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criminal justice report: the missing link
4:23PM ON
01/13/2008
BY
Ariel Werner
This week, I am reminded of an obvious truth: our problems as a society from Iraq to incarceration are interconnected, and we continue to make the same mistakes across the board. On Thursday, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced radical budget cuts in most State departments, including Corrections. Jesse McKinley writes in the New York Times:
Perhaps the most controversial plan would reduce the crowded prisons by 22,000, a move that would involve early release and relaxed parole requirements to take effect as soon as this summer. State prison officials said those releases, which would require approval by the Legislature, would not include anyone convicted of serious, violent or sex crimes or anyone who had been violent in prison. Echoing the concerns of many lawmakers, Speaker Fabian Núñez of the Assembly said releasing prisoners could “put the public at risk.”
Last Spring, officials in Rhode Island, facing similar fiscal limitations, sought to reduce the State’s inmate population. Ashbel T. Wall, Director of the RI Department of Corrections, worked with the Council of State Governments and the Governor’s office to produce a plan for the release of 500 prisoners. When this proposal came before the House Finance Committee, its members seemed to agree on the immediate importance of decreasing the inmate population and the DOC budget, but they did not agree on whether or not the proposal set forth by the DOC and CSG would endanger the public. Ultimately, the proposal fell off the radar, and the Finance Committee chose instead to try all 17-year-olds as adults. Originally designed to save $3.6 million/year, the General Assembly voted to overturn this decision and return juveniles to the Family Court and Rhode Island Training School when they reconvened in the Fall.
While I embrace Schwarzenegger’s realization that his state’s prison system is bloated beyond repair, there’s something missing from this equation: REHABILITATION. If our prisons were better tailored to the purpose of providing a therapeutic recovery for inmates, we would not be faced with the dilemma of whether or not their release would harm the public safety. What officials in Rhode Island, California, and most other states are reluctant to do is invest up front in a therapeutic model of corrections in order to lessen the long-term impact of mass incarceration. Instead, we keep looking for quick fix solutions to mammoth problems.
Meanwhile, as veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan return home, they are increasingly falling prey to the conditions that produce homelessness, poverty, violence, depression and crime. Today, Deborah Sontag and Lizette Alvarez report:
The New York Times found 121 cases in which veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan committed a killing in this country, or were charged with one, after their return from war. In many of those cases, combat trauma and the stress of deployment — along with alcohol abuse, family discord and other attendant problems — appear to have set the stage for a tragedy that was part destruction, part self-destruction.
Just as I support decreasing any and all inmate populations, I embrace the decision to bring any and all troops home from the Middle East. But it is essential that we provide these individuals with the social services and mental health care necessary to prevent them from transitioning from public servants to public enemies.
In closing, I leave you with an important question: Are we at the point now where we refer to Gov. Schwarzenegger without putting “lol” in parentheses after his name?
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