Are Prison’s the only option?
October 7, 2009
I wrote this editorial for my summer externship program. It was supposed to be posted on the classes blog, but it never made it up there (hmmm) so what better place to open the discussion than on the realest forum on the nets. Feel free to voice your opinion or criticisms in the comment box.
The original topic for my editorial was going to be on the profusion of criminals co-operating with the government in Federal investigations. I believed this topic would provide as an interesting jumping board for conversation, because like most people I’ve learned from The Godfather trilogy and it’s progeny that co-operating with the Police or any law enforcement agency was considered a cardinal sin in the world of organized crime and would likely end in the informant and his life. Though there may be some truth to this “snitches get stitches” school of thought, my perception of organized crime changed after working on several criminal cases where there were instances of “mobsters” assisting the government in investigations of their co-defendants in hopes of receiving a sentence below statutory guidelines or a 5k1 letter for their efforts. These were not just associates of crime families but some well known underbosses and made men of notorious crime families. It goes to show you that everyone no matter how high up in the food chain starts talking when the Alphabet Boys (FBI, ATF, DEA) come knocking.
To make a long story short, my infatuation with this newfound contradiction soon wore off and was replaced with another interest and possible editorial topic after my visit to the Metropolitan Detention Center, (“MDC”) as part of my internship with Judge Johnson. Judge Johnson explained that it was necessary for me to visit MDC so I could experience the correctional aspect of the legal system. What I saw at MDC opened my eyes and provided examples of the problems that plague the penal system in this country. Never had the arguments of critics of the current penal system made any sense or matter to me until my visit to MDC. I left MDC that balmy Wednesday afternoon with a sense of obligation. I felt obliged as a law student who has the means to help dismantle an unjust system that has been wreaking havoc on my community and communities like my own for decades.
It is estimated that it cost New York counties close to 1 billion dollars a year to house inmates in the New York State correctional system, and according to the National Institute of Corrections the New York State Department of Corrections has been given allotted a 2.4 billion dollar budget in 2009. To me those numbers are staggering especially considering our nations current financial crisis. The numbers are also startling when there are viable alternatives like residential outpatient drug treatment programs that would cost the state half of what it currently pays to house a drug offender annually. I also believe there is a problem when drug offenders and dealers are serving the same amount of time as murderers and rapist. Sentences for drug related offenses are incongruent to the crime and need to be reformed to better reflect the actual offense.
When I read that African-Americans and Latinos comprise 90% of the prison population of prisoners serving a sentence for a drug offense, I began to understand the current system begins to reek of not only racism but classicism as well. There have been laws and legislation in place like the Rockefeller Laws and the 100 to One Federal sentencing guidelines that give a steeper sentence to an offender that was caught with a nominal amount of crack than to an offender with a substantial amount of cocaine. Crack which is a mixture of cutting agents (lidocaine, baby powder, baking soda) and cocaine is primarily sold and manufactured in inner city neighborhoods. Logically the product that contains a higher concentration of narcotic would be considered more dangerous and therefore carry a steeper sentence. In the case of Crack vs. Cocaine this is not so. The sentencing disparity is eye opening. For instance, an offender caught with 5 grams of crack cocaine (a thimble full) would receive the same 5 year mandatory minimum an offender caught with 500 grams of cocaine would receive. This editorial is not necessarily expose the disparity of the sentences but to show the futility of having such sentences for drug offenders, but to fully illustrate my point I have to show you how these offenders get to this point in the system.
I am not trying to paint myself as the angry black man, but after reading the current penal system statistics I find myself an incensed citizen/taxpayer and of course black man. Do not get me wrong, I am a firm believer that crimes like; homicide, rape, aggravated battery and larceny should carry mandatory jail sentences for numerous reasons, the most important being deterring future criminal acts and protecting law abiding citizens. In most instances incarcerating a drug dealer does not fully deter her from committing the crime upon her release. The drug dealer will most certainly think twice of dealing drugs, but the economic reality that forced her to deal drugs in the first place still remains and is now even more stark when there are no opportunities for people with criminal records.
When the corrections industry decided to operate under the guise of rehabilitation incarceration, I truly believe they never calculated the collateral effects that their “rehabilitation” and “deterrence” efforts would have on not only the inmates but the various communities the former inmates return to. These efforts have in some instances disenfranchised many individuals who happened to be victims of circumstance. A truly rehabilitative approach would not continue to punish individuals after they paid their debt to society, but rather encourage and assist in their transition back into society.
As an informed group of individuals (law students) we have the opportunity to stop government waste and provide solutions for a problem that continues to fester out of control. We have the tools at our disposal to implement change and force state and the Federal government to stop throwing taxpayer money at a problem and actually develop feasible alternatives to the dilapidated penal system that is currently housing 2.3 million inmates and overseeing another 5 million on probation or parole nation wide. We can propose programs that use half the money it takes to house inmates annually to attack the factors that compel those same inmates to engage in criminal activities. As law students and future lawyers we need to use the law as a vehicle for reform. It is our job to propose, advocate, and support new solutions to this age-old problem. We know the current system is a merely band aid to America’s on going problem with crime. Crime and especially drug related offenses will never be fully eradicated but there are alternatives to our current system and we need to explore and bring those to the fore so we can do away with the antiquated system we are left with today.
