|
by Jennifer Randolph '00 Amnesty International publishes reports that document human rights abuses around the world. In one country they found many deaths from restraining chairs and remote-control stun belts, sexual abuse by guards, women shackled while giving birth, and the execution of children and persons with mental retardation. Is this China? Nicaragua? No, it's our own United States of America. Racism, sexism, and classism all converge in the problem of prisons and the "justice" system in the U.S. today. Almost 70% of prisoners are people of color; in fact, there are more black men in prison, jail or on probation than in four-year colleges. Almost all are low-income people; few white-collar crimes (massive corporate theft, pollution, safety violations, etc.) ever result in prison time. Most of the two million men and women in jail and prison are there on drug charges, not violent crimes. A study by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University found that "drug and alcohol abuse are implicated in the incarceration of 80%" (or 1.6 of the 2 million) of the individuals imprisoned today in U.S. jails and prison. The connection between race and drug use is obscured by media-sponsored racism about "crack moms" and dangerous black kids. These images are racist and ignore the realities of the unequal opportunities many poor people of color suffer from. However, even on a simply functional level, putting mothers in jail (and 75% of women in prison and jail are mothers, many with very young children) only makes the problem longer-lasting. Women who need drug treatment rarely get it in prison. Their children are shunted to foster homes and "can suffer an array of behavioral problems which can lead to truancy, early pregnancy, drug abuse, and juvenile delinquency" (The Osborne Association). And so the cycle continues. The children of felons go off to jail. It is a part of other systemic differences, like unequal education through underfunded inner-city schools. Because the problem is systemic and not just individual, it is hard to escape the cycle of poverty and arrest. This is partly because of those same factors of poor education, few opportunities, and thinly veiled racism. And, in addition, there are far-reaching consequences of a sentence: it is difficult to get a job (especially one that pays well enough to support a family and get out of poverty) or find a place to live. In some states you no longer have a political voice, because you canŐt vote even after you get out of jail. So who is so disenfranchised by a system increasingly sending people to jail for minor drug offenses? Guess. A black man has a greater than one in four lifetime chance of serving a prison sentence. A white woman, on the other hand, has a 0.5% chance. This is rather more than a coincidence. We need to name it for what it is: institutionalized racism, sexism, and classism. Whites are released or given smaller sentences for the same crime. Racial profiling means that police stop or hassle (or shoot, as in the Diallo case) "suspicious people," who are largely people of color. And the fastest-growing population in prisons is women of color, almost entirely for drug-related charges. These people, these mothers, do not deserve twenty-five years of rough socialization and separation from their families. There are alternatives to prison. They include community service orders, third-party advocacy, alcohol and drug treatment, and mental health services. Such programs, when well-funded and used properly, can significantly reduce repeat offenses and be cost-effective. We now spend almost $100 million per day to incarcerate individuals with substance abuse problems. What would happen if we spent that money helping people escape the cycle of poverty and arrest and get out of chemical dependency? What would happen if that money empowered rather than disenfranchised? Jails and prisons today are bursting with the most underprivileged parts of American society. The system that oppresses keeps them down through an unfair justice system and discrimination against felons. The situation is more complicated than simply who has broken the law. Lots of people break the law and do not do twenty-five years, including corporate polluters, those who embezzle from their companies, multibillionaires breaking anti-trust statutes, and lying politicians. The prison population is poor, black or Hispanic, and uneducated--because of the underlying racism and classism that is still very present in American society. Sources: "For Justice and Against Prison," Z Magazine, March 2000. JusticeWorks Community Campaign 2000: quotes Bureau of Justice Statistics, the Sentencing Project, and the Office of National Drug Control Policy.
|