>Sender: >To: >X-Original-Message-ID: <001001bf1f2d$3c662620$9acf69cf@pacbell.net> >From: "Peter McWilliams" >Subject: Excellent column >Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 14:09:33 -0700 >X-Mozilla-Status: 8001 >X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000 > > >CRIME, CASH AND CAMPAIGN 2000 > >Arianna Huffington > >There is one thing America leads the world in that no presidential candidate > >is talking about: we now have more of our citizens living behind bars than >any other country. Two million Americans are projected to crowd our >nation's >jails by the year 2000. > >Wall Street has wobbled lately, but the big bucks business of crime and >punishment continues to boom. Last year, over $35 billion was spent housing > >our nation's prisoners. Though the good times aren't going to last for many > >companies, prisons are going to be a good bet for a long time. And, due >largely to the misguided war on drugs, more and more inmates are non-violent > >offenders -- and disproportionately young men of color. "Get tough" isn't >always "get smart." > >To handle the enormous increase in those serving time, we've been erecting >new jails at a record pace -- close to a thousand built in the last two >decades. Despite this new space race, America's prisons are dangerously >overcrowded, with 45 of our 50 state prison systems operating at or above >capacity. > >But this national disgrace -- and what it says about the real state of our >union -- has been ignored by the major presidential hopefuls. All George W. > >Bush had to say on the issue of crime and punishment in his announcement >speech was that he would "encourage states to reform their juvenile justice >laws." All Al Gore had to propose was "expanding community policing" and >giving "police new crime-fighting tools." And all that Bill Bradley had to >say was that "we can enact long-overdue gun control." > >Overnight hospital stays, safety belts, and school uniforms have all merited > >the bully pulpit -- but not the fact that America has more than the combined > >populations of Boston, Atlanta and San Francisco currently living under lock > >and key. And certainly no presidential candidate is raising the issue of >how >these people are being treated -- or, more accurately, mistreated. Even if >pandering politicians shy away from the issue on the grounds that prisons >don't focus-test so well, they could at least arouse the public's interest >by >reminding us that -- unless we intend to keep all two million in jail for >life -- most will be out in the streets again, more hardened than ever. > >Take, for example, the story told last week in a California courtroom by >Eddie Dillard, a first-time offender at the Corcoran State Prison who had >been placed by guards in a cell with Wayne Robertson, a convicted murderer >with a long -- and well-known to the guards -- history of prison rapes. In >sickening detail, Robertson, known as the "Booty Bandit," testified that >despite Dillard's pleas that his life was in danger, the guards just laughed > >and walked away. Asked what had happened after that, Robertson responded >that he proceeded to beat and sodomize his cellmate for the next two days. > >Last year a Corrections Department panel found that nearly 80 percent of >shootings by Corcoran guards were not justified. Despite this, no district >attorney in California has ever prosecuted a prison guard for one of the 39 >shooting deaths of inmates statewide in the last decade. > >How could this be? As is so often the case these days, the answer can be >found by following the money. "Whenever a local D.A. would go after guards >aggressively," says Mark Arax, whose groundbreaking stories for the Los >Angeles Times first uncovered these crimes and their cover-ups, "the guards' > >union would try to run the D.A. out of town with record amounts of campaign >contributions to his opponent. After our stories, the union came after me >and my colleague Mark Gladstone with personal attacks and investigations." > >Here we have a particularly noxious example of the nexus between campaign >contributions and policy. The California Correctional Peace Officers >Association, the powerful prison guards' union, gave nearly a million >dollars >to former Governor Pete Wilson and former Attorney General Dan Lungren, and >$2.3 million last year to help Governor Gray Davis win election. >Predictably, Davis did nothing to intervene recently as a bill that would >have made it easier to investigate and prosecute corrupt prison guards was >quietly given a death sentence in the state Assembly. According to Attorney > >General Bill Lockyer, "the CCPOA torpedoed this thing." One of the >assemblymen who led the fight against it had received over $100,000 in >campaign contributions from the union. > >So contributions from the prison guards' union -- ranking right up there >with >the massive sums doled out by Big Tobacco and Archer-Daniels-Midland -- are >directly linked to miscarriages of justice that, in less self-involved >times, >would have led to a collective uproar. It's yet another glaring example of >how our campaign financing system directly influences public policy. In the > >case of our jails, it's now become laughable to even refer to them as >"correctional facilities." In truth, they're more like criminal finishing >schools outfitted with revolving doors -- a place where inmates hone their >anti-social skills then return to show off their new talents to a world to >which they feel they owe nothing. > >Given our presidential candidates' determination to be little more than >political Good Humor men, it's not surprising that they've chosen to ignore >this dark underbelly of crime. Yes, violent crime is down. But it's >flourishing, largely uninvestigated, inside our jails. Surely we're capable > >of setting up a system of punishment that doesn't commit the same crimes as >those we're punishing. > >If not, this culture of brutality will inevitably make its way from the >prison yards to our backyards. Is there no presidential candidate with the >foresight to speak out? > > >================================================================ > >This message is sent to you because you are subscribed to > the mailing list . >To unsubscribe, E-mail to: