OVERCROWDED PRISONS LEAVE LESS ROOM FOR REHABILITATION

Looking For Balance, Justice In The Current Drug Laws

On April 12, the New York Interfaith Prison Pilgrimage will walk into
Ithaca as it journeys across New York state. This pilgrimage is an effort
to raise awareness of our state's criminal justice system and what it is
doing to our society.

All are welcome to join.

From Ithaca, marchers will travel to Elmira in the morning to visit the
Elmira and Southport Correctional Facilities. In the afternoon, they will
visit the Cayuga and Pharsalia Correctional Facilities.

Every week in New York City a different type of pilgrimage takes place.

People, mostly mothers, wives and children, line up early in the morning to
take a four-to six-hour bus ride upstate to see their loved ones in prison.

Often they reach the prison only to be turned away, depriving the prisoners
- -- most of whom are serving long sentences for nonviolent crimes -- of
their only contact with the outside world.

In fact, many prisoners never get visitors.

Their only human contacts take place inside the walls of the facility, and
that is a pretty grim world.

We might say, "That is what they deserve." They committed a crime and they
have to pay their debt to society. It shouldn't be easy for them. Indeed,
responsibility is one of the first principles of justice -- each act has
consequences, and society, in its role as protector of public safety, has
the obligation to impose those consequences. But the term "justice" also
carries connotations of rightness and fairness, neither of which are
reflected in our prison systems. Worse, the people who are enveloped in
this system -- the prisoners, their families, the law enforcement personnel
and the victims -- do not benefit from it.

Over the past 30 years, the prison population in New York and the U.S. has
ballooned.

The U.S. incarceration rate is higher now than at any time in its history,
and is several the rate of Western European nations.

New York has 71 state prisons, not including youth facilities. Over half of
these were built in the past 20 years.

Building and maintaining prisons has become an economic growth industry,
particularly in rural areas where the agricultural base is declining.

In 1988 New York State spent twice as much on higher education as it did on
prisons.

In 1997, however, the state spent $100 million more on prisons than on
higher education, an amount that pushed the state prisons' share of the
General Fund from 9.55 percent to 24.4 percent.

One reason for the surge in facilities and spending is that people are
being imprisoned, often for long periods, for nonviolent crimes.

This challenges the assumption that most prisoners are violent offenders.
In 1980, 11 percent of the total commitments were drug related. By 1999
that number reached 44.5 percent.

In contrast, in 1983, 63 percent of the commitments were violent offenders;
in 1999, only 28.1 percent were.

Many of the drug offenders would benefit from treatment and would be made
more employable if they had education.

A recent Rand study found that drug treatment reduces crime 15 times more
than mandatory minimums and 10 times more than conventional sentences. But
money for these programs has been reduced. And treatment, education and
community service are often not allowed by law as alternatives to
incarceration. Studies of recidivism show that with treatment and
education, fewer offenders are reincarcerated. The costs of providing such
programs outside of prison are much lower as well.

Fairness is a large component of justice.

But the picture our prisons present is anything but fair. In our state, the
prison population is 58 percent African-American, 32 percent Hispanic and
10 percent white. Most of the prisoners come from urban centers, where
poverty is rampant and the unemployment level is very high. In a Newsweek
article from November 2000, interviews with African-American men revealed
that many expected to spend part of their life in jail. Unemployment in
their neighborhoods has gone down, but if these men were not incarcerated
the unemployment rate would be almost 50 percent.

In addition, prisoners are counted in the area in which they reside.

This brings tax dollars to the rural areas where prisons are and deprives
poor urban neighborhoods of revenue that is sorely needed.

FBI studies show that whites make up the majority of people who consume
drugs, and there is evidence that more than half of drug dealers are white.

But 90 percent of the people in prison are African-American or Latino.

We believe in the rule of law in this country.

That means we expect our system of justice to be evenhanded in its
treatment across all strata of society.

It means that the punishment should fit the crime.

It means that a person who has committed a crime should be treated with
fairness and dignity and given a chance to change and make amends.

The reality is that we imprison too many people who do not present a clear
danger. And we punish beyond any fair measure the poor and people of color.

Some progress is being made. Rural communities are beginning to question
the idea of their towns being built on an economic base of human misery.

A recent report from the Justice Policy Institute indicates that states are
looking at ways to reduce correctional costs.

Public opinion is supporting this and is embracing a wide array of
prevention, rehabilitation and alternative sentencing approaches. The
Rockefeller Drug Laws are being challenged and, as a result, reevaluated in
the state Legislature.

But we have a long way to go. The Prison Pilgrimage serves as a public act
of conscience, and those participating are making a call for change.

The more citizens who join the walk, the louder the call.

For more on the Pilgrimage and how you can participate, as well as
information about the community forum on these issues which will be held on
April 12 from 7 to 9 p.m. at Southside Community Center, please contact
Edie Reagan at 272-5062 or myself at 533-7563.