We have the internet and Truthdig to avoid those editors who want “dumbed down”.  My hope in California is that we will be forced to deal with our prison explosions as part of the exploding deficit. Prison budgets exceed public education in our state as a result of conservative ideology.  The three strikes law is a travesty of justice.

The roots of this problem:

http://chenangogreens.org/home/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=492&Itemid=1

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is apparently seeking to swell the ranks of inmates with what seems to be a mostly fabricated and wealth serving proposal:

“The Senators were urging the two federal agencies, “to further cooperate in combating the increased rate of drug smuggling across our northern border by deploying any and all available military radar technology to uncover and combat the smuggling of drugs by low-flying aircraft.” “

http://beyourownleader.blogspot.com/2011/04/north-american-perimeter-security-and.html

By gerard,

..........the problem of power for power’s sake…....

It’a tribal, it’s national, it’s race-based, class-based, age-based, wealth-based, education-based, religion-based—it’s everywhere in everything. So,
we desperately need to take a closer look at the ruin it creates and leaves behind.
———————————————
It seems to me that this human trait is the “fight or flight” mechanism(animal instinct) taken to the extreme. In our minds, we conclude that moral obligations can be put aside in order to preserve our lives and those who think as we do. As a result, a whole philosophy has emerged which includes senseless killing and exploitation of those who do not think as we do(or look like us). For the US, the Christian god only exists as a tool for ends, not as a real entity. As a result, most believe there is no life other than the present one, so do all in your power to ensure the survival of the fittest. This gives us the sense of “belonging” that is essential to maintaining a “sound mind”. It matters not that none of us will be present to observe the creature that emerges. “We did our best, we looked after our children, we tried to secure their future, we killed the bad guy….Now we can rest in peace.”

@ ardee and gerard,

Good writing and points of view. Kudos.

Kudos to Mack, May 11 at 9:50 am for a fine post. I would add that the largest group of federal employees is prison guards They lobby ceaselessly for stricter enforcement, more draconian laws and longer sentences. Job security at what cost?

Now that we see the growth of private for-profit prisons this sort of pressure on our governments will only get stronger. Prisons are simply warehouses, in which an inmate gets a post graduate degree in crime. They are also pressure cookers in which rape, stabbings, beatings, enforced gang membership et al thrive.

The rates of recidivism, among the highest anywhere in the world, shows plainly the lack of counseling, rehabilitation, job training and the like. It seems this nation is good at only one thing, murdering Arabs.

How about looking for a minute at the problem of power for power’s sake. Universally, we have a grave conflict worldwide:  Wwhether we want power to rule or power to help.

It’a tribal, it’s national, it’s race-based, class-based, age-based, wealth-based, education-based, religion-based—it’s everywhere in everything. So,
we desperately need to take a closer look at the ruin it creates and leaves behind.  Start anyplace—it doesn’t matter where. The important thing is to begin to examine it personally.  Even right at home, or on the job, or in the neighborhood, or in the government.

Ask yourself:  How interested am I in having power over others—any kind of power? Over whom do I have power? Who has power over me?  Do I invite it, allow it, resent it?  What can I do about it? Should I do anything?
  How come people want power over others?  Should they?  Why? Why not? When is power misused?  What are some of the categories of power, such as race, social position, age, professional status etc. etc”
  If I examined the results of power struggles, where could I begin to make a difference in the abuse of power—at home, in my neighborhood, in my town or city, in my nation, in the world?
  There are tens of thousands of opportunities, once you start to think about it. Once we begin to understand power and its relation to either the preservation of life or the encouragement of pain and death, we can widen our circle of recconcil-iation almost without limits.
  I recently read of a psychologist who took on just one small obligation:  Simply to catch the eye and smile at every child she saw in a grocery line who was screaming, or nagging, or being screamed at by an irate parent.  Every single time the child responded by calming down instantly and smiling back.
  You think that’s insignificant?  Try it and see how you feel, especially if a few friendly words are exchanged in the process, such as “You have such pretty eyes,” or “I really like your sweater.” In every case not only was something deep in the child strengthened and reassured, but the parent softened
and felt less harried.
  Welcome to the dawn of human community.

@  surfnow, given your statement: “...but there are far worse problems there than race.”

My question regarding your race was completely appropriate in order to examine your own possible personal biases. I find racial issues don’t weigh as heavily on those not affected by them.

Class can be portrayed or pretended whereas race cannot. You can bet your butt that Clarence Thomas still experiences subtle racial issues irrespective of his elite status as member of the SCOTUS and well to do.

culheath:
The more appropriate question would be: What class am I ?

@ surfnow

Curious…what race are you?

Our justice system is an absolute disgrace but there are far worse problems there than race. Focusing on race is divisive and non-productive, when the real issues are class, the drug war and the privatization of prisons.

@ Egomet Bonmot: Can you provide anymore detail on that case? For instance, is the name Whestone or Whetstone?

If any investigative types out there still question the thoroughgoing obscenity of this law, they should look up the case of Clifford Whestone, who was convicted in the Airport Courthouse of Los Angeles on February 11, 2010.  Whestone hasn’t gotten any newspaper or blog profiles, he’s a nobody—& I was there on other business.  But what I saw 3 strikes do to him that day soured me on the American justice system for good.  A charnelhouse…

America has failed to learn the lesson of so many failed empires. While with paranoid zeal you attempt to stave off the barbarians from without, you simultaneously create your very own within by the injustice and impoverishment you inflict upon them!

@ Mack and katsteevns, thanks for the comps.

By Mack
“Perhaps they are looking beyond Terrorism now.  When that becomes tiresome to American Ignoramus, they can roll out the new epidemic of crime.”

......or maybe just a new disease.

I agree, the media just loves a violent story that makes us all feel unsafe. Then you will get the odd feelgood clip, makes me sick. But it is true, the ghettos are expanding. Creating chaos among people who don’t have a clue as to who the real enemy is can reap vast rewards for those who control the media.

@culheath

Excellent blog!

@ DavidByron:

I hear what you are saying regarding gender bias, yet the race element still exists nested inside that bias. Even though the greatest proportion of those incarcerated are poor and male, Blacks and Hispanics far outnumber Whites not just by overall general population ratios, but by crimes committed as well. There are far more White poor people than Blacks and Hispanics combined and even a greater proportion of White crime, yet the incarceration rates don’t reflect that. People of color are far more likely to be incarcerated and receive much longer sentences for similar crimes.

Still, you make interesting and important points.

Incidentally—and I doubt this is a coincidence—it is always young men without wealth that form the backbone of any revolt against the masters.  To control the chance of revolt these young men must be neutralised.  Most countries do it through mandatory military service.  The US quit doing that because it made it harder to wage wars.  Instead they incarcerate their young poor men (regardless of race).

I