Washington Monthly: The Conservative War on Prisons

[Winehole23]

American streets are much safer today than they were thirty years ago, and until recently most conservatives had a simple explanation: more prison beds equal less crime. This argument was a fulcrum of Republican politics for decades, boosting candidates from Richard Nixon to George H. W. Bush and scores more in the states. Once elected, these Republicans (and their Democratic imitators) built prisons on a scale that now exceeds such formidable police states as Russia and Iran, with 3 percent of the American population behind bars or on parole and probation.


Now that crime and the fear of victimization are down, we might expect Republicans to take a victory lap, casting safer streets as a vindication of their hard line. Instead, more and more conservatives are clambering down from the prison ramparts. Take Newt Gingrich, who made a promise of more incarceration an item of his 1994 Contract with America. Seventeen years later, he had changed his tune. “There is an urgent need to address the astronomical growth in the prison population, with its huge costs in dollars and lost human potential,” Gingrich wrote in 2011. “The criminal-justice system is broken, and conservatives must lead the way in fixing it.”


None of Gingrich’s rivals in the vicious Republican presidential primary exploited these statements. If anything, his position is approaching party orthodoxy. The 2012 Republican platform declares, “Prisons should do more than punish; they should attempt to rehabilitate and institute proven prisoner reentry systems to reduce recidivism and future victimization.” What’s more, a rogue’s gallery of conservative crime warriors have joined Gingrich’s call for Americans to rethink their incarceration reflex. They include Ed Meese, Asa Hutchinson, William Bennett—even the now-infamous American Legislative Exchange Council. Most importantly, more than a dozen states have launched serious criminal justice reform efforts in recent years, with conservatives often in the lead.


Skeptics might conclude that conservatives are only rethinking criminal justice because lockups have become too expensive. But whether prison costs too much depends on what you think of incarceration’s benefits. Change is coming to criminal justice because an alliance of evangelicals and libertarians have put those benefits on trial. Discovering that the nation’s prison growth is morally objectionable by their own, conservative standards, they are beginning to attack it—and may succeed where liberals, working the issue on their own, have, so far, failed.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/novemberdecember_2012/features/the_conservative_war_on_prison041104.php

[boutons_deux]

"lockups have become too expensive"

Repug solution: privatize to CCA, etc, which costs even more, and gets a shittier product, but the PIC is a huge Repug $$$ contributor.

IBIWISI that old white Repugs ever say punishing blacks and browns is too expensive when those expenses are going to for-profit corporations.

[cantthinkofanything]

"lockups have become too expensive"

Repug solution: privatize to CCA, etc, which costs even more, and gets a shittier product, but the PIC is a huge Repug $$$ contributor.

IBIWISI that old white Repugs ever say punishing blacks and browns is too expensive when those expenses are going to for-profit corporations.



I've got a better solution. Quit doing crime.

[Winehole23]

Staffing woes at several isolated, rural Texas prisons leave legislators with three options: A) Increase pay to attract workers in areas where TDCJ competes with active oil fields and fracking operations for employees, B) close understaffed facilities and consolidate employees in fewer units to relieve understaffing, or C) do nothing and wait for violence or litigation to force state action after the fact where it could not be moved based on reason or foresight.

A recent news story portrayed understaffing at Texas prisons as having reached a critical juncture: According to the Texas Tribune's Maurice Chammah (http://www.texastribune.org/texas-dept-criminal-justice/texas-department-of-criminal-justice/prison-employee-union-leaders-seek-better-pay/), "Leaders of the state’s prison employee union say that officials are leaving Texas prisons dangerously understaffed. On Wednesday, they renewed calls for better pay, noting that the holiday season is a particularly dangerous time in Texas prisons." The union wants "to shorten the amount of time it takes to get from minimum pay, $27,000, to maximum pay, $37,000, from eight to five years. 'We’re trying to get these new boots [newly-hired officers] a light at the end of the tunnel,' [AFSCME executive director Brian] Olsen said."

Notably, pay hikes for guards were not among the "exceptional items" requested by TDCJ in their biennial Legislative Appropriations Request. Still, that doesn't mean the Lege can ignore the problem.

