HELPING INMATES IS BEST COURSE FOR STATE

ALDERSON FEDERAL prison Camp in West Virginia is quite a happening place.
It recently housed Martha Stewart, Marie Salupo and Jennifer Burk.

We mostly know about Martha. She was busted, unlike most male colleagues,
for lying to the FBI and for after-hours stock trading. (Men may be exempt
from that law.) Her five-month stay was duly chronicled, and she will soon
be making more money after release than she was before. Yes sir, a valuable
growth experience.

Marie, in turn, was busted for crossing the property line at the Army's
Fort Benning, thereby protesting the malevolent School of the Americas
housed there. Like many, she tired of the U.S. training thugs to keep our
friendly Latin American caudillos in power. After serving her three months,
Marie shipped out to Zimbabwe as a Maryknoll missioner. Her stay at
Alderson was marked by assisting fellow felons and by strong support from
other Maryknollers and family. It flew by.

Jennifer got three years for some less-exotic offense, and suffered greatly
as friends and family gradually drifted away. No TV monitored her release.
She's determined to make a go of life now, and we can only hope for the
best. Unfortunately, the U.S. government will devote no resources to help
her succeed.

Neither does Connecticut. As elsewhere, our prisoners are treated shabbily,
as though miserable conditions would somehow make them see the error of
their ways. Health care is erratic, drug treatment scarce and schooling
constantly subject to budget cuts. No job placement is offered, and respect
is purposely withheld. In a recent case, some poor soul was released by a
judge in Hartford, but his clothes were back in Enfield. He had to make his
way there on his own in prison garb to pick them up.

This is not to say that prisoners should be treated like scholarship
students. Some, after all, are dangerous. Psychopaths are not unknown. But
common sense should tell us that treating individuals with respect is a
better long-term investment than maligning them. The Marines and the
Taliban mold trained killers by removing every shred of dignity. Is this
our goal for prisoners?

Granted, it used to be worse. For a few years, the Legislature thought it
would save money by trimming the parole and probation budgets. As a result,
the prison population zoomed and we were suddenly shipping surplus inmates
off to Virginia. Cooler heads have since prevailed, and our census is back
down to 18,000, all of whom we can accommodate here at home. This makes the
prison guards union very happy.

Of course, if every citizen were wealthy, those same guards would be very
annoyed indeed. Consumers of drugs could then consume in their own homes,
away from the prying eyes of police. Every suspect could also make bail,
and retain a lawyer to spend adequate time on his defense. Plus they would
lobby against Connecticut's foolish mandatory minimum drug sentences. Soon
our prison population would plummet and angry guards would be getting laid off.

But we're not all going to get rich, and drug statutes and prisons will
always remain stacked to some degree against the poor. Their transgressions
will continue to be hunted down more vigorously than those of the middle
class, and their "crimes" will still carry heavier penalties than similar
offenses by suburbanites.

Except that this year there may be a glimmer of hope. The new General
Assembly seems a cut above its predecessors. No, our Jennifers will never
be treated like Marthas, but with our new corrections commissioner and new
legislative leadership, we may finally see a little more equity.