cjjack
06-26-2004, 03:00 PM
The Price of Prisons
June 26, 2004
Thirteen million Americans have been convicted of felonies
and spent time in prison - more than the population of
Greece. And they tend to return to prison again and again.
Of the 650,000 inmates who will be released in 2004,
two-thirds will be back behind bars within few years. The
cost of keeping so many in jail - the operating expenses
for state prisons alone is around $30 billion a year - has
created bipartisan concern. Congress, which spent so many
years obsessed with how to look tough on crime, is
currently considering legislation that would tackle two of
the big factors behind the revolving-door phenomenon: the
huge number of mentally ill people in prison, and the
difficulty ex-convicts have in carving out new lives in the
law-abiding world.
A bill known as the Second Chance Act, endorsed by the
White House and developed primarily by Representative Rob
Portman, Republican of Ohio, and Representative Danny
Davis, Democrat of Illinois, would invest a modest $112
million over the next two years in drug treatment and
mentoring programs aimed at helping newly released felons
rejoin their communities. It would also do away with a
punitive federal law that denies college loans to
applicants with drug offenses, even if the offenses
resulted in no jail time and occurred in the distant past.
The loan ban, which has been used to deny aid to more than
140,000 students, would remain in effect only for people
who committed drug crimes while actually receiving federal
aid. Unfortunately, the bill would not eliminate a similar
rule that excludes inmates from the federal Pell Grant
program.
The Second Chance Act calls for a task force to review the
obstacles that keep ex-felons pinned to the margins of
society. If this bill is passed, as it deserves to be, the
task force will find a wealth of information in a recent
study by the Legal Action Center, a criminal justice policy
group, which identifies laws in all 50 states that bar
former convicts from scores of professions that require
state licenses.
While it is important to screen for prison records when
hiring teachers or day care workers, it makes no sense to
tell men and women who once served time for breaking state
drug laws that they are barred for life from careers as
barbers or landscape architects. Some states even strip
convicts of their driver's licenses.
The House is also considering a bill that recognizes the
role that mentally ill offenders play in the recidivism
problem. About one in six prison inmates is mentally ill. A
spate of recent studies describe American prisons as mental
institutions by default - although they are institutions in
which the disturbed inmates get no treatment to speak of.
Once they complete their sentences, such inmates are
generally dumped onto the streets without medication or
therapy, and rapidly end up back in jail.
The Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction
Act, which was passed by the Senate in 2003, calls for an
investment of $100 million for inmates' mental health
services, including training for people who work in mental
health courts. These courts make sure that offenders with
mental problems comply with treatment regimens.
Opponents are already arguing that given the government's
enormous deficit, Congress should reject any bills that
involve new spending. But given the soaring price of
incarceration, and a prison population that is growing, the
most costly option is to do nothing.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/26/opinion/26SAT1.html?ex=1089279910&ei=1&en=5908
864b75613673 (http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/26/opinion/26SAT1.html?ex=1089279910&ei=1&en=5908864b75613673)
June 26, 2004
Thirteen million Americans have been convicted of felonies
and spent time in prison - more than the population of
Greece. And they tend to return to prison again and again.
Of the 650,000 inmates who will be released in 2004,
two-thirds will be back behind bars within few years. The
cost of keeping so many in jail - the operating expenses
for state prisons alone is around $30 billion a year - has
created bipartisan concern. Congress, which spent so many
years obsessed with how to look tough on crime, is
currently considering legislation that would tackle two of
the big factors behind the revolving-door phenomenon: the
huge number of mentally ill people in prison, and the
difficulty ex-convicts have in carving out new lives in the
law-abiding world.
A bill known as the Second Chance Act, endorsed by the
White House and developed primarily by Representative Rob
Portman, Republican of Ohio, and Representative Danny
Davis, Democrat of Illinois, would invest a modest $112
million over the next two years in drug treatment and
mentoring programs aimed at helping newly released felons
rejoin their communities. It would also do away with a
punitive federal law that denies college loans to
applicants with drug offenses, even if the offenses
resulted in no jail time and occurred in the distant past.
The loan ban, which has been used to deny aid to more than
140,000 students, would remain in effect only for people
who committed drug crimes while actually receiving federal
aid. Unfortunately, the bill would not eliminate a similar
rule that excludes inmates from the federal Pell Grant
program.
The Second Chance Act calls for a task force to review the
obstacles that keep ex-felons pinned to the margins of
society. If this bill is passed, as it deserves to be, the
task force will find a wealth of information in a recent
study by the Legal Action Center, a criminal justice policy
group, which identifies laws in all 50 states that bar
former convicts from scores of professions that require
state licenses.
While it is important to screen for prison records when
hiring teachers or day care workers, it makes no sense to
tell men and women who once served time for breaking state
drug laws that they are barred for life from careers as
barbers or landscape architects. Some states even strip
convicts of their driver's licenses.
The House is also considering a bill that recognizes the
role that mentally ill offenders play in the recidivism
problem. About one in six prison inmates is mentally ill. A
spate of recent studies describe American prisons as mental
institutions by default - although they are institutions in
which the disturbed inmates get no treatment to speak of.
Once they complete their sentences, such inmates are
generally dumped onto the streets without medication or
therapy, and rapidly end up back in jail.
The Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction
Act, which was passed by the Senate in 2003, calls for an
investment of $100 million for inmates' mental health
services, including training for people who work in mental
health courts. These courts make sure that offenders with
mental problems comply with treatment regimens.
Opponents are already arguing that given the government's
enormous deficit, Congress should reject any bills that
involve new spending. But given the soaring price of
incarceration, and a prison population that is growing, the
most costly option is to do nothing.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/26/opinion/26SAT1.html?ex=1089279910&ei=1&en=5908
864b75613673 (http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/26/opinion/26SAT1.html?ex=1089279910&ei=1&en=5908864b75613673)