Incarceration Nation

CNN’s Fareed Zakaria recently revealed in a Time magazine column what those of us inside already know – America is now “Incarceration Nation”.  America, “land of the free” and “home of the brave” has over 6 million people under “correctional supervision”.  That’s more people than Stalin held in the Soviet Union’s infamous gulag system.

There are many reasons for this, some benign, some well-intentioned, too many the result of political myopia.  But, as Zakaria noted, the worst of the American political system can be seen in the growth of the prison-industrial complex.  “Tough on crime” politicians – in Virginia it’s been “abolish parole”/longer sentencing politicians – helped fuel the money trail.  “Many state prisons are now run by private companies that have powerful lobbyists in state capitals . . . Partly as a result; the money states spend on prisons has risen at six times the rate of spending on higher education in the last 20 years.”

Governor McDonnell touted relief for Virginia families facing ever increasing tuition demands from the Commonwealth’s university system.  He gave higher education lip service while turning a blind eye to the bloated, badly mismanaged bureaucracy that is Virginia’s Department of Corrections.  Thirteen thousand employees, almost 40,000 inmates, over $1 billion a year to maintain a system that houses a majority of those inmates in level 1 or 2 facilities, all the while the recidivism rate remains flat and not one dollar of state money goes to the very program that reduces recidivism:  college education. 

Like his predecessors, Governor McDonnell talks a good game; most snake oil salesmen do.  But, Virginia needs leadership.  And, leadership means it’s time to change the way things are done.

In a May 2011 release, the Institute for Higher Education Policy advised that the single most effective determiner to recidivism was an inmate earning a college degree.  No prison program has a more lasting effect in breaking the cycle of recidivism than college.  Ironically, forty-three states participated in the study.  Virginia chose not to.

As I read the Institute’s findings and reflected on my own experience in here working with the college students, I understood how right, how easy, it is.  Give an inmate an education and you give them hope and skills to make it on the outside. 

So why does Governor McDonnell refuse to spend even one dollar on the college program here, a program internationally recognized twice in the last month?  Why is the Governor willing to spend millions on a software program that is easily manipulated (questions seek to determine remorse and empathy levels) to identify “recidivism risk” rather than any money on the one identifiable method of eliminating recidivism?

Perhaps things will change.  The founder of Governor McDonnell’s law school, Regents University, recently came out in favor of prison reform and dramatic reductions in America’s incarceration levels.  Rev. Pat Robertson joins a growing list of Republicans and Conservatives who are calling for drastic changes in America’s love affair with corrections.  The leaders in that movement, RightOnCrime.org released new polling data from the Pew Center which showed 84 percent of respondents agreed that tax dollars could be shifted from prisons to community corrections alternatives for non-violent, low risk inmates.  Significantly, 77% of responding Republicans and 85% of independents agreed.

Perhaps change is coming to America’s, to Virginia’s, love affair with prison.  Each day I pray that today is that day.

News on the Prison Reform Front

Another week and the papers report more studies concluding incarcerating nonviolent felons is a waste of taxpayer dollars and more states are moving forward with prison reform.  And Virginia?  The Governor decided to go to China for some authentic take out.
Several dozen criminal justice organizations, led by the “Sentencing Project” (and including the National Council of Churches of Christ, the Progressive National Baptist Convention and the United Methodist Church) have petitioned Congress to change Federal sentencing policies.  In an open letter to the chairs and ranking members of the Budget, Appropriations and Judiciary committees, they stated the following:

“In this time of economic crisis, our government wastes precious dollars when it incarcerates non-violent offenders whose actions would be better addressed through alternatives that hold them accountable at less cost to taxpayers.  Being sentenced to prison should be the option of last resort.”
Brilliant!  I wish Governor Bob saw that report.  Unfortunately, he was busy choosing between Moo Shoo Pork and Chicken Lo Mein. 

Two criminologists recently released studies concluding spending to incarcerate doesn’t lower crime; depending on police in communities does.  Both Lawrence Sherman of the University of Maryland and Daniel Nagin of Carnegie Melon University reported their findings at a crime prevention symposium in Washington, DC.
Both argued for less incarceration and more contact between the police, the released offenders and the community.