Obviously, the union's preference would be to keep the same number of employees or increase their ranks while paying everybody more. Let's call that the "statist option," or Option A The main problem: Increasing pay at 111 units statewide makes little sense when understaffing is isolated to 7-8 specific units. Most COs benefiting from the pay hike would not assist the state in staffing these few, problem facilities and boosting pay for everyone would be costly. Option B - reducing incarceration rates and closing prison units to consolidate understaffed guards in fewer facilities - harks back to Ronald Reagan's strategy as Governor of California (http://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com/2010/10/what-would-ronald-reagan-do-about.html) to reduce state prison costs. Call Option B the "Reaganite option." Option C, of course, is simply what happens when the state fails to anticipate trends, muddling forward into this predictable mess without a plan until the vicissitudes of fate leave the state with no real choices at all. Let's call that the "Oops option."http://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com/2012/11/tdcj-must-choose-between-statist.html

[DUNCANownsKOBE]

I've got a better solution. Quit doing crime.

Of America's incarcerated population, only 7% of them are violent offenders. Private prison lobbyists funnel tons of resources into keeping programs like the war on drugs in place so they can keep their prisons filled due to bullshit laws.

Newt is dead on here, but he's kidding himself if the Republicans are gonna be the party that ends the war on drugs. The fact Obama has been an asshole and kept it going stronger than ever tells me nothing short of a miracle will end the war on drugs.

[Winehole23]

I've got a better solution. Quit doing crime.crime rates are way down from 30 years ago, so why do we continue to lock people up at a rate exceeding that of China and Iran?

[LnGrrrR]

I've got a better solution. Quit doing crime.

Your username makes sense. :tu

[Homeland Security]

crime rates are way down from 30 years ago, so why do we continue to lock people up at a rate exceeding that of China and Iran?
If you keep black people in prison, white people don't have to look at them.

[FuzzyLumpkins]

If we were to take the money spent on the drug war and instead use it for medical care which is what these people really need then I can only imagine what we could do with that to make this nation a better place.

The economic ramifications of reducing the demand for law enforcement and incarceration are obvious. It is a significant enough component of GDP to at least consider however it is obviously money much better spent on more worthwhile causes.

[cantthinkofanything]

crime rates are way down from 30 years ago, so why do we continue to lock people up at a rate exceeding that of China and Iran?

obviously someone entered in the data wrong

[FuzzyLumpkins]

obviously someone entered in the data wrong

translation: I do not want to believe this so I will simply dismiss it out of hand.

Your type is dragging this country down by acting on what you want to be true rather than what is true.

[Winehole23]

obviously someone entered in the data wrongor, the LE bureaucracy, like all others, seeks to enlarge itself beyond all rationality.

[coyotes_geek]

obviously someone entered in the data wrong


or, the LE bureaucracy, like all others, seeks to enlarge itself beyond all rationality.

I'll go with "B".

[Homeland Security]

crime rates are way down from 30 years ago, so why do we continue to lock people up at a rate exceeding that of China and Iran?


That can't be true. Just two weeks ago I saw a black person out in public.

[Homeland Security]

crime rates are way down from 30 years ago, so why do we continue to lock people up at a rate exceeding that of China and Iran?
What if part of the reason crime rates are down from 30 years ago is that the people who commit crimes are kept locked up?

[Homeland Security]

Note I said PART of the reason. My understanding is that another big part of the reason crime rates are way down is nationwide legalized abortion. The big drop in crime rates came out of nowhere in the late 1980's to early 1990's just about the time the generation of criminals that would have been born in the 1970's would have reached their teens and the beginning of their criminal careers.

[Homeland Security]

And now we are at a point where a second generation of criminals is not being born.

[DUNCANownsKOBE]

Note I said PART of the reason. My understanding is that another big part of the reason crime rates are way down is nationwide legalized abortion. The big drop in crime rates came out of nowhere in the late 1980's to early 1990's just about the time the generation of criminals that would have been born in the 1970's would have reached their teens and the beginning of their criminal careers.

Even though economists and statisticians have researched this hypothesis and found support for it ad-nauseum, I'm eagerly waiting for one of the right-to-lifers on this site who has no background in statistics or economics whatsoever to see this post and dismiss the studies done as atheist propoganda.

