Prison system is disgraceful

Utah’s prison population grew by 258 percent between 1982 and 2007, even while its rate of community supervision dropped 17 percent, according to a study by the Pew Center on the States.

Legislators and lobbying groups need to be consistently checked by the people to ensure that individual rights aren’t superseded for the sake of the corporate gain of private prison companies such as the Utah Correctional Industries. By understanding the nature of the prison-industrial complex—which has facilitated the incarceration of one of every 31 Americans—in the United States, we can educate to ensure it doesn’t become as prevalent in Utah as it has in states such as California.

During the 1990s, at the height of the prison-building boom, a prison opened in rural America every 15 days. In California during the 1980s and ’90s, there were 21 new prisons built and only one new university. Although the number of kids graduating high school fell 2.7 percent, the number of people in prison and jail rose 400 percent, according to a study for the California Institute of Integral Studies.

This suggests that our country would rather throw people away to rot in a jail cell than educate them for a better tomorrow. The fact that it costs more money to send people to prison then it does to send them to college shows that the privatized prison system is profiting from ignorance at the expense of the American taxpayer and the largely uneducated masses behind bars. This is the raison d’être of the prison-industrial complex

Naturally, businessmen want to see their businesses profit, and the prison industry, which has to think of its shareholders like any other privatized corporation, is no exception. Stock quotes and profit margins are the first and foremost priority for privatized prison companies such as the GEO group, which changed its name from Wackenhut after its $12-million-a-year contract in Texas was stripped because of overall incompetency and after several guards were indicted for having sex with female inmates.

How do corporations such as the GEO group keep their stock high? By keeping prison beds full, not only to project the need for new multimillion dollar prisons, but also to ensure there is an ample supply of the goods made by prison inmates to pump into the market. Inmates make everything from license plates to children’s toys to telemarketing calls, all for about $20 a month.

When these beds can’t be filled, private prison corporations import prisoners from other states to fill beds. Inmates convicted in Utah are now being held in prison-industrial strongholds from California to Texas.

The most disturbing fact is that nonviolent offenders constitute 72.1 percent of the federal prison population, according to a statistical analysis by www.sentencingproject.org. Private prison lobbyists throw millions of dollars around to ensure that their prisons stay full, not for the safety of the average American citizen, but for their shareholders and personal gain.

Nelson Mandela once said, “It is said that no one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails. A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but its lowest ones.”

In Utah in 1997, Michael Valent, a schizophrenic inmate, was strapped in a restraining chair for 16 hours for being “uncooperative.” He later died from a blood clot caused by the restraining chair.

Comments from correctional officers, such as Cody Basham, who works for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, stated last year on his blog that, “all I think about is taking the first chance I get to blast an inmate’s face off with a shotgun,” shed light on the degree of civilization seen in America’s prisons. Future generations will judge us by the way we treat our prisoners.

Until we put more emphasis on education, fighting poverty and healing addiction than we do on locking up nonviolent offenders, our grandchildren’s children’s view of our society will not differ from our disgusted view of the Inquisition era.

letters@chronicle.utah.edu

Society judged on how we treat prisoners
Utah must avoid prison-industrial-complex
Prison rates, treatment a disgrace
Treatment of prisoners a reflection on society

8 comments

Bill

Fri May 8 2009 04:35

I have no opinion about the corporations that run prisons, but there seems to be a fault in your premise that they want to keep the prisons full. As with any private business I'm sure that they do want to generate profits, but they didn't actually incarcerate anyone; the courts and the prisoners own actions did. They also don't determine when prisoners may leave, but rather sentencing guidelines and parole boards do. Much of this seems more political then anything. Also, I think your idea that just merely educating prisoners, especially repeat offenders, and everything will be well is rather naive. I do agree that there should be reform. However people don't need to go to jail to avail themselves of an opportunity to receive an education. These opportunities already exists. Some people just want to watch the world burn, and they belong in jail.

Kenny

Tue Apr 28 2009 15:30

Almost one out of every three prisoners are illegal aliens, that in itself is sickening. Perhaps we should stop rewarding illegal aliens with Utah drivers licenses, Utah ID, Utah in-state tuition, Utah taxpayer funded education, food stamps, and medical care? And then we pay for them while they are in prison! Salt Lake City is a sanctuary for illegal aliens thanks to our traitorous leaders (SLC Mayor, SLC Police Chief, Attorney General, etc). see: immigrationshumancost. org or just watch the news every night. You'll see Utah's most wanted and new arrests for our prisons, many are illegal aliens even though the news channels rarely say what their legal residency status is! Support SB81 and border control! See" numbersusa. org!

