Prison Reform: 2
Hi Friends!
Welcome to Issue 17 of this newsletter! This is our second consecutive week focusing on the topic of Prison Reform. In case you missed the last newsletter, when we talk about prison reform, we are referring to the attempt to improve conditions inside prisons, improve the effectiveness of the prison system, implement alternatives to incarceration and find ways to reinstate convicted individuals back into society after they serve their sentence.
Last week, we talked about the history of the prison system in The United States, this week, I want to focus more specifically on current prison conditions and the reform that folks are pushing for. Let’s get into it!
Key Terms
“Three Strikes, You’re Out”: Starting with Washington in 1993, over half the states and the federal government enacted “three strikes” laws. The exact application of the three-strikes laws varies considerably from state to state, but the laws call for life sentences for at least 25 years on their third strike. In California, for example, it required that a person convicted of a felony who has two or more prior convictions for certain offenses must be sentenced to at least 25 years to life in state prison, even if the third offense is nonviolent. People have been sentenced to life in prison for shoplifting a pair of socks or stealing bread. More than two-thirds of people serving federal life or virtual life sentences today were convicted of nonviolent crimes, including 30% for a drug crime.
Recidivism: The re-arrest, reconviction, or re-incarceration of an ex-offender within a given time frame.
Let’s Get Into It
The Current Situation: Bail
The amount of bail depends on the severity of the crime but is also at the judge's discretion which means it is not standardized.
Bail amounts vary widely, with a nationwide median of around $10,000 for felonies (though much higher for serious charges) and less for misdemeanors (in some places such as New York City, typically under $2,000, though much higher in some jurisdictions). (Vox)
Bailed-out suspects commonly must comply with "conditions of release." If a suspect violates a condition, a judge may revoke bail and order the suspect re-arrested and returned to jail.
Sometimes people are released "on their own recognizance," or "O.R." A defendant released on O.R. must simply sign a promise to show up in court and is not required to post bail.
Historically, Black and brown defendants have been more likely to be jailed before trial than white defendants. (Prison Policy)
As of 2002 (the last time the government collected this data nationally), about 29% of people in local jails were unconvicted – that is, locked up while awaiting trial or another hearing. Approx 7 in 10 (69%) of these detainees were people of color. (Prison Policy)
Unconvicted defendants now make up about two-thirds (65%) of jail populations nationally. (Prison Policy)
As people await court hearings for months or even years, they suffer from inadequate medical care, dangerous conditions, and many lose their jobs and housing. (Vox)
They also have a higher chance of being convicted than if they hadn’t been assigned bail, as they take plea bargains just to get out of jail, whether or not they actually committed a crime. (Vox)
Reform: Bail
Current bail practices are unconstitutional in violating due process rights and equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment, the prohibition against excessive bail in the Eighth Amendment, and the right to a speedy trial guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment. (ACLU)
Organizations like the ACLU are specifically focused on ending in for-profit bail bond companies and the insurance companies who back them because the directly profit by providing bail, with high interest, for thee most vulnerable individuals who could not pay bail otherwise.
Most folks agree on one solution, end cash bail. Especially because bail is not even seen as an effective method for guaranteeing people return for trial. The Bail Project has an amazing reimagining for pretrial justice.
The Current Situation: Prison Conditions, The Death Penalty And Punishment
Doing this research was heartbreaking. I was genuinely covering my eyes afraid to see conditions of America’s prisons. I just want to stress that these are human beings being put in the most inhumane and frightening circumstances. A blurb in a newsletter honestly cannot do adequate justice to the dignity that these people deserve.
Private prisons house 8.2% (121,420) of the 1.5 million people in state and federal prisons. Private prison corporations reported revenues of nearly $4 billion in 2017. The private prison population is on the rise, despite growing evidence that private prisons are less safe, do not promote rehabilitation, and do not save taxpayers money. (EJI)
The fastest-growing incarcerated population is people detained by immigration officials. (EJI)
People who need medical care, help managing their disabilities, mental health and addiction treatment, and suicide prevention are denied care, ignored, punished, and placed in solitary confinement.
More than half of all Americans in prison or jail have a mental illness.
Incarcerated people are beaten, stabbed, raped, and killed in facilities run by corrupt officials who abuse their power with impunity. These are some examples taken from the Equal Justice Initiative:
Prisoners being handcuffed, stripped naked, and then beaten by guards (EJI)
Correctional officers forcing young incarcerated men to perform sex acts and threatening to file disciplinary charges against them if they refused or reported the abuse (EJI)
Correctional officers caught engaging in physical or sexual misconduct are often being transferred to other facilities, not fired (EJI)
Drugs and other contraband are often brought into the prisons and sold to prisoners by officers or staff (EJI)
Cuts are constantly been made to mental health and drug treatment services and rehabilitative programming, and recreation including the removal of books and other resources (EJI)
Sexual abuse including female inmates being raped and impregnated by male correctional officers and female inmates viewed showering and using the bathroom is frighteningly common and often unreported out of fear (EJI)
Excessive punishments, especially for drug-related offenses
Wrongful convictions are also an issue with the current prison system. Read more about them here.
Despite growing bipartisan support for criminal justice reform, the private prison industry continues to block meaningful proposals.
The Death Penalty
Black Americans make up 42% of people on death row and 34% of those executed, but only 13% of the population in America is Black. (EJI)
The death penalty in America is a “direct descendant of lynching.” Racial terror lynchings gave way to executions.