[boutons_deux]

"reason crime rates are way down is nationwide legalized abortion"

drop in crime late 80s and after was the huge dropoff in crack cocaine epidemic.

But I figure you'd be be thrilled if black and brown future criminals were aborted in the 70s.

[Winehole23]

Note I said PART of the reason. My understanding is that another big part of the reason crime rates are way down is nationwide legalized abortion. The big drop in crime rates came out of nowhere in the late 1980's to early 1990's just about the time the generation of criminals that would have been born in the 1970's would have reached their teens and the beginning of their criminal careers.all very plausible, but it's unclear how locking up more and more non-violent drug users decreases violent crime.

[Homeland Security]

all very plausible, but it's unclear how locking up more and more non-violent drug users decreases violent crime.
Pre-emptive incarceration.

[Winehole23]

I am unaware of any correlation between the two, but supposing the rate of pre-incarceration be high enough -- and perhaps in the US it is -- I can see how that might work.

[Winehole23]

http://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/mt/assets/hua_hsu/assets_c/2012/11/cohen_singlemomchart2-thumb-615x590-106252.png (http://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/mt/assets/hua_hsu/cohen_singlemomchart2.png)

[Winehole23]

via The Atlantic (http://www.theatlantic.com/sexes/archive/2012/11/single-moms-cant-be-scapegoated-for-the-murder-rate-anymore/265576/)


Sources: Crime data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics (http://www.ucrdatatool.gov/), family structure from the U.S. Census Bureau (http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/hh-fam.html).

[Winehole23]

http://www.nextnewdeal.net/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/content_images/cumulative_incarceration.png

[Winehole23]

http://www.hrw.org/embargo/node/111441?signature=f1b731a0fc92a113a87a1ba550af4d6f&suid=6

[RandomGuy]

Even though economists and statisticians have researched this hypothesis and found support for it ad-nauseum, I'm eagerly waiting for one of the right-to-lifers on this site who has no background in statistics or economics whatsoever to see this post and dismiss the studies done as atheist propoganda.

The support isn't that conclusive, as there were a lot of other factors that went into it, isolating one single cause is not really possible.

A major factor to be sure, but not the *only* factor.

Another significant factor: Better law enforcement.

The police of 2012 are far better than the police of 1975 for a host of reasons.

[RandomGuy]

I am unaware of any correlation between the two, but supposing the rate of pre-incarceration be high enough -- and perhaps in the US it is -- I can see how that might work.

You have to control for income. Single mom with a $75,000/year job will always have offspring that will be far less likely to become criminals than one earning $24k.

It is poor males of every race that commit the majority of violent crime. A rather damning bit for our half of the species.

[RandomGuy]

all very plausible, but it's unclear how locking up more and more non-violent drug users decreases violent crime.

Legalization would go a long way in reducing that or choking off the supply of minor offenders that become violent criminals.

Heavily tax the legal drugs and funnel the money to rehab centers. Cut a 7 time a week addict to 1 or 2 times a week, and you eliminate the need for criminal behavior to feed a habit, and have a fairly functional human being.

[boutons_deux]

"It is poor males of every race that commit the majority of violent crime"

yes, old story. crime correlates with poverty, not with race. Blacks and browns being more impoverished, racists say RACE is the problem, not poverty.

[LnGrrrR]

You have to control for income. Single mom with a $75,000/year job will always have offspring that will be far less likely to become criminals than one earning $24k.

It is poor males of every race that commit the majority of violent crime. A rather damning bit for our half of the species.


Eh, I wouldn't say it's damning. Obviously the poor person has more incentive to commit theft. And testosterone probably explains why the male is more likely to take risks and do so.

[cantthinkofanything]

Legalization would go a long way in reducing that or choking off the supply of minor offenders that become violent criminals.

Heavily tax the legal drugs and funnel the money to rehab centers. Cut a 7 time a week addict to 1 or 2 times a week, and you eliminate the need for criminal behavior to feed a habit, and have a fairly functional human being.

If you legalize and tax the drugs, won't there still be a huge black market for cheaper non-taxed drugs?