Mike Goldman

Tue Apr 28 2009 14:11

Samuel,

What data do you have to show that private prisons lobby legislators to "get tough on crime", that the number of people being sent to prison skyrocketed when they were privatized, and that during the 1990s private prisons opened in rural America every 15 days? Lastly, you sound like a unionized correctional officer from California. If a state prison is overcrowded and inefficient, then what's the issue with the private sector building and operating new prisons to meet that need? Private prisons didn't create the problem. In fact, they probably saved people from being quadruple bunked in old, inadequate facilities. Today, inmates are literally dying in California's public prisons because anti public/private partnership people like yourself. You really should be ashamed.

The Lone Ranger

Tue Apr 28 2009 13:42

Stafford ignores the role of the individual plays in whether they go to prison or not. Having worked in the legal system for a number of years I was impressed with how hard the system tired to avoid sending people to prison. The people who got sent to the "joint" were people that either had done something really terrible or had frittered away all sorts of chances to avoid incarceration.
Equating incarceration costs with education costs is also pretty bogus. While I believe in making education available to inmates,prison and school are two different programs for two different sorts of people. It is totally unrealistic to think that the typical hardened criminal will behave if we just spend a little more on education!Finally we are going to pay for crime one way or another either we pay to incarcerate criminals or we pay as victims of the crimes they commit!

Samuel Brothers

Tue Apr 28 2009 13:28

Mike why then do private prisons lobby legislators to "get tough on crime,"? The number of people being sent to prison skyrocketed when they were privatized.

"During the 1990s, at the height of the prison-building boom, a prison opened in rural America every 15 days."

If this is true, it speaks for itself. These aren't public prisons mind you.

Okie

Tue Apr 28 2009 11:17

On a related note, I recently heard a news report that $20,000 was being given to the state prison to improve its library. While I'm all for people having the opportunity to read, I feel that our public schools should benefit before those who broke the law.

Mike Goldman

Tue Apr 28 2009 10:13

Private prisons are the reason so many people are behind bars? Are you serious? State employees/major unions run over 90% of state prisons. You should do some research before you make false claims.

Unions are bankrupting our country and anything that will increase the number of union paying members is fine by them, including more inmates in prison or wasteful spending. While private prisons can be fired at will, state employees are bulletproof from layoffs. That's why the number of public employees is rapidly increasing while the number of private sector jobs is in a downward spiral. Being in Utah, I would expect you're aware of the correctional officer's union's fierce objections of sending inmates at California's state run prisons out of state, despite a Federal Receiver saying that inmates in CA's state run prisons are dying on a regular basis due to neglect and abuse. Sure those inmates could get better care in properly staffed out of state facilities that aren't overcrowded, but how dare the state consider that when doing so could affect the number of dues paying members in the correctional officer's union?

Finally, take your shots at private prison companies, but AGAIN, please do some reserach. No matter how you look at the data, private prisons have less assaults, suicides, abuse,......than publicly run prisons. Compare quality and then make sure judgement on whether publicly run prisons are better than privately run prisons -- don't sensationalize a few events.

Government is good at setting policy, but when it comes to operating mostly anything, taxpayer dollars are literally being thrown away by having government operating anything.

I agree that too many non-violent offenders are being locked up, but at least be honest with your writing as to why that is happening.

Dave

Tue Apr 28 2009 04:00

This is true my friend. Only so much can be shirked off to the officer's environment (i.e Stamford prison experiment). I think that the issue of competency should seriously come into question when hiring these people.

As soon as you walk through the door of Salt Lake County Jail you can prepare to be treated as the scum of the Earth. I spent Easter Sunday in jail for shooting a pigeon and honestly, I doubt that a terrorist or a rapist would have been treated any differently from me or my fellow prisoners.

*** I do not wish to advocate my case. I only wish to point out an example. What happened to me was absolutely tame and more or less warranted my punishment, versus what have been much more unfair situations.

Your last assertment, "Treatment of prisoners a reflection on society" is too true. THE OFFICERS IN THE SALT LAKE COUNTY JAIL SEEMED TO HAVE NO AGENDA IN SERVING AND PROTECTING OUR SOCIETY, BUT INSTEAD WERE BENT ON KICKING IT'S CITIZENS WHILE THEY ARE DOWN (i.e. LAUGHING AT ME AND MY FELLOW INMATES, some of whom were much more miserable to be spending Easter Sunday away from their families.) The time I spent made me extremely sad and depressed because I couldn't stop thinking how this used to be a system made to help our society flourish, and now it seems that the corrupt individuals who should be in the cells are the ones governing them. Straight up. I want to thank the author of this article for bringing this important issue to light.

I also want to say, I enjoyed a fine meal consisting of 4 pieces of whole wheat bread, some good sliced turkey, an apple, cookies, and Gatorade. I don't think my tax dollars should be going to feed prisoners such a quality meal, assuming that jail is for people who do BAD things. I'm sure y'all don't mind feeding a poor kid who went there for shooting a pigeon with a BB, but how about that local meth dealer who's eating better in jail than you do at work?!?

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