A broken system

guest commentary by Jack Moseley, award-winning columnist and former editor of the Southwest Times Record

Why are our extremely costly federal and state prison systems in Arkansas and across the country not working? There are a couple of very obvious reasons if we’ll just look at the facts. And history shows that there are a couple of equally obvious solutions, provided we can get over the idea that “lock ‘em all up and throw away the key” will make us all safer.

Prison populations triple about every 20 years in this country. That’s a heap faster than our population is growing, even with illegal aliens pouring across our borders.

Our rate of incarceration in this country is three or four times what it is in European countries. Are we that much meaner and more cruel, lawless and larcenous than our cousins across the Atlantic? I don’t think so.

And just consider the costs. More than $40 billion a year just to keep the “bad people” locked away from us law abiding “good folks.”

Is sending a non-violent criminal to the pokey for the rest of his or her life — or at least the most productive portion of it — a real answer? That doesn’t make much sense to me. Still our incarceration rate soars, and the overall crime rate remains pretty stable. Does that mean we’re winning the war on crime? Not really. Actually, violent crimes remain pretty stable over long periods of time, but property crimes have dropped 30% over the last 30 years. While that 30% decrease sounds pretty good, most criminals still get released back into society sooner or later. And there’s the rub; about 67% of all those people who get let out of prison get re-arrested for new crimes within three years.

If we could find a way to keep those people from returning to lives of crime once they emerge from behind bars, crime rates in all categories would plunge. Taxpayer expenses to maintain and staff prisons would go down. Society would be safer, and this country’s system of crime and punishment would look a little more like the rest of the civilized world. But how on earth do you go about making that happen?

Justice systems are supposed to both punish and rehabilitate. For the most part, this country has forgotten about rehabilitation. Our answer has been to punish, punish, punish, then punish again – all at taxpayer expense. If you are a “three-time loser,” you go to jail for the rest of your life in most states, and of course, the taxpayers provide you with free food, clothing, housing, health care and a physical fitness program for the rest of your life. If you’re not too old, you might end up doing a little hard labor, too.

Clearly, this system is not working, and it’s helping bankrupt already strapped state treasuries. Quite frankly, most prisons in this country are little more than schools for crime in which the inmates learn more ways to avoid getting caught “the next time.” The worst part of punishment for any crime is separation from friends, family and the ability to move freely though society. I believe the length of time a person is locked away for a non-violent crime – stealing, burglary, forgery, etc. – has very little to do with whether that person will become a repeat offender when he or she is let out. Six months in most cases will do just as much good – or perhaps more good – than six years that not only cost the taxpayers to keep the criminal locked up but taps the public till again by forcing whole families onto welfare rolls while adding to a poverty level population that results in public school dropouts and a new generation of criminals.

If politicians just had the guts to act, there are proven answers to these problems; passing harsher and harsher laws with longer and longer sentences is not the solution. It’s part of the problem. In the 1960s, one state had the healthiest, best fed convicts at a  lower costs to taxpayers than any other state in the country. It provided very real but not unreasonable rules and regulations, plus incentives in the form of extra time served credit for “good behavior.” This state built contained individual cells that greatly reduced homosexual rape and other abuses of prisoners. The cons grew, canned and froze their own vegetables, pork, beef and chickens, and they saved the taxpayers of that state millions by also growing cash crops like cotton, corn, hay and soybeans. Prison factories produced products that were sold to stage agencies, hospital and other facilities.

All prisoners had short haircuts and  said “yes sir” and “no sir.” For keeping their living quarters clean and fresh for six weeks at a time, the reward was hot coffee, donuts, a free phone call to someone on the outside and the privilege of staying up late and watching “Gunsmoke” on Saturday night. That may not sound like much, but those simple rewards and one day’s “good time” credit for every day served worked wonders.

Did I mention that this state not only paid less per day per prisoner than any other state or federal incarceration system in the country; it also had the lowest repeat offender rate in the country.

There were a couple of other reasons this state’s prisons were so successful. The system operated the largest public school system of any prison system in the United States. The convicts learned more than how go break the law. Hundreds each year graduated from high school. And education did not stop there. More convicts in this state’s prisons were enrolled in higher education courses at nearby community colleges than in all other state and federal prisons in the entire nation combined.

The other key to rehabilitation success was a pre-release program that got convicts drivers’ licenses and slowly exposed them to life in the outside world by taking them to baseball, football and basketball games in nearby towns. They were put in touch with churches and other private organizations and employers who would give them a second chance.

In a nutshell, all this worked to the good of both the convicts and the general public. Where was this place? The answer may hurt a bit. It was Texas, where more humane and intelligent incarceration of criminals worked so well until a federal judge said the convicts deserved more freedom, more personal rights about how they groomed and how they behaved. That judge also ended the segregation of first offenders from habitual criminals. The earned phone calls were replaced with phone banks that allowed convicts to make extra expensive, collect calls to anyone just about anytime they chose. That made money for the state, you see.

The politicians have made our justice system an unworkable and dangerous disaster for all Americans — in and out of jails and prisons. We know what works, but those with the power to change the status quo are afraid to act decisively. My friends, we are only deluding ourselves and contributing to the ever-growing taxpayer costs of things that just don’t work right anymore.

Life, luck and -30-.