John Retracted

            John Grisham, author, lawyer, social commentator, found himself in the middle of a mess the other day. The irony is that Grisham has made himself rich with his mastery of words. Yet here he was apologizing, retracting, and correcting what he had said. What was all the fuss about? Grisham, in an interview with “The Guardian,” was discussing America’s seeming love affair with over sentencing of so many white-collar and non-violent crimes. “Judges have gone crazy,” he said. So far, so good. After all, Grisham is a well-known advocate for sentencing reform (his nonfiction bestseller, “An Innocent Man,” more than any other, convinced me this nation’s appetite for use of the death penalty was fraught with errors.).

            No, Grisham screwed up because he personalized sentencing overreach to a case involving a friend of his. “I have a friend,” he began. This friend’s life was unraveling. He was drinking heavily. One night, according to Grisham, while the friend was alone and drunk, he “double-clicked” onto a website with young women. “They all looked over thirty,” Grisham told the paper (I wonder how he knew?). A few weeks later his friend answered his door to find the FBI knocking. He was hooked up in a joint Royal Canadian Mounted Police/FBI child pornography sting. “My friend received three years. His life was ruined and he didn’t hurt anyone …”

            “He just “clicked” …” I hear that a good bit in here from almost every child porn offender. “I just stumbled across it,” they’ll say. There was a guy here – computer genius – who vented to me one day that it wasn’t “fair” that a judge gave him ten years for “accidentally” coming across child porn. The problem for him was (1) he knew computers, inside and out, and the porn was deep on his hard drive, lots of it; and (2) the police didn’t just stumble over his one-time viewing, he was marketing the disgusting stuff. So, his “victim” anger at the judge and system was just another guy refusing to say “I did it. I’m sick” (or “I’m sleazy”).

            But Grisham? I want to take him at his word. I want to believe in his friend’s drinking problem as motivation for his behavior because I know all too often criminal investigations aren’t about truth, they’re about convictions. And there’s another reason I want to believe Grisham. He’s standing up for his friend. Let me tell you, you royally screw up, you find yourself on the wrong side of those bars, you watch everyone and everything you care about peel away, and then in the wreckage of your life there are those very few who say, “I’m here for you;” I guess you have to experience it to know what I mean.

            Friends. I have friends who were there at the jail. When the stories hit the paper, when rumors flew, they were there. They took up for me, they defended me, they cared for my family, they prayed for me. And the day I was sentenced they were there with me and they told the court I was a “good man.” No, I respect Mr. Grisham’s defense of his friend and his understanding that sending his friend to prison neither makes society safer nor fairly punishes for the offense. Prison should be reserved for the worst, most violent. Sending to prison the vast majority of those who end up here just creates more problems and does nothing to address the underlying criminal conduct.

            Where Mr. Grisham screwed up was calling child pornography a “victimless” crime. Those children photographed were exploited. They are victims. And candidly, there may not be such a thing as a “victimless” crime. I didn’t mean to hurt anyone. The company I worked for took in over $200 million a year. “What’s $2 million over twelve years?” I would rationalize my behavior on more than a few very bad nights at the jail and receiving units. It was always worse when I’d meet a child pornographer doing eight years, or a rapist doing ten. “How can this be fair?” I would wonder. No, there were victims to my thefts: my family and friends who I let down; people at work and the community who relied on me; my employer who trusted me.

            As I said earlier, I want to take Mr. Grisham at his word because his advocacy for changing this broken, corrupt system matters. Until you come in here and see how dysfunctional all “this” is, how it is nothing but a money pit, how it sucks the life out of the offenders, their families, and the community at large. You can’t begin to comprehend what a mess all this is. It does no one any good. You never see what goes on in here until you find yourself on the wrong side of the fence or you know someone on the wrong side.

