Prison toll reaches a1l of us

State Rep Lloyd Daniel helped me understand the recent inhumane
treatment of Missouri. inmates in Texas.

He said President Eisenhower warned in the Cold War of the growing
political influence of the "militaryindustrial complex." Companies
wanted to keep profiting from building war machines.

Today people should be equally concerned about the emergence in America
of "a prisonindustrial complex." Small towns teetering on the edge of
extinction have received new shopping centers, restaurants, motels and
other feeder businesses after prisons have opened nearby, Daniel said in
a recent speech at the Missouri Training Center for Men in Moberly.

In the 1990s, the prison business has been big. The U.S. Department of
Justice reported last month that from 1990 to 19.95, 213 state and
federal prisons were constructed. The number of prison beds increased 41
percent to 976,000.

Still, that wasn't enough. State prisons operated at an average of 3
percent over capacity, and federal prisons were 24 percent beyond their
limits.

Its no wonder. The number of U.S. adults behind bars, on probation or on
parole climbed to a high of 5.5 million people in 1996, the Justice
Department reported. This was up from 5.3 million in 1995.

Compared with 1985, the number of adults in prison, was up 131 percent;
in jail, 100 percent; on probation, 61 percent; and on parole, 134
percent.

Building and operating prisons has become big' business as companies try
to meet the demand. This reminded me of a speech I heard an excited
Corrections Corporation of America official give last year.

He was talking to teachers, but his audience could have been
shareholders of the Nashville based company. It manages prison
facilities nationwide, including the Leavenworth Detention Detention
Center.In 1995 stock in the Corrections Corporation of America doubled,
making it one of the too performers on the New York, Stock exchange.

Business is good because the Corrections Corporation of America and
similar ~ companies are benefiting from the public's fear of crime.
Tougher laws, more convictions and stiffer sentences have pushed up
inmate populations.

But our mistake is that we jail people rather than teach them in schools
how to avoid prisons and be successful.

Jonathan KoZol wrote about that in his book, _Amazing Grace, The Lives
of Children and the Conscience of a Nation_. Without prisons, the
"attractive lives" of the upper and middle class would be impossible.
Ghettos, which house socialeconomic outcasts, take the pressure off
upper and middle America, and prisons take the pressure off ghettos. The
majority in prison also are black and Hispanic.

That's segregation, and the cost is too high. Texas officials have
learned. They're now studying how they can make their jails more humane
after Missouri last month brought back more than 800 inmates it had in
Texas jails at a cost of $41 a day per inmate.

Missouri officials took the action after a videotape showed guards at a
privately operated Texas jail beating Missouri inmates, using stun guns
and dog. "This is modernday slavery," Daniel said.

The inmates should be taught, rehabilitated and given new beginnings so
they'll be productive citizens when released. Stuffing them in crowded
prisons, abusing them and making money on their misery may only ensure,
in gallons of red, that we'll pay the price in more violence and crime
when they're out.

Send email to Lewis Diuguid at Ldiguid@kcstar.com or leave him a message
at 8168897827 by entering 1134.