepted fact that rehabilitation has no value in the U.S. We have a long way to go. My friend Ryan, who sent me this link, wonders whether this is a chicken-and-egg dilemma. Does the media dictate values or reflect them?
What Will Freedom Bring?
Published July 21, 2009 @ 05:34AM PT
By devoting the majority of each day to writing or thinking, I sacrifice time I would otherwise spend reading. I wake every morning between three and four, gather paper, pens, my dictionary, and journal from my locker, then walk to a room where I sit at a Formica-topped table in solitude. I am alone for these first few hours of each morning, and I feel grateful for the silence. I hear the ventilation system’s forced air, but no loud voices or blaring televisions. I welcome the gift of these peaceful hours, as few prisoners ever find such space.
I serve these final months or years of my sentence at the minimum-security prison camp in Taft, California, about 30 miles southwest of Bakersfield. Administrators of the Bureau of Prisons transferred me to Taft Camp in June of 2007, after I had concluded two years at Lompoc’s prison camp. Before Lompoc, I served 18 months in the prison camp at Florence, Colorado. For the 17 years before my transfer to Florence camp, I was locked in various U.S. Penitentiaries and Federal Correctional Institutions across the United States.
I have been a prisoner for so long that I cannot really contemplate what liberty means. The time approaches when I will walk out of prison boundaries, I know. My release date is scheduled for August of 2013, though halfway house placement, parole eligibility, and possible relief through prison reform could mean I return to society even sooner. But what does that mean?
A More Effective Probation
Published July 20, 2009 @ 05:25AM PT
UCLA Professor Mark Kleiman writes in Washington Monthly about a promising shift in the focus of probation and parole underway in Hawaii. Hawaii Judge Steven Alm (above) said he saw the probationers coming through the system again and again - they were facing years in prison for failing drug tests or for not showing up in court, but nobody wanted to send a drug addict to jail for ten years. Probation officers and judges were reluctant to revoke probation, however, because it meant years in prison. Alm decided to try small, certain punishments for violators rather than murky threats of years on prison. And it worked.
When someone violates probation, they have a hearing within 48 hours and spend several days in jail. Probationers are told about the program before they're enrolled. Immediately, the number of violations fell drastically.
The pilot program has since expanded to a statewide program called HOPE (Hawaii's Opportunity Probation with Enforcement), and probationers in the HOPE program now have their probation revoked only one-third as much as those in traditional probation. From Kleiman's article:
A solid body of social science and criminological research dating back to the eighteenth century tells us that behavior can be changed by punishment that is certain and swift even if it is not severe. Conversely, if punishments for wrongdoing are sporadic and delayed, increasing severity has only modest impact. That’s why quintupling the prison and jail population has failed to get us back to the crime rates of the early 1960s. (Averaged across major crime categories, current rates are about 250 percent of 1962 rates.) The importance of swift and predictable consequences is plain common sense, understood by every parent. But that lesson has not been incorporated into our corrections system.
