COLLATERAL DAMAGE

Prisons and the war on drugs have become a public dole dependent on
human misery. A misery designed by politicians to exploit both felons
and ex-felons whose disenfranchisement makes them safe targets in a
continuously escalating cycle of exploitation and abuse. About 60
percent of the felons are the necessary but expendable foot soldiers
of the drug world. These are men and women who are in prison as a
result of drug-related or drug-motivated crimes.

They link the assorted drug cartels to the professionals that roam
the halls of our universities, businesses, hospitals and government.
These professionals are largely unaffected by the consequences of
their "responsible recreational" use of illegal drugs.

Fines, civil forfeitures and prison sentences have been constantly
ratcheted up over the last two decades to combat the distribution and
crime associated with the supply and delivery of illegal drugs. There
is not one statistic, trend line or shred of evidence showing that
any of these measures have reduced the supply, weakened distribution
nets, lowered demand or preserved the integrity of our way of life.

What has happened is that our state and federal government have
developed the largest and most successful money laundering operations
and both law enforcement and government operations have been
corrupted beyond anything known in history. And the United States now
has the highest incarceration rate and ratio in the world.

All this is correctable if there is the political will to do so.

This corruption has begun to unravel the very fabric of our society.
We are becoming dependent on the economic and social distortions
created by the misery and suffering associated with the war on drugs.

State agencies, governors, legislators and local chambers of commerce
have long recognized the ability of prisons to rejuvenate and
stabilize rural economies. Prisons provide high paying jobs from an
industry that is invisible and nonpolluting.

Nowhere is the significance of a county state prison more visible
than the efforts of Suwannee County to get its own prison. The county
raised and paid $200,000 for the land required for the new prison and
then donated it to the state.

Union county is an example of social and economic statistical
distortions taken to its extreme. According to the 2000 census, more
than 30 percent of the residents are prisoners.

The United States has 5 percent of the world's population and 25
percent of the jail and prison population. Western Europe has an
inmate ratio 85 per 100,000, while Florida's prison ratio is 475 per
100,000 population. Last year the Alachua jail population ratio
average was 470 inmates per 100,000 population. Alachua County sent
670 men, women and children to state prisons that year.

Paralleling the growth of prisons is a decline in programs to reduce
recidivism. We have truly become a society where prisons have become
institutions of higher forms of criminality.

Prisons populations translate into political clout: Inmates are
counted as local residents when it comes to divvying up government
grant money and laying out legislative districts. We are talking
about federal grant money for road construction, schools, general
budgets, rural development and social programs.

Within the city limits of Gainesville is a state prison, prison road
camp, prison work release center and a county jail with an annex
under construction. Close to 1,700 men and women put their heads down
on a pillow each night in one of these facilities. These inmates
benefit not only the census data for the city of Gainesville but they
get counted again for Alachua County.

What has never been mentioned is the number of residents in
Gainesville that commute daily to the prisons surrounding
Gainesville. Then there are the businesses that satellite on the
prison system, such as American Institutional Services (AIS).

The economies of prisons have a few other aspects that are seldom
discussed. Upon release, most inmates have a period of parole that
can vary from one to 10 years. This is a drug tested, docile labor
force that operates under the supervision of the state. There are
some 2,300 such men and women in the county of Alachua.

The other feature of prison labor is community service or free labor.
In 2005 the courts awarded 80,000 hours of community service to
Alachua County. Think in terms of the downward pressure this puts on
wages in the county.

Another aspect of the war on drugs and sentencing is greatly ignored:
civil forfeitures, where the economic proceeds from crime are
laundered through the Department of Justice or Homeland Security and
state agencies.

These funds find their way into municipal coffers as well as grants
that support many of the nonprofit social services and cultural icons
at the local level.

Lowering the prison population and the cessation of the war on drugs
would destabilize the political status quo, create economic chaos and
destroy a host of social services. If you think base closing create
fights in Washington are contentious, wait until you see the
infighting associated with closing state prisons. Can you imagine
Bradford, Union and Alachua without their prisons?

These days, prisons mainly serve to act as a rural anti-poverty
programs and garner votes for politicians who have lost their moral compass.