All These Questions

I have all these questions that keep popping up every time I hear some politician comment on the need for "get tough" policies that keep folks incarcerated for long stretches.

Here I go:

1. What’s the real cost for locking someone up? Yeah, I know you claim it costs $27,000+ a year to keep someone behind bars; but that person also isn't working and paying taxes; and, if that person has kids, chances are that child is living under the poverty level and getting government aid; even worse, that child's likelihood of ending up in here dramatically increases. So, what is the real cost to society?
   
   
2. You talk a lot about Virginia's low recidivism rate, yet every independent study conducted on state recidivism rates always notes that Virginia's approach to collection is different from the rest of the countries. And, as low as it is, it hasn't changed a bit since parole was abolished back in 1994. It's still a little below 30%. The difference is, back in '94 there were 9500 inmates; today there are about 40,000. And today, Virginia spends over $1.1 billion on corrections even though there isn't a whole lot of correcting going on. Programs for drug and alcohol treatment are a joke. Mental health treatment largely consists of high doses of antipsychotic meds. Safety? Go to a higher level and see the number of stabbings, rapes, assaults. Drugs are everywhere in the system; officers and staff are walked off every day for fraternizing with offenders. No one is held accountable--wardens and security chiefs keep their jobs; money gets flushed every day. There is no one who is held responsible. Rules--such as daily schedules and policies--are routinely ignored by the officers while offenders are nitpicked over silly housing policies which breeds further contempt and distrust. We always hear how low the recidivism rate is; yet most adult offenders started out in the Virginia juvenile system-- how effective is the Department of Corrections really?
   

3. Why is it that DOC signed a consent order and settled a class action law suit brought by 5 women at Fluvanna over the poor medical care in the system, yet the same problems that existed there exist at every facility and still DOC fails to take control over the medical care? Hepatitis C positive inmates are daily denied access to treatment; injuries requiring surgery are put off; specialist’s orders are ignored by contract doctors who know that their private company's profit margin will only exist if treatment is denied. And still, DOC does not comply with the order of the Federal Court.
   
   
4. How much does GTL, Keefe, and the other corrections- industrial corporations spend on lobbying Virginia politicians to keep their contracts in place and how much does Virginia receive as "commissions" under those contracts? How much does Virginia spend each year in legal fees and expenses when DOC loses cases for violations of inmate rights?
   
   
5. Why do states--mostly under the control of Republicans--that have implemented prison reform with early release show better results in their DOC's than Virginia?
   

Yeah, I have a lot of questions I'd love to ask those in charge. Problem is, they don't want to discuss the issues, nor do they want to come out here and see what takes place behind bars. But hey, all I've got is time. So every fight, every OD, every wasted dollar, I write down. And one of these days, someone will listen. Prisons are needed; but the way things operate in Virginia does nothing to alleviate crime, nor prevent a person from coming back. And the sad fact is, most in here have neither the education, the job skills, or the hope to make it on the outside without changes. 

Summer of 1927 – Déjà vu All Over Again

I’ve been reading Bill Bryson’s “Summer of 1927,” a fascinating historical look at one astounding year in America. One section – about prohibition – caught my attention. Prohibition, wrote Bryson, “was easily the most extreme, ill-judged, costly, and ignored experiment in social engineering ever conducted by an otherwise rational nation … It made criminal out of honest people and actually led to an increase in the amount of drinking in the country.” As I read Bryson’s tragic yet comedic recounting of prohibition, I couldn’t help but think of the nation’s current “War on Drugs.” We learned nothing from prohibition.

            America has 25% of the worlds incarcerated. Approximately 40% of the men and women behind bars are in prison due to some drug-related conviction. The sale of drugs is one of the primary means gangs use to finance their operations. Over fifty-thousand Mexicans have died as that nation – under direct pressure from the United States – seeks to curb the flow of illegal drugs north.

            Heroin and crystal Meth use are rapidly increasing as is crime associated with the manufacture and sale of these drugs. Prescription pain medication abuse is near epidemic levels. The inner cities are as awash in drugs as they were in the late 60’s and early 70’s. New synthetic drugs such as ecstasy are easily found in almost any high school in America. And this nation’s response? Criminalize it, drive it underground, and treat it like booze in the 1920s. Does anyone see the insanity of this approach?

            Who benefits from America’s “War on Drugs?” For one, the drug cartels and gangs who make billions off this illegal cash business without any taxes being paid. And all that cash gets serviced by banks; America’s financial services industry launders the money.

