Supreme Fallout

There are waves beginning to roll toward state shores following the United States Supreme Court’s recent decision in Brown v. Plata holding that California’s correction system violates the 8^th Amendment prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.

The majority decision clearly states that if a state insists on incarcerating a person, they must have adequate bed space for the incarcerated and provide at minimum, adequate medical care.  In other words, if you support locking people up for breaking the law, you have to also expect the state to follow the law when operating its prisons.  California has bed space for 80,000; they choose to imprison upwards of 155,000.  No rational person would today argue for separate “white only” water fountains (the norm, the law, back in the segregated south into the early 1960’s).  No rational person can likewise support a system that allows a state to keep so many people incarcerated with no adequate living space, medical or mental health care under the guise of “public safety”. 

There is a bigger wave coming.  It is a tsunami called the Federal budget deficit.  A bipartisan Congressional Committee is looking at slashing $5 trillion in Federal spending. And, spending on corrections only lags behind Medicaid spending at the state level. 

Bob Dylan had it right:

            “You better start swimming
             Or you’ll sink like a stone
             For the times they are a changin.”

In 2009 and 2010 forty states cut spending on corrections, including Virginia.  As Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin (D) noted when recently signing a bill into law allowing the state to release certain nonviolent offenders, “We underestimate the number of non-violent offenders we have in our systems”.

Alabama is considering a law allowing non-violent offenders to “check in” at centers while living and working from home to alleviate overcrowding in a system currently at 190% of capacity.

Other states, such as North Dakota are placing additional resources into education and training – the two primary determining factors in recidivism rates.

As The Washington Post noted in its recent editorial discussing the Supreme Court’s decision (aptly titled “Cruelty in California”):

“Budget shortfalls and overcrowding have forced states across the country to reconsider their approach to law and order and the enormous costs associated with incarceration.  The Supreme Court’s decision – and its implicit warning…if states fail to take steps to provide the type of decent and humane prison conditions demanded by the Constitution, the courts may now step in to ensure that they do.”

And where is Governor McDonnell during this discussion?  I’ll tell you where he’s not; he’s not visiting his prisons; he’s not questioning his wardens to ensure they are behind his re-entry initiative, an initiative that is long on words and short on action; he’s not coming out with any “faith based” standards that show he believes the Gospel’s call to minister to the prisoners.  No, Virginia is doing nothing and the inmate population (per DOC itself) hovers at 137% capacity, the recidivism rate remains constant and $1 billion in taxpayer money will be wasted this year supporting a system in dire need of repair.
Meanwhile, a $100 million, 1000 bed prison sits empty in Grayson County.  Why?  Because the Commonwealth can’t afford the $25 million per year to operate it.

Virginia likes to think of itself as a leading state.  Its high time Governor McDonnell acts like the leader he promised to be.  As the story of Exodus so beautifully detailed, over and over the Lord said “be courageous”.  Be courageous Governor McDonnell and institute sentence reform with good time/early release available to inmates working to rehabilitate.  Be courageous and let nonviolent offenders go to house arrest or “check in centers”.  Be courageous and change the system.  Your legacy, our future, depends on it!

Just When I Thought You Couldn’t Get Any Dumber

One of my favorite movies of all time is the Jim Carrey, Jeff Daniels comedy “Dumb & Dumber”. In one particularly absurd scene, Lloyd (Jim Carrey) having traded away the pair’s van for a moped to save money and fuel, comes rolling down a two lane highway where he meets back up with Harry (Jeff Daniels). Lloyd explains how he traded the van straight up for the moped. Harry then utters this amazing line:



“Just when I thought you couldn’t get any dumber . . . you go out an redeem yourself!”


That movie and that quote rolled through my mind as I read this morning’s Richmond Times Dispatch editorial praising then Governor Allen for implementing no parole.


http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/2011/jan/18/TDOPIN01-results-ar-780195/

The editor then cites as “facts” a number of statistics that are contrary to DOC’s own data.


What was the main reason for his “love letter” to George Allen? Virginia has a brand new, $100 million prison in Grayson County sitting empty. Ipso facto (ain’t Latin a grand language) Virginia has plenty of bed space to lock up criminals. And, he concludes, Virginia’s inmate population actually shrunk 2.8% last year.


“Dumb & Dumber” should be the name of the Times-Dispatch editorial page.


Allow me to point out the facts for the editor. I would also challenge him to get off his ass and see what’s really going on in Virginia’s prisons.


In 1995, when then Governor Allen proposed, then signed, abolition of parole, there were approximately 9,600 inmates held by DOC. In 2010, there were approximately 37,000. That is a 400% growth in prison population in fifteen years. DOC’s budget exceeds $1 billion annually. The department employs over 13,000 people, the largest state agency in Virginia.


It costs Virginians approximately $25,000 per year to house an inmate. It costs about $25 million per year to operate a prison. Want to know why the new Grayson County prison isn’t being used? It’s money. Virginia can’t afford to operate more prisons. What the editor failed to recognize is that prisons drain money from other pressing needs, like education and medical care and help for the handicapped.


No less a conservative pundit than Newt Gingrich has spoken out about the excessive incarceration rate in the U.S. As this blog previously noted in his recent Op Ed piece in the Washington Post, contrary to what the editor wrote, states with aggressive parole and liberal release actually have seen greater reductions in crime.


If Allen was such a genius, why has the recidivism rate in Virginia remained relatively constant while the number of inmates and the cost to house them has skyrocketed? Good questions to ask Mr. Editor. It’s a shame you didn’t think of it.


Let me also say a brief word about the false statement the editor makes about “available beds”. Fact: Virginia’s prisons are overcrowded. Virginia fails to comply with ACA (American Correction Association) standards for inmates per officer and living space per inmate. In the dorm I live in, two officers (one in the booth and one on the floor) are responsible for 192 inmates. The standard is one officer for every 40 dorm inmates. Instead, 96 inmates are jammed into a building made for half that many with each man having less than ten square feet of living space, rather than the required 25.


Think it doesn’t matter? Tell that to the families of inmates murdered at Nottoway, Greensville and Red Onion prisons this year. Tell it to the thousands of inmates exposed to Hepatitis C and other diseases.


I challenge the editor to read DOC’s own December 2009 “Task Force Report on Nonviolent Offenders”.


http://www.justicefellowship.org/images/AlternativesforNonViolentOffendersReportfinal_3.pdf

Better yet, get off your ass and come out here and see the Virginia prison system in action.


I challenge the editor to invite George Allen to come with him and sit down with me and listen to what’s really going on in the “corrections” system. It ain’t pretty. In fact, it’s immoral and should be seen as an embarrassment to any semi-intelligent person.


Neither the editor or Mr. Allen will take me up on my invitation. It’s far too easy to hide behind the fiction than face the facts.