Swampland – PT 3: The Cost

So the Richmond Times Dispatch reported the other day that the Justice Policy Institute presented its study on the Virginia prison system to Governor McAuliffe.  In one glaring item, the JPI noted that “community corrections” in Virginia costs less than $2 per day per offender versus almost $14 per day to keep a person behind bars.

Governor McAuliffe may be ready to lead Virginia to real prison reform, the kind of reform that will lead to the release of sizeable numbers of incarcerated men and women doing excessive sentences for non-violent felonies in facilities where meaningful rehabilitation is non-existent. 

As I have written numerous times, prison will not rehabilitate a person.  It is a mind numbing, soul crushing, dehumanizing experience.  There are so many more cost effective ways to address the majority of criminal behaviors. 

Prisons drain resources that could go for better schools, better mental health services, more effective drug and alcohol treatments. 

The swamp that is Virginia’s prison system only survives because it is fed with taxpayer money and politician’s lies and distortions.  It’s time to drain the swamp.

Update: Live

In prior blogs I’ve written about a young, bright black IT student named “Live” who was leader of a “blood” gang sect.  He was a funny, personable young guy who was too tied into gang life.  It led to his departure from this facility and removal from the program.  I liked him, though I knew from conversations with him he was ruthless and cold blooded.  Gang trumped even his own kids.  He was expected to lead, and he met expectations.

This week, the Richmond Times Dispatch reported that “Live” was in Federal custody in a maximum security facility.  Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli announced they had intercepted instructions to his “loyal soldiers” to “take out” a few disloyal members.  Gang activity in Richmond is on the increase.  Live’s crew is notorious for their brutality.

In all likelihood, the multi-count indictment will lead to Live spending much of the rest of his life behind bars.  It’s a shame really.  Much like the fictitious Michael Corleone of “Godfather” fame realized, it’s easier getting in the life than getting out.  I’m left to wonder, what might Live become?  A veterinarian (his dream)? Or, an aging gang banger, living and ultimately dying, in prison?  I wonder.

Sentencing (or “The Turd in the Punchbowl” Part 1)

I’ve written numerous times in this blog about sentencing in Virginia and about the systematic failure of “truth in sentencing” as implemented in the Commonwealth. But, people are slow to notice it and even slower to admit it and do something about it.  Perhaps that’s just human nature.  We want to believe our laws are fair.  We want to have easy, rational explanations for everything.  So, politicians tell us truth in sentencing reform was long overdue and has directly led to lower crime rates and more uniform (albeit substantially longer) sentences.  “Great!” You say.  All is right with the world.  “You go over to the punchbowl to lift a celebratory toast to the power of our way of life, good old representative democracy, and you run face first into reality:  someone spiked the punch with a turd and it’s floating in the bowl for all the world to see.

“Conventional wisdom” – lovely term isn’t it – tries to correlate lower crime rates with tougher sentencing.  However, study after study (both university and Department of Justice) find there is no such correlation.  No one ever avoided committing a crime because of the perceived risk of lengthy incarceration.  In fact, what all this “get tough” approach may have done is make us a nation of convicts.

It was recently reported that over 23% of all young people between the ages of 18 and 24 will have arrest records.  The United States currently has the highest per capita incarceration rate in the world (number behind bars per 100,000) and the largest prison population.  We exceed even China and the combined totals of North Korea, Iran, Syria and all the other “terror states”.  Combining federal and state prisons and jails there are approximately 2.5 million people behind bars.  That’s almost one percent of the nation’s population.  Add to that the eight million plus who have felony convictions (a sizeable number of whom are under “community corrections”, i.e. probation or parole).  That’s three percent of America.  Not since England figured out shipping all their convicts to Australia would solve their prison problem, has one nation had such a large percentage of felons.

“Truth in Sentencing” reform was supposed to take away disparity in sentences.  It didn’t matter where in Virginia (or any state for that matter; they all adopted the “truth in sentencing” commission recommendations) you committed your offense, penalties would be the same.  Great concept, only it didn’t work.

This week the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported on a 72 year old Richmond attorney who was sentenced to three years for embezzling in excess of $1 million from individuals during his handling of real estate transactions since 2005.  He made no restitution.  His attorney – coincidentally the same lawyer who handled my case – had asked for a suspended sentence.  The paper reported the defendant “cooperated fully” and “expressed deep regret”.  The Henrico County Circuit Judge presiding over his case (coincidentally, I was held in the Henrico county Jail after being denied bond.  I was deemed a flight risk.  He wasn’t.) gave the three year term as a “fair punishment” for his wrongdoing.

My case was heard less than twenty miles west.  I embezzled slightly over $2 million and made immediate restitution of almost $600,000.  The Commonwealth Attorney noted my “complete cooperation” (his words at my sentencing) and the state’s own forensic psychiatrist, in a report to the court, indicated I was profoundly remorseful and that prison time would serve neither a punitive nor rehabilitative purpose.  So what did the Judge in my case do?  He gave me fifteen years.

I don’t begrudge the Henrico defendant getting three years.  I don’t begrudge the Norfolk bookkeeper being sentenced to four years in a $2.1 million embezzlement case.  I do question the integrity of the system and I do submit that my sentence was excessive and unjust and shows the hypocrisy of “truth in sentencing”.  You will never hear me say I didn’t deserve to be incarcerated.  In fact, I will freely admit sending me to prison was justified – not given other similarly situated embezzlement defendants or the average sentence for child sex abusers.

And then there is GOP Presidential candidate Ron Paul.  Paul reminds me of the old, cranky guy in my neighborhood when I was growing up. He was regimented and serious about everything.  He’d give stern warnings about things and we’d laugh and tell ourselves he was crazy.  As we aged we all realized he was wiser than any of us hoped to be.

On the eve of last week’s New Hampshire primary, Paul – during a candidates’ debate – was asked by Moderator George Stephanopoulos about questions that had recently surfaced concerning alleged racist comments in a 1980’s newsletter that bore his name.
As USA Today columnist DeWayne Wickham noted in an op-ed piece last Wednesday (1/11/2012), Paul said questions about what he wrote or knew about that long ago diverts attention away from the “true racism” in the nation’s judicial system that “disproportionately imprisons blacks for their involvement in crimes…”  The questioner, the other candidates, the audience itself sat in numbed silence.  Congressman Paul had pointed out the turd in the punch bowl.

In 2010, 69% of all people arrested in the United States were white.  Blacks accounted for 28% of the arrests.  These percentages were relatively constant the entire decade.  During the same ten year period, approximately twice as many whites as blacks were arrested each year for drug crimes.  Despite this, Virginia’s inmate population is disproportionately black and poor.  I learned early on I was in the minority in more ways than one.  I’m white, which means I make up only about 35% of the inmate population.  And of the white men locked up, most are in for sex offenses, primarily child sex crimes and child pornography (and almost all are serving substantially shorter sentences than me).

That disparity in incarceration rates shows a lack of justice in the criminal justice system.  As I’ve written over and over in this blog, America’s criminal justice system, Virginia’s criminal justice system, is badly flawed and in need of dramatic overhaul.

You want real justice; begin with admitting there’s a problem.  Don’t just silently stand by while the turd floats in the punchbowl.  It’s time for change, real systematic change:  colorblind sentences that actually bring about restorative justices, and prisons – when needed – where actual rehabilitation and restoration takes place.

Frank and Sam and other Lawbreakers

I watched the news this week as two young American hikers were released from prison in Iran and flown “to freedom” to the Sultanate of Oman.  The Sultan, it seems, paid the Iranian authorities $1,000,000 to secure the early release of the two Americans, two years into eight year sentences for illegally crossing the border into Iran.  How ironic, I thought.  The “dark and sinister” Iran has a more progressive early release system than the Commonwealth of Virginia.  Those two hikers – who broke legitimate Iranian laws on border integrity (a favorite topic for the Tea Party crowd:  border security) were released after serving 25% of their sentence.  In Virginia, those two guys would still have five more years to go:  85% of an eight year sentence is 84 months (7 years).

“But those two young Americans are innocent”, you respond.  We’ll come back to that later.  Let me tell you about Frank and Sam.

Frank and Sam are two new students assigned to me in the adult basic ed class I tutor.  Frank was born in 1945.  He is a soft spoken 66 year old black man with a slight stammer.  He reads at the 2^nd grade level.  Sam is a 61 year old black man confined to a wheelchair.  He suffers from diabetes.  His left leg was amputated slightly above the knee from complications with the disease.  Where his leg was, he now ties his state-issued jeans in a knot.  He has sparkling bright eyes and an impish smile.  He reads at the 3^rd grade level.

The law in Virginia is that every “offender” at least be enrolled in adult basic ed with the goal of receiving a state-issued GED.  The law in Virginia is that “offenders” earn a maximum of 4.5 early release credit days for time served per month.  Offenders – in Virginia at least – must serve at a minimum 85% of their sentence.  As Charles Dickens so aptly put it, “the law my dear sir is a ass”. 

Frank and Sam will never earn their GEDs.  For the vast majority of their lives they have been treated as the refuse of a fast-paced economy that values technology but disrespects the integrity of simple labor.  Both men have meandered through life as unskilled laborers, barely making enough to support and sustain their families.

So every day these two guys, Frank and Sam, hauled bricks, cleaned toilets and picked up the trash from those of us fortunate enough to come from families with money.  And their kids?  They saw the same ads for all the “must haves”.  Only they couldn’t have.

So both men over their lives strayed from “the law”.  They broke into houses, sold “hot” property, and sold drugs.  They are part of the vast “criminal” underclass in this country:  men and women who were discarded by the public schools and society years ago, illiterate, forgotten, unable to provide for themselves and their families.

What does Virginia do?  The glorious Commonwealth returns them to prison in their sixties for “probation” violations at a cost, estimated by the Richmond Times Dispatch in an article on elderly inmates in December 2010, of $70,000 per year.  These men are lied to everyday.  “We’re going to retrain you and prepare you for a successful return to society.”  Excuse my language, but that dear readers is a load of shit.

These two older convicts are functionally illiterate men who have been ignored and treated unfairly their entire adult lives.  They have been run in and out of the “corrections” system for three and four year bids at a time. DOC is doing nothing to change their lives.  They will do their bids and return home to no money, no jobs, no nothing.

What good is prison doing Frank and Sam and the thousands and thousands of other inmates just languishing away in these corrections cesspools?

Which leads me back to our two “hero hikers” who accidentally crossed the Iranian border while hiking, “seeing the world”.  They violate Iran’s territorial integrity and are prosecuted under Iranian law.  We react with a great big “how dare you”.  Is Iranian law and trial procedures and sentencing somehow less worthy of support than American or Virginia law and criminal procedure?  And why is it we expect, no demand, Iran release these two “lawbreakers” while we applaud “lock em up and throw away the key” justice in America?

“But they’re innocent”, you remind me. 

Nine chief witnesses recanted in Troy Davis’s case and the State of Georgia still gave him the needle this week.  Perhaps we are no better than Iran.  Perhaps we’re nothing but hypocrites.  Explain the difference to Frank and Sam.

Jah Provides the Bread

Somewhere up above Bob Marley is smiling. For those that don’t know, Marley was for a time the most known reggae performer on the music scene. He brought reggae music into mainstream, middle class America. I still recall listening to Bob Marley and the Wailers sing “Rastaman Vibrations” and “No Woman, No Cry” on my stereo as a college freshman back in 1977.


His music was born of struggle and oppression, music from Jamaica and other Caribbean islands. It was exotic, rhythmic and spiritual.

Marley was a Rastafarian. Rastas, a quasi-Christian sect, consider former Ethiopian King Haile Selassie to be the Messiah restored. They also smoke marijuana religiously (sorry for the pun). Rastas also are known to wear their hair in long dreadlocks.

In 1999 Virginia DOC implemented a hair profile for inmates. Prior to that time inmates were allowed to wear their hair to any length. Facial hair, full beards, sideburns and goatees were permitted. DOC deemed long hair and beards a security risk. Inmates, they reasoned, could hide knives, razor blades or contraband in their hair. Inmates with full beards could escape their shave and make it difficult to track them down.

The new hair policy required hair to be kept close cut, above the collar, off the ears. All facial hair was prohibited except groomed mustaches.

A number of Rastafarian inmates objected. On religious grounds they refused to submit to cutting their dreadlocks. DOC responded as they typically do: the protesting Rastas were placed in solitary confinement until they agreed to cut their hair and comply.

1999 became 2000. 2000 became 2001. Each year came and went but eleven Rastas held to their protest. There had been more, but men were released, their sentences served, their dreadlocks still in place.

Eleven men, kept separate, deprived of many basic needs most take for granted: daily human contact, fresh air, daily showers, access to telephones. DOC’s goal was to break the Rastas. Their tool was isolation and deprivation.

Word went through DOC prisons about the Rastas. Inmates who didn’t know the name of the Governor knew of the Rasta 11. Other Rastafarians in the system shaved their heads (a practice followed until this day). The Rastas were heroes. They were “buckin the man” for Jah.

2005, the ACLU agreed to file suit on behalf of the Rastas. Meanwhile, one man died while in solitary. Ten remained. Ten continued to refuse to cut their hair.

What is your limit? How much will you endure for your religious convictions? I realized, as I learned of the Rastas early on in my prison stay, how truly courageous these men were. In my entire life of “freedom” I had never met anyone willing to risk it all on principle. My life had been one of compromise. “It’s not worth it!”

My friend “Black” is a Rasta leader. I’ve watched the Rastafarian community (it is a recognized “religion” according to DOC) continue on as their brothers remained “in the hole”.

In “No Woman, No Cry”, Bob Marley, in his haunting Jamaican accent sings

“Good friends we had
Good friends we lost along the way
In the great future
You can’t forget your past
So dry your tears I say.”

Then later in the song over and over he sings

“Everything’s gonna be alright
Everything’s gonna be alright.”

I often wonder what makes ordinary people do extraordinary things. What would make a young man run head long into enemy fire to rescue a friend? What would make Big S go to trial instead of pointing out the real defendant? What would make eleven Rastafarians accept the hole for years rather than cut their hair? What would make me sign everything I owned over to my wife?

Character is revealed, not when things are easiest, but when we have he the most to lose.

Thursday, November 18, 2010. The front page of the Richmond Times-Dispatch announced “Inmates Released From the Hole”. DOC gave in, surrendered, to ten dreadlock Rastafarian inmates. They were being released from solitary confined and transferred together to serve the remainder of their sentence in two-man cells with daily rec time at Keen Mountain Prison. They’ll be kept separate from the rest of the inmate population because the hair policy remains in force for all other inmates.

In a documentary about Marley’s life he is heard telling an interviewer “Jah provides the bread”. Jah, to the Rasta, is the name for God. It is a basic tenet of faith, whether you are Christian, Jewish, Muslim or Rastafarian, that “God provides”.

So often we think everything we have, everything we’ve accumulated is a direct result of our own hard work. We fail to understand that at our weakest we are truly strongest. No power can overcome Jah. Eleven years in solitary. Eleven years deprived. Eleven years Jah provided the bread.

I started playing a CD. Bob Marley’s singing “everything’s gonna be alright.” I can tell he’s smiling.