[boutons_deux]

"huge black market"

yep, exactly the same situation as the "white lightening" bootleggers avoiding paying booze tax to the "revenuers"

Any legalization of mj therefore would have to allow for some private "brewing" of mj plants for own consumption, as you can brew your own beer and wine without paying the revenuers.

[Homeland Security]

If you legalize and tax the drugs, won't there still be a huge black market for cheaper non-taxed drugs?
Production of drugs is a relatively small part of the drug cost; bigger parts include operation of the organized crime ring, and the premium the supplier demands for the risks involved in supplying the drug. Under a legalized drug regimen, the state should be able to maintain a price no higher than current street prices. With the barriers to entry reduced, there will be suppliers willing to accept a much lower rate of return. Thus taxation could represent a significant part of the consumer price.

Under such a regime, the demand for cheaper illegal drugs will be significantly reduced. Consumers will pay a price premium for legality. Demand at the legal price will be zero. Meanwhile, the risk premium for supplying the drugs illegally remains. Under those parameters, I would expect a small black market charging somehere around halfway between the cost of production and the legal price. There would not be a business case for running large violent international crime rings to supply drugs. There might be a business case for licensed providers to sneak small quantities of black market drugs locally on the side.

[Drachen]

If you legalize and tax the drugs, won't there still be a huge black market for cheaper non-taxed drugs?

HS mostly covered it, but as an example; how large is the black market for untaxed cigarettes proportionate to the entire market.

[RandomGuy]

If you legalize and tax the drugs, won't there still be a huge black market for cheaper non-taxed drugs?

Is there a huge black market for illegal moonshine and/or tobacco?

[boutons_deux]

HS mostly covered it, but as an example; how large is the black market for untaxed cigarettes proportionate to the entire market.

The black market always depends on how high the sales tax to be avoided is. A very high tax, like $100/oz tax for $300/oz of mj, would definitely create a huge black market.

[Drachen]

The black market always depends on how high the sales tax to be avoided is. A very high tax, like $100/oz tax for $300/oz of mj, would definitely create a huge black market.

Thank you captain obvious. My point is that despite high taxes (~25%) legal cigarettes seem to be doing a great job keeping the black market at bay.

[RandomGuy]

There would not be a business case for running large violent international crime rings to supply drugs. There might be a business case for licensed providers to sneak small quantities of black market drugs locally on the side.

Pretty much.

The risk premium represents a huge part of the cost structure at the moment, and also includes the value of all the lost shipments.

Right now it is so expensive that it makes sense for people to grow their own.

Few people brew their own beer, or have tobacco plants growing in their closets, and the reason for that is industrial processes operating in an environment where their products are legal, if highly regulated.

[boutons_deux]

"despite high taxes (~25%) legal cigarettes"

That's not high taxes! :lol

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cigarette_taxes_in_the_United_States

$3/pack! high? :lol

it's the absolute number of tax $ that counts, not the %age.

[TeyshaBlue]

If you legalize and tax the drugs, won't there still be a huge black market for cheaper non-taxed drugs?

Ummm.....currently, the only market is a black market. The black market will inevitably be reduced by legalization. There is no downside to this.

[Drachen]

"despite high taxes (~25%) legal cigarettes"

That's not high taxes! :lol

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cigarette_taxes_in_the_United_States

$3/pack! high? :lol

it's the absolute number of tax $ that counts, not the %age.


No it's not. It's the percentage. If you were selling 1000 dollars worth of some product, and the tax was 50 bucks, that is no big deal, but if you sold a 10 dollar product and the tax was 7 dollars, that IS a big deal.

[boutons_deux]

The Shocking Details of a Mississippi School-to-Prison Pipeline


A bracing Department of Justice lawsuit filed last month against Meridian, Miss., where Green lives and is set to graduate from high school this coming year, argues that the city’s juvenile justice system has operated a school to prison pipeline that shoves students out of school and into the criminal justice system, and violates young people’s due process rights along the way.