            Then there’s the prison industrial complex - companies who make billions providing services to state prison systems at a breaking point due to America’s drug war. From inmate medical care, to alcohol and drug treatment, food services – even whole privately-owned prisons with corporate employees serving as guards – these corporations make billions off the incarcerated and their families.

            And law enforcement itself. $60 billion dollars a year for prisons; $120 billion a year for the criminal justice apparatus. Police departments get more and more dollars as others – schools, and community health care, and transportation – fight over the rest. You would think we would have learned from prohibition.

            So guys come to prison, get out, go right back to the drugs, and come right back in. The drug bosses and the CEOs of C.C.A., and GEO and Keefe. Keep smiling because the money’s still coming in.

 

Herman, Jo Pa and Us

Yes, we have cable connections at our beds.  Most guys have TV’s:  clear plastic, 13 inch color sets (remotes are prohibited) that cost over $200.00 but can be purchased in catalogs for $70.00 (electronics are covered by the exclusive contract DOC has with Keefe.  Inmates – just as with commissary, phone calls, and CDs – pay exorbitant mark ups for “personal property”.  And most guys do their time watching TV – a lot of it.

Sports, as you can imagine, dominates TV watching in here (closely followed by BET and Univision (the Spanish network that specializes in beautiful women 24/7).  This past week all eyes were focused on two huge scandals and news and sports converged into a perfect storm of opinions.  Herman Cain, black Republican candidate for President, has been dogged over allegations brought by four white women that years ago he sexually harassed them.  As that story swirled around the building with debates over the veracity of the accusers’ stories and underlying racial component to it, the tragedy that has become Penn State broke.

Penn State:  Football, Jo Pa and pedophilia.  Newscasters flocking to “Happy Valley” to “report” (I use that word tongue in cheek) every scurrilous detail.  With self-righteous indignation, talking heads tell the viewers exactly what the proper moral response should have been from Joe Paterno, the athletic director, the grad assistant and everyone else involved.

And the news reporters:  what must Edward R. Murrow be thinking?  They report as “breaking news” every lurid tidbit they can find.  Each mention of “anal penetration” brings another spike in their Network’s Neilsen rating.  And the notion of innocent until proven guilty?  “Screw that.  We can speculate why Sandusky wasn’t offered a head coaching job anywhere. “

Meanwhile, as their grandfatherly head coach is forced out, Penn State students gather and chant, “Jo Pa” until the cameras show up and the night mixes with alcohol and anger and cars are turned over and windows broken.  All the while we sit in our prison dorm and watch and argue.

Herman Cain.  You want black inmates to feel sympathy for a Republican, run the stories the way they’ve come out about Cain.  The entire episode smacks of the century old fears that black men are hypersexual.  The fact that the black man in question is a conservative Republican only adds to the feeding frenzy.

Penn State.  Regular inmates hate sex offenders, especially pedophiles.  Though this – and all compounds – have their share of them, they survive in prison under the constant fear their crimes will be found out.  If my crime and education carry special status with respect and admiration, theirs is at the opposite end of the spectrum.  At higher level facilities child sex offenders are routinely raped, beaten and murdered.  They spend their bids in “pc” – protective custody – for fear of what the general prison population would do to them.

Here, they are taunted (“diaper sniper”, “clown hands”), pushed around and robbed.  A year ago I wrote a blog detailing my ambivalence dealing with sex offenders.  How, I wondered, do I meet my Christian duty to be merciful with my disgust over a man who would find sexual release with a child?  I reached an uneasy equilibrium, a “don’t ask, don’t tell” approach that allowed me to treat each man the same, to not pass judgment.  And then came Penn State. 

Is Sandusky guilty?  I don’t know.  Should Joe Paterno morally have done more?  I don’t know all the details.  I know this – in a frenzy to get ratings our “Fourth Estate” has sold their souls and we collectively encourage it each time we buy into the “breaking news” of the day mantra.

I know one other thing.  The New Testament Book of James (my favorite Book in the Bible) details in five chapters Christian discipleship.  It is not an easy path.  As I listened to the debates in here unfold about Herman Cain, Penn State and Joe Paterno; one admonition from James kept replaying in my mind:  “mercy triumphs over judgment.”  Wise words if ever there were any.

And for all those who “know” precisely what Herman Cain did and what Joe Paterno should have done Rudyard Kipling said it best:

“If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

to serve your turn long after they are gone
And so hold on when there nothing in you
except the will which says to them:  Hold on.”