As Daniel Nagin explained “studies have shown that the marginal deterrent effect of increasing already lengthy sentences is modest at best.”
Yes Governor, you can have more rice and tea if you just listen for a minute!

Kentucky’s recently signed prison reform legislation made the news.  According to the Pew Center, Kentucky’s legislation is “at the forefront of research driven criminal justice policies.”  Nonviolent offenders will utilize alternative sentencing rather than take up prison bed space.  The reform package is expected to save Kentucky over $420 million dollars during the next ten years.
$420 million, that will buy a lot of egg rolls Governor!

The Wall Street Journal recently reported on studies suggesting that states need to increase spending on college programs in prison and “expand internet-based delivery” of those educational opportunities.

It is one of the ironies of prison life that they tell inmates “we want to prepare you for your return to society”, then completely isolate us from normal life activities.  Almost every job today requires some basic skill level with technology, yet inmates are prohibited from any access to computers (other than those of us who work on academic programs).  Even our IT students can’t get hands on experience working on boxes.  The instructor wants to let them break units apart.  He has a storage building full of them.  But, DOC security rules prohibit inmate access to the equipment.

The study concludes with a “no brainer” – inmate college education is the single most important determiner in reducing recidivism rates.  An inmate who earns a college diploma in prison will almost never recommit.
Perhaps Governor McDonnell would pay more attention to that message if it was on a fortune cookie.

Another week gone by and more evidence presented that Virginia’s corrections policies need reform.  The billion dollar question is when will the Governor put down the chopsticks and move Virginia in the right direction?

Strange Bedfellows

I was sent a copy of the recently released NAACP report calling for a change in current incarceration policies. The report appropriately titled “Misplaced Priorities: Over Incarcerate, Under Educate” (http://naacp.3cdn.net/01d6f368edbe135234_bq0m68x5h.pdf)  is a scathing indictment of America’s love affair with prisons. What was truly ironic is who is standing with the NAACP and their clarion call for reform. Grover Norquist, President of Americans for Tax Reform – a conservative advocacy group – stood directly behind NAACP President Benjamin Todd Jealous as he presented the report. Republican Presidential hopeful and former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich sent a letter of support. What would bring such diverse parties together? Sadly, it is the growing realization that this nation’s prison system is failing. They say politics makes strange bedfellows. Perhaps justice requires even stranger ones.



The NAACP report is eye opening for its simple, direct message. They call the current system the “prison industrial complex”. That is quite an apt name for a system nationwide that costs almost $70 billion per year to maintain. As I’ve pointed out before, the lucrative sweetheart contracts given by state DOC’s to conglomerates like Keefe and Global Tel Link line private pockets at the expense of taxpayers, inmates and their families alike.


As the recent Pew Center Study (http://www.pewcenteronthestates.org/uploadedFiles/Pew_State_of_Recidivism.pdf)  showed, increased spending and incarceration rates have done nothing to reduce recidivism. In fact, the opposite has happened. Shortly after the Pew Study was released, Virginia began touting the fact that “sixteen years after banning parole, Virginia has defied the nation’s unshakably high recidivism level…”


The story reported that Virginia’s 2007 recidivism rate (for inmates released three years earlier) was 28.3 percent versus a national rate of 43.3 percent. Buried just below that “amazing statistic”, attributable to Virginia’s unjust denial of early release to model inmates, was this fact, “the rate has edged up slightly since 2000”. In other words, the rate was lower just after parole was abolished. Sounds to me like the trend is going the wrong way.


As the Washington Post noted in an editorial on April 18, the “NAACP report…is the most recent to argue convincingly that public safety can be preserved and tax dollars saved with smarter policies…Individuals must be held accountable for breaking the law, and in many cases, especially those involving violent offenses, imprisonment is the best way to protect public safety…But the levels of incarceration are financially unsustainable and in many instances counterproductive…”


The “radical proposals” the NAACP came up with that are supported by all these conservatives include shortening prison terms (recommendation # 8) and increasing parole release rates (recommendation # 9). Ironically, at the recently completed session of the General Assembly, Delegate Donald McEachin’s proposed bill to give Virginia inmates enrolled in vocational or educational programs (and the classroom aides) ten days of earned good time credit (versus the current 4 ½) never made it out of committee.