By 1915, court-ordered executions outpaced lynchings for the first time. Two-thirds of people executed in the 1930s were Black, and the trend continued.
For every 9 people executed, there is 1 person found innocent on death row. (EJI)
Children were executed in the U.S. until 2005, and only in the last decade has the Supreme Court limited death-in-prison sentences for children. Kids as young as 8 can still be charged as an adult, held in an adult jail, and sentenced to extreme sentences in an adult prison.
Excessive Punishment For Drug-Related Crimes
According to the ACLU’s original analysis, marijuana arrests now account for over half of all drug arrests in the United States. Of the 8.2 million marijuana arrests between 2001 and 2010, 88% were for simply having marijuana.
An estimated 40,000 people today are incarcerated for marijuana offenses even as: the overall legal cannabis industry is booming; one state after another is legalizing; and cannabis companies are making healthy profits. (Forbes)
Reform: Prison Conditions
The Centre for Justice and Reconciliation believes restorative justice can be achieved with these improvements:
Reduce Idleness: Reduce idleness and increase recreational activity in prisons
Classify Prisoners: Classify prisoners by their level of risk, lower risk groups require less security
Improve Sanitation: Improve sanitation and healthcare
Grow Food: Grow food and raise livestock to both improve nutrition and provide a skillful activity
Use Volunteers: Have volunteers create programming
Train Staff: Train staff beyond disciplinary measures
Review Cases: Reduce the number of non-sentenced prisoners by establishing a process for lawyers, prosecutors and judges to review the legal status of individual detainees
Speed Release: Speedily release those awaiting trail by organizing volunteer lawyers or paralegal volunteers to help inmates prepare for bail hearings
Increase Alternatives: Use alternative community-based punishments rather than prison for non-dangerous offenders
Use Furloughs: Permit trustworthy prisoners to leave during the day or weekends for employment, family visitation or community service activities
Other recommendations for reform include increasing transparency to the public, treating the mentally ill in other facilities and ways rather than imprisoning them with little to no resources, making sure prisons are completely drug free to allow for rehabilitation, having a 0 tolerance policy with abusive correctional officers, creating a better schooling and vocational program, ending solitary confinement, rehabilitating communities of color where there are vulnerable ex-convicts.
The Current Situation: Re-Entry Back Into Society
Within three years of release, 67.8% of ex-offenders are rearrested, and within five years, 76.6% are rearrested. (Simmons University)
After you are legally a convicted felon, rights that you lose include: voting rights, right to bear arms, the ability to work in certain jobs and the difficulty of having to disclose your record on all job applications, the ability to receive student loans or financial aid, serving on a jury, traveling outside of the country (you can obtain a passport but travel restrictions may deny a convict admission), parental rights.
According to the Bureau of Justice, only 12.5% of employers said they would accept an application from an ex-convict. (Simmons University)
Phone calls and written communication to and from prisons are very expensive because of surcharges from companies and/or the prisons themselves. Because of this, inmates are often estranged from their family and have a harder time bonding and connecting after release.(Simmons University)
Advances in technology, living will less regimented structure, unrealistic expectations, shifts in the home dynamics, and other large changes make it difficult to reintegrate and the prison system does not privide adequate support.
82% of prisoners expected that their parole officers would help in their transition home, after release only about half reported that their parole officers were helpful during their transitions. (Simmons University)
Many ex-offenders are not given a new driver’s license simply because of their criminal record, but yet must drive to work, or drive to see their parole officers. They receive fines for driving without a license, which contributes to their debt and complicates their access to a license. (Simmons University)
Reform: Re-Entry Back Into Society
Many of the challenges facing ex-offenders are systemic and require policy changes and a shift away from the attitude that punishment should continue after sentences have been served.
People need support from the prison system and federal government when being released — from finding a job (without being discriminated against) to finding safe housing and becoming self sufficient.
“Ban the Box” is a national campaign against continued punishment in hiring that calls for employers to remove the box on job applications that requires applicants to disclose criminal records.
Programs like The Prison University Project help inmates earn college degrees while incarcerated. A 2013 National Criminal Justice Reference Service study found that when inmates complete degrees before re-entering society, recidivism rates substantially decrease.
The “Ride Home Program External” in California employs ex-offenders to pick up inmates on the day of their release so they can get them home, but also help facilitate their transition to life on the outside.
This start-up, Pigeonly, makes it less expensive to stay in contact with inmates.
Ultimately, the prison system in America is cruel. It strips humans of their rights and dignity and once they serve their time, these people are told they are still not able to be reinstated as full members of society. From bail, to the violent prison system, and ultimately through re-entry, these individuals, especially Black and brown people, are treated subhuman.
ACTION STEPS
It takes a few minutes to sign these petitions, don’t hesitate, make the time now.
RESOURCES
Prosecutors Need To Take The Lead In Reforming Prisons From "The Atlantic"
After Cash Bail: A Framework For Reimagining Pretrial Justice
SUPPORT
I’ve personally donate almost $1,000 to The Bail Project in the last 6 months through fundraising classes, donation matching, and my own personal contributions. As you read above, the cash bail system is horrific. It’s responsible for the deaths of Sandra Bland, who could not pay her $515 bail and died in jail, and Kalief Browder, a 16 year old child who was stopped by police and accused of robbery, and ended up spending three years on Rikers Island as he awaited trial, because he could not afford bail. He was brutalized and suffered injuries both physically and emotionally, eventually committing suicide at home after the prosecutor dropped all charges and released him. Donate today.
