Three Strikes...You're Out

It's been awhile since I've commented on a current event, so I'd like to take this opportunity to figuratively high five the Supreme Court for stating the obvious: incarceration in the California prison system violates Constitutional protection against cruel and unusual punishment. In other words, prison life in California is cruel and unusual.

I was reading an old article from Mother Jones magazine this evening about the sad and dangerous state of CA prisons. I think CA is a model about how not to handle criminal incarceration, and it's important to see what they're doing wrong.

Strike 1: CA's prisons run at 157% capacity (and this was in 2008). This is an exceedingly dire situation. No one is safe, prisoners and guards alike. Prisons don't have enough room for beds, exercise, and classrooms. They can't provide proper medical care. They can't provide enough leisure activities, and we all know what idle hands do...

Strike 2: Despite laws intended to educate and rehabilitate prisoners, most leave prison illiterate, mentally ill, and more dangerous. California's recidivism rates are double most others in the country thanks to a law requiring ALL freed inmates to be on parole for at least one year even after they have served their sentences. A majority of inmates are drug/alcohol addicted but aren't treated. The famous three strikes law is bad enough, but so many prisoners also end up with sentences of "life on the installment plan" due to repeated parole violations and the commission of new crimes.

Strike 3: The prison guard union and others with interests in keeping folks in prison are not doing what's best for the rehabilitation and protection of the inmates (or the rest of society). Prison is a punishment, but as any parent knows a punishment that only makes the behavior worse DOESN'T WORK. When we allow politics to determine how long we incarcerate people and how we treat them while their incarcerated, we miss the point. It sounds good for us to say we're tough on crime, but being tough on crime to the detriment of society DOESN'T WORK. We aren't fixing anything by locking people up without also providing the means to rehabilitate.

Now that we know from California's example what doesn't work, it's time to examine what does work. We need to figure out a balance between punishment and rehabilitation. We need to find alternatives to incarceration for some nonviolent offenses. We need to learn from California's mistakes before other states fall into the same pattern.