Sadly, it appears that the NAACP report, along with all the other evidence being compiled to show that prison reform is needed is falling on deaf ears here in Virginia.


In a Washington Post letter to the editor (http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/window-dressing-in-virginia/2011/04/15/AFFX03vD_story.html) on April 15th, Vienna resident John Horejsi, a member of Governor McDonnell’s “Prisoner and Juvenile Re-entry Council” noted that of the numerous recommendations made by this group on issues addressing recidivism, parole, taxpayer costs, “only one…unfortunately, was presented to go forward.” He then said the following:


“There is widespread agreement that we, a group of citizens asked by the governor to serve, were perhaps no more than window dressing.”


Is Governor McDonnell just another politician using “tough on crime” sound bites to buy votes or is he courageous? The answer will be seen if he becomes a strange bedfellow of the NAACP report.

Revolving Door

Albert Einstein reportedly said “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.” I always thought Einstein was referring to my behavior. Since seeing the prison system up close, I now realize he was referring to Virginia’s corrections mentality.



This past week USA today reported on the results of a recent Pew Center Study that showed the number of inmates returning to state prisons within three years of release has remained steady for more than a decade “a strong indicator that prison systems are failing to deter criminals from re-offending.” The report further noted the lack of change “despite huge increases in prison spending….”


Virginia government officials immediately presented Virginia’s “results”: the Commonwealth’s recidivism rate was 28 percent (that’s slightly below the national average) thanks, in large part, to Virginia abolishing parole in 1995. Oh Albert, where art thou when we need you?


Virginia just proved Dr. Einstein’s quote and once again showed that “numbers don’t lie, but liars use numbers.” Yes, Virginia does have a recidivism rate below the national average. But, that rate has not changed in any statistically significant way since the abolition of parole. What has significantly changed is the rate of incarceration (Virginia now has one of the highest incarceration rates in the country), the overall number of inmates (quadrupled since parole was abolished) in DOC’s control and the cost to operate this unyielding bureaucracy (over $1.1 billion and the largest number of state employees: 13,000).


Abolishing parole, incarcerating at an abnormally high rate, warehousing inmates without adequate rehabilitative programs, has not made the public safer.


As the director of the Pew project noted, the national prisoner recidivism rate will likely remain at the same levels unless “state’s more deeply embrace programs to better prepare offenders for re-entry and reward corrections officials for finding alternatives to prison for many non-violent offenders.”


Are you listening Virginia? As I’ve written before, Governor McDonnell should be commended for placing emphasis on prisoner re-entry. But, without directing the same energy to early release, his program is doomed to fail. Virginia cannot afford the hard dollar costs necessitated by its draconian sentencing and incarceration methods. Those costs don’t even include the millions lost in tax revenues from 40,000 individuals who could be living as working, productive citizens. It doesn’t include the soft costs of children deprived of a parent, being raised in one parent or no-parent homes.


Simply put, there is no way to reduce prison costs without closing prisons and letting people go. As Marc Mauer, Executive Director of the Sentencing Project stated, “the only way you can really reduce spending is close prisons. “


This isn’t some “liberal, soft on crime” fantasy. It is fact. In 2005, Texas began implementing sentencing changes and poured money into drug treatment and probation programs. The results: the state’s incarceration rate dropped, since 2003 – there has been a 12.8 percent drop in violent crime, and the state has saved over $2 billion that was needed to build new prisons. That drastic change was spearheaded by Conservative Republican Governor Rick Perry.


Or, ask Republican Governor Haley Barbour of Mississippi what he thinks. In 2008, Mississippi, with the highest incarceration rate in the country, implemented a bold initiative to allow inmates to earn significantly more good time credits toward early release. Included in that was the retroactive provision allowing all nonviolent offenders to be eligible for parole after serving just 25 percent of their sentence. Barbour, coincidentally, has been named as a possible candidate for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination.


Want to stop the revolving door of recidivism and gain significant financial savings Virginia? Urge Governor McDonnell to boldly implement early release programs as part of his re-entry initiative.


You don’t have to be an Einstein to know that’s the only solution that can succeed.