AMERICA'S PRISONS

You don't have to look to Abu Ghraib to see a system prone to inhumane
practices

The firestorm over the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. soldiers
should prompt a closer look at the growing and largely hidden world of
U.S. prisons.

The few video cameras that have gotten inside lockups in the United
States have shown a world that can get as ugly as Iraq's Abu Ghraib.

One 1996 tape of a detention center in Texas shows an attack dog
mauling a prisoner's leg and a prisoner with a broken ankle crawling
as he is prodded with a stun gun. Just last month, a videotape from a
California youth prison showed two inmates being beaten and sprayed
with chemicals.

One activist group, Stop Prison Rape, estimates that nearly 250,000
men are raped each year in U.S. prisons. Corrections departments put
the number at about 12,000, but even that is higher than the number of
rapes reported by women in any of the nation's largest cities.

The vast majority of prison rapes occurs among inmates, but sometimes
prison employees are more than negligent. During the 1990s, Scott
Correctional Facility in Northville Township was under intense
scrutiny by federal officials over allegations of sexual abuse of
prisoners by prison employees.

More inmates, more abuses

The United States locks up a greater share of its citizens than almost
any other nation. Prisons have become less humane as they have become
more crowded, increasing costly recidivism rates. Over the last 30
years, fueled by tough-on-crime politicians, the nation's prison
population has more than quadrupled to surpass 2 million. In Michigan,
the number of prisoners has risen from 8,630 in 1974 to nearly 50,000.

Here and around the nation, prison population has grown faster than
the resources to serve it. Double bunking has become the norm. There's
more idle time, fewer opportunities for inmates to rehabilitate
themselves, and more tension and violence.

In recent years, the Michigan Department of Corrections has further
restricted visiting privileges and reading materials and required
prison-issue clothing. The state has practically banned cameras in
prisons, making it even harder for the public to know about conditions.

Prison health care has gotten worse. Possibly thousands of Michigan
inmates leave prison every year without knowing whether they have
hepatitis C. Nationwide, prisons and jails release more than 1 million
people a year with the virus.

In many states, including Michigan, the response to prison crowding
and tight budgets has been to cut already inadequate prison programs.
This year, Michigan legislators are looking to cut millions of dollars
in prison education, drug treatment and hepatitis C treatment. The
better response would be new sentencing guidelines, releasing more
selected offenders to lower-cost community programs.

Last year, in another cost-cutting move, the state closed its
corrections ombudsman's office, which investigated complaints from
inmates and their families. The office had found abuses in up to 10
percent of the more than 1,000 cases a year it handled. Most of the
cases in recent years centered on inadequate health care. Lawmakers
should visit

The federal government needs a commission to develop national
standards for the treatment of prisoners, and then to monitor how
state prisons and county lockups meet them. That said, the greatest
responsibility should remain with the state and local governments that
run these institutions.

The Michigan Legislature could start by restoring access for prison
inmates to the Michigan Department of Civil Rights, giving prisoners a
place outside the system to file complaints.

Legislators must also take a greater interest in the prison system,
which costs Michigan taxpayers $1.8 billion a year. Legislators can
enter prisons any time they want, but it's a power they rarely
exercise. Like the media, they generally pay attention only when there
is trouble.

Many Americans were outraged when they learned of the abuses taking
place in Iraq. They and their elected representatives should show as
much concern about the abuses occurring daily in our own penal system.