In Meridian, when schools want to discipline children, they do much more than just send them to the principal’s office. They call the police, who show up to arrest children who are as young as 10 years old. Arrests, the Department of Justice says, happen automatically, regardless of whether the police officer knows exactly what kind of offense the child has committed or whether that offense is even worthy of an arrest. The police department’s policy is to arrest all children referred to the agency.
http://www.alternet.org/education/shocking-details-mississippi-school-prison-pipeline?akid=9726.187590.-0WSoE&rd=1&src=newsletter751292&t=19

IIRC, it was in PA where a judge was being paid by a detention center/jail to send it juveniles.

[boutons_deux]

Private Prison Company Used in Drug Raids at Public High School

Corrections Corporation of America used in drug sweeps of public school students in Arizona.
Trick or Treat

At 9 a.m. on the morning of October 31, 2012, students at Vista Grande High School in Casa Grande were settling in to their daily routine when something unusual occurred.

Vista Grande High School Principal Tim Hamilton ordered the school -- with a student population of 1,776 -- on "lock down," kicking off the first "drug sweep" in the school's four-year history. According to Hamilton, "lock down" is a state in which, "everybody is locked in the room they are in, and nobody leaves -- nobody leaves the school, nobody comes into the school."


"Everybody is locked in, and then they bring the dogs in, and they are teamed with an administrator and go in and out of classrooms. They go to a classroom and they have the kids come out and line up against a wall. The dog goes in and they close the door behind, and then the dog does its thing, and if it gets a hit, it sits on a bag and won't move."

While such "drug sweeps" have become a routine matter in many of the nation's schools, along with the use of metal detectors and zero-tolerance policies, one feature of this raid was unusual. According to Casa Grande Police Department (CGPD) Public Information Officer Thomas Anderson, four "law enforcement agencies" took part in the operation: CGPD (which served as the lead agency and operation coordinator), the Arizona Department of Public Safety, the Gila River Indian Community Police Department, and Corrections Corporation of America (CCA).

It is the involvement of CCA -- the nation's largest private, for-profit prison corporation -- that causes this high school "drug sweep" to stand out as unusual; CCA is not, despite CGPD's evident opinion to the contrary, a law enforcement agency.

Welcome to Prison Town, U.S.A.

CCA, the nation's largest for-profit prison/immigrant detention center operator, with more than 92,000 prison and immigrant detention "beds" in 20 states and the District of Columbia, reported $1.7 billion in gross revenue last year. This revenue is derived almost exclusively from tax payer-funded government (county, state, federal) contracts through which the corporation is paid per-diem, per-prisoner rates for the warehousing of prisoners and immigrant detainees.

http://www.alternet.org/drugs/private-prison-company-used-drug-raids-public-high-school?akid=9728.187590.XcojIB&rd=1&src=newsletter751694&t=7 (http://www.alternet.org/drugs/private-prison-company-used-drug-raids-public-high-school?akid=9728.187590.XcojIB&rd=1&src=newsletter751694&t=7)

yeah, yeah, I know, right-wingers, just a Minor Detail that CCA mercenaries were used, no BFD.

[CosmicCowboy]

crime rates are way down from 30 years ago, so why do we continue to lock people up at a rate exceeding that of China and Iran?

Because we don't just take them out back and shoot them like they do in China and Iran.

[Winehole23]

nope. it's the damn, dumb drug war.

[CosmicCowboy]

Actually, growing your own pot in this regulatory climate is insane. If you get raided it's an automatic felony because they pull the whole plant up roots and all and weigh it and the weight is classified as intent to sell.

[TeyshaBlue]

Actually, growing your own pot in this regulatory climate is insane. If you get raided it's an automatic felony because they pull the whole plant up roots and all and weigh it and the weight is classified as intent to sell.

lol...I've got a buddy who bought a house in North Carolina..out in the sticks. When he was remodeling his garage, he found a false wall...knocked it down and discovered an old 12x20' grow room complete with hydroponic trays.

[LnGrrrR]

lol...I've got a buddy who bought a house in North Carolina..out in the sticks. When he was remodeling his garage, he found a false wall...knocked it down and discovered an old 12x20' grow room complete with hydroponic trays.

SECRET LEVEL!!!

You received HYDROPONICS LAB.

[Drachen]

SECRET LEVEL!!!

You received HYDROPONICS LAB.

:lol

[TeyshaBlue]

SECRET LEVEL!!!

You received HYDROPONICS LAB.

:rollin:rollin