Contracts 101

Every first year law student learns about contracts. You learn about “offer” and “acceptance” and “consideration”. Unfortunately, everything you learn about contracts gets thrown out the window when a governmental agency is involved.



Inmates become very familiar with DOC’s contracting skills. Just looking at the costs, terms, and limitations makes you think someone at DOC is either getting kickbacks or is a complete moron.


Take the following examples of government contracting impotence:


Corrections Cable. DOC signed a contract with an outfit from Texas called Corrections Cable to provide cable TV service to DOC facilities. First, its not cable. The channels are fed to the prison by satellite. Second, service standards are terrible. Channels go out every day. Third (and most important) it is more expensive than either cable or satellite service through local providers in the facility’s area.


DOC’s contract is a cash cow for Corrections Cable. The cost is high, the channel choice low (16 channels versus 40 on the local providers basic cable package at a lower cost) and the service stinks.


Why would DOC spend more for less? Easy. The money used to pay for cable comes from the “inmate commissary fund” which is the money DOC is paid by Keefe – the commissary provider – for the privilege of exclusively gouging inmates, which leads to:


Keefe Commissary. Keefe is the Goliath of the prison commissary business. Tom Keefe had an idea years ago. He convinced Florida DOC he could provide plastic orange juice containers cheaper than they could buy them. From that grew his billion dollar business.


Inmates do not have a constitutional right to commissary; that is a fact. When inmates complain about the cost of a ramen noodle pack (10 cents at Wal-Mart, 28 cents here, 73 cents at Henrico Jail) it generally falls on deaf ears. Commissary is a necessity, however, because it allows DOC to not meet its obligations to the health and hygiene – and food needs – of the inmate population.


Any inmate who works is required to purchase their own hygiene products (soap, deodorant, detergent, toothbrush, toothpaste, razor). Don’t work, don’t earn good time. Prisons are required to provide hygiene products. They avoid this responsibility by making inmates buy their own from their wages.


That’s OK, except DOC then signs a contract with Keefe giving them an exclusive right to sell all food, clothing (extra t-shirts, boxers, socks – we only are provided three sets), and hygiene products (and TVs and other approved electronics). Keefe, then charges an exorbitantly high price for those items ($1.61 for a 4 oz. bag of tuna; $229 for a 13 inch color TV), gouging inmates. Keefe pays DOC –the local prison – a 15% “commissary fee” which the prison then uses to fund: the inmate law library (inmates have a constitutional right to access legal materials); inmate rec yards (again, inmates have a right to recreation time); cable TV; and – a unique Virginia practice – the chaplain’s office (a non-profit group in Virginia: “Prison Chaplain Assoc.” gets $600,000 a year from the inmate fund to provide Protestant chaplains in the facilities. Catholic, Jewish, and Muslim inmates have no on-site spiritual counselor. Of course, the chaplain here is terrible so no one has spiritual support!).


J.E.M. Jones Express Music of Big Stone Gap, Virginia. Mr. Jones is a former CO. He convinced DOC he could provide audio CD’s and cassettes to inmates from his basement. He is a middleman. You want a Rolling Stones CD? Lady Gaga? Look in Mr. Jones’ catalog. Send him twice the amount you would pay ordering the CD from Barnes & Noble (ironically, we can order books from B & N) plus shipping and, if you’re lucky, Mr. Jones sends you your CD in two to three weeks.


Mr. Jones has little, if any inventory. Mr. Jones has tremendous mark up and poor service. “What does Mr. Jones have”, you ask? That’s easy. He has contacts in DOC and that’s enough to give him an exclusive contract.


You may be thinking “So what? It only affects you law breakers”. Wrong. Think: VCE.


Virginia Correction Enterprises. Every prison has a VCE shop that manufactures products sold to other Virginia State Agencies. Inmates are paid “slave wages”. The 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution outlawed slavery except involving inmate work (look at the language).


Here, VCE builds furniture – upholstered chairs and tables. Skilled VCE workers are paid between 55 and 75 cents an hour.


State Colleges and agencies are required to buy from VCE. That dorm furniture your son or daughter is using was manufactured here.


Here’s the irony for taxpayers: VCE significantly marks up their prices. One conference room chair costs more than four similar chairs purchased on the open market (I have friends in higher ed who confirm this).


So DOC makes a chair for $50 and sells it to State U for $800. Those costs are passed on to parents as higher tuition and taxpayers as schools demand more funding.


Welcome to DOC contracts.