Articles
Why Are So Many Americans in Prison?
Race and the transformation of criminal justice, by Glenn C. Loury
from The The Boston Review July/August 2007
The early 1990s were the age of drive-by shootings, drug deals gone bad, crack cocaine, and gangsta rap. Between 1960 and 1990, the annual number of murders in New Haven rose from six to 31, the number of rapes from four to 168, the number of robberies from 16 to 1,784¡Xall this while the city's population declined by 14 percent. Crime was concentrated in central cities: in 1990, two fifths of Pennsylvania's violent crimes were committed in Philadelphia, home to one seventh of the state's population. The subject of crime dominated American domestic-policy debates.
EDITORIAL: Fixing the Scam on Collect Calls
The New York Times,
July 27, 2007
New York's Gov. Eliot Spitzer set an important example earlier this year when he abandoned the longstanding practice of charging prisoners bankrupting fees for collect calls. Telephone rates in New York have since dropped by about half. Those rates are likely to fall further now that Mr. Spitzer has signed a bill requiring the state to consider the cost of inmate phone calls when it negotiates the next contract for prison telephone services.
In New State Law, a Wait-Free Return to Medicaid Rolls After Prison
By Cassi Feldman, The New York Times, July 27, 2007
When Rufus Dantzler was released from a New York State prison in 2004 after serving 14 years for murder, he was ordered by the state's parole office to get treatment for alcoholism and marijuana abuse.
Inmates Will Replace Migrants in Colorado Fields
By Dan Frosch,
The New York Times, March 4, 2007
DENVER, March 3 — As migrant laborers flee Colorado because of tough new immigration restrictions, worried farmers are looking to prisoners to fill their places in the fields.
In a pilot program run by the state Corrections Department, supervised teams of low-risk inmates beginning this month will be available to harvest the swaths of sweet corn, peppers and melons that sweep the southeastern portion of the state.
Under the program, which has drawn criticism from groups concerned about immigrants’ rights and from others seeking changes in the criminal justice system, farmers will pay a fee to the state, and the inmates, who volunteer for the work, will be paid about 60 cents a day, corrections officials said.
Spitzer Seeks Panel to Study Prison Closings
By Nicholas Confessore, The New York Times, February 5, 2007
ALBANY, Feb. 2 — Moving to reverse decades of expansion, Gov. Eliot Spitzer is proposing a commission to study closing some of New York State’s dozens of prisons.
The effort would try to duplicate for the prison system the recent commission that studied closing hospitals around the state and issued a final report late last year. That report recommended shutting down at least 20 hospitals across New York and shrinking or merging dozens of others.
If the new commission is approved by the Legislature, New York may join the growing number of states that have sought to rein in high prison costs through closings or consolidations.
Ex-offenders struggle to find work after incarceration
By Herbert Lowe,
Newsday Staff Writer,
January 28, 2007
In a storefront church in Brooklyn, a half dozen people with criminal records listened intently as another ex-offender led a workshop on their rights and employer hiring practices. Toward the end, one of them asked if it was a waste of time pursuing a civil service job.
Glenn Martin, who served six years in prison for armed robbery and is now co-director of an organization focused on helping ex-offenders find work, offered reassurance.
"Does anybody here know somebody who works with city sanitation with a conviction record?" he asked on Monday from the pulpit area of Peterson Temple Church of God in Christ in Crown Heights. Martin, 36, of Midwood, and several supporters -- including church members, workshop organizers and representatives from other groups that work with ex-offenders -- quickly raised their hands.
EDITORIAL
Closing the Revolving Door
The New York Times, January 25, 2007
The United States is paying a heavy price for the mandatory sentencing fad that swept the country 30 years ago. After a tenfold increase in the nation’s prison population — and a corrections price tag that exceeds $60 billion a year — the states have often been forced to choose between building new prisons or new schools. Worse still, the country has created a growing felon caste, now more than 16 million strong, of felons and ex-felons, who are often driven back to prison by policies that make it impossible for them to find jobs, housing or education.
Congress could begin to address this problem by passing the Second Chance Act, which would offer support services for people who are leaving prison. But it would take more than one new law to undo 30 years of damage:
Researchers have shown that inmates who earn college degrees tend to find jobs and stay out of jail once released. Congress needs to revoke laws that bar inmates from receiving Pell grants and that bar some students with drug convictions from getting other support. Following Washington’s lead, the states have destroyed prison education programs that had long since proved their worth.
US Has Most Prisoners in World Due to Tough Laws
By James Vicini,
Reuters,
December 9, 2006
Washington - Tough sentencing laws, record numbers of drug offenders and high crime rates have contributed to the United States having the largest prison population and the highest rate of incarceration in the world, according to criminal justice experts.
A U.S. Justice Department report released on November 30 showed that a record 7 million people - or one in every 32 American adults - were behind bars, on probation or on parole at the end of last year. Of the total, 2.2 million were in prison or jail.
According to the International Center for Prison Studies at King's College in London, more people are behind bars in the United States than in any other country. China ranks second with 1.5 million prisoners, followed by Russia with 870,000.
U.S. Prison Population Sets Record
Associated Press, December 1, 2006; A03
A record 7 million people -- one in every 32 U.S. adults -- were behind bars, on probation or on parole by the end of last year, a Justice Department report released yesterday shows.
Of those, 2.2 million were in prison or jail, an increase of 2.7 percent over the previous year, according to the report.
More than 4.1 million people were on probation and 784,208 were on parole at the end of 2005. Prison releases are increasing, but admissions are increasing more.
Men still far outnumber women in prisons and jails, but the female population is growing faster. Over the past year, the female population in state or federal prison increased 2.6 percent and the number of male inmates rose 1.9 percent. By year's end, 7 percent of inmates were women. The gender figures do not include inmates in local jails.
LDF Win Restores Voting Rights to Ex-Felons in Alabama
By Andrew Post,
civilrights.org,
September 13, 2006
When Americans head to the polls this fall they will be joined by a brand new group of voters - ex-felons.
On August 23rd, in Gooden v. Worley, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) scored a crucial voting rights victory when a circuit court judge ruled that officials in Alabama violated the state's constitution by denying eligible ex-felons their right to vote. With the new ruling, people convicted of lesser felonies can no longer be denied this fundamental right.
The LDF convinced Circuit Judge Robert Vance Jr. that Alabama officials overstepped their authority when they expanded the rhetoric of the Alabama state constitution to deny voting rights to eligible and ineligible voters alike. "This victory strengthens the integrity of Alabama's democratic process," said LDF Assistant Counsel Ryan Paul Haygood.
Flight of Young Adults Is Causing Alarm Upstate
By Sam Roberts, The New York Times, June 13, 2006
Upstate New York is staggering from an accelerating exodus of young adults, new census results show. The migration is turning many communities grayer, threatening the long-term viability of ailing cities and raising concerns about the state's future tax base.
From 1990 to 2004, the number of 25-to-34-year-old residents in the 52 counties north of Rockland and Putnam declined by more than 25 percent. In 13 counties that include cities like Buffalo, Syracuse and Binghamton, the population of young adults fell by more than 30 percent. In Tioga County, part of Appalachia in New York's Southern Tier, 42 percent fewer young adults were counted in 2004 than in 1990.
Court Asks if Residency Follows Inmates Up the River
By Sam Roberts, May 13, 2006
For years, New York Republicans have propped up their slim majority in the State Senate partly by seizing on a quirk in the federal census: counting prisoners as residents of the rural districts where they are incarcerated, rather than of the urban neighborhoods where they last lived.
That way, predominantly Republican rural districts wind up with more seats in the state Legislature, since seats are apportioned on the basis of population.
But last week, a federal appeals court in New York hinted that counting prisoners as upstaters might illegally dilute the voting rights of downstaters.
If that legal argument is pursued and upheld, the political implications could be profound. Republicans now have a four-seat margin in the Senate. A shift in only a few seats could give the Democrats, who already control the Assembly, a majority in the Senate, and with it, enormous power over legislative and Congressional redistricting.
Plight Deepens For Black Men, Studies Warn
By Erik Eckholm, The New York Times, March 20, 2006
“The share of young black men without jobs has climbed relentlessly, with only a slight pause during the economic peak of the late 1990’s. In 2000, 65 percent of black male high school dropouts in their 20’s were jobless – that is, unable to find work, not seeking it or incarcerated. By 2004, the share had grown to 72 percent, compared with 34 percent of white and 19 percent of Hispanic dropouts. Even when high school graduates were included, half of black men in their 20’s were jobless in 2004, up from 46 percent in 2000.
“Incarceration rates climbed in the 1990’s and reached historic highs in the past few years. In 1995, 16 percent of black men in their 20’s who did not attend college were in jail or prison; by 2004, 21 percent were incarcerated. By their mid-30’s, 6 in 10 black men who had dropped out of school had spent time in prison.
“In the inner cities, more than half of all black men do not finish high school.” |