            A few years ago, John Grisham wrote a powerful OpEd calling on the then Virginia Governor (and now convicted felon) Robert McDonnell to commute a woman’s death sentence. His words struck me deeply and I sat down and penned a letter to him to express my appreciation. Grisham’s intentions were well placed. His compassion and concern for his friend, and his understanding that America’s reliance on prison for millions of nonviolent offenders as well as our over criminalization of hundreds of behaviors cannot be ignored. What Grisham has to say about justice in America is correct. I only hope we don’t miss the truth by a few misplaced words.

Election Day, Part 2

This may surprise you, but our college dorm is abuzz about the upcoming election.  Debates are watched, ads analyzed, and the candidates’ positions on various issues studied.  Even without the right to vote, men in this building are following the election.

I’ve paid particular attention to the Virginia race for U.S. Senate putting two former Virginia Governors – George Allen and Tim Kaine – in a bruising battle with repercussions for party control of the senate.  The campaign has been expensive, bare knuckles brawling with little regard by either man for the truth.  Both men are mere caricatures of their parties.  And, as with most political campaigns these days, truth and decency are casualties of polling success.

Both men have stretched the truth in their efforts to seek election.  But one whopper stands out.  In a series of ads George Allen continually reminds Virginians as Governor “he ended parole”.  We all expect politicians to play mental gymnastics with the truth.  Allen, however, is an Olympic gold medal winner.  The truth is, by Allen going along with and pushing the legislature toward truth in sentencing with the abolishment of parole, he did significant financial damage to Virginia that is and will continue to affect this state without massive prison and sentencing reform.

In the early 1990s the Federal government approached the states with a too good to be true deal.  Enact “truth in sentencing” laws which require convicted felons to serve 85% of the sentence imposed and Federal grants will cover the cost of prison expansion.  “Free Federal money” most states thought and across the nation legislatures fell in lock step.  In Virginia, George Allen seized on the opportunity.  “Tough on crime, No parole” became rallying cries for his campaign.  His slogans carried the day and soon Virginia’s General Assembly voted to abolish parole.

And soon after his term was underway, Governor Allen engaged his Department of Corrections chief to begin ramping up prison construction.  Like drunken revelers on a pub crawl, the legislators lined up, all eager to prove they too were tough on crime.  In less than ten years new prisons opened in a dozen communities around the Commonwealth, many of them in rural pockets where employment opportunities lagged.

Virginia went from a state with around 9,000 inmates to over four times that many, reaching almost 40,000 in 2009.  DOC became the state’s largest department employing over 13,000.  And the cost?  Soon Virginia was spending over $1 billion dollars annually to operate its prison system.  One out of every 8 general fund dollars was going to prisons.

The Federal grant money stopped, but Virginia’s costs didn’t.  Politicians were afraid to admit they’d made a mistake.  George Allen?  He kept smiling and distorting his record.  Fact is, locking more people up for longer sentences has nothing to do with the crime rate.  Fact also is, Virginia’s released inmates reoffended at the same rate at before.

But change did come.  For one thing, the economy began to tank.  Virginia couldn’t afford everything the politicians promised.  While millions were being directed to DOC, real spending on Virginia’s colleges actually decreased.  Transportation projects were put on hold.  “Creative accounting” on the state retirement system let people believe the Commonwealth had a balanced budget.

First Tim Kaine, then Bob McDonnell, realized Virginia couldn’t sustain its gulag prison system. They began to shut them down devastating rural Virginia counties who had come to rely on the prison gravy train for economic sustenance.

And the inmates?  There were crowded into fewer prisons with fewer officers making the facilities less safe and less rehabilitative.  Inmates began suing and Virginia’s costs continued to climb (over $1.2 billion this year alone).  And George Allen continued to tout his record as Governor. 

Prison reform – sentencing reform – will occur.  The states realize it. You can’t keep locking people up.  There are cheaper, more effective alternatives.

I can’t vote – I’m an incarcerated felon.  But if I could, I’d vote for the candidate who is honest with me about the real cost of Virginia’s love affair with prisons.  They cost too much financially and in the lives they destroy.  George Allen isn’t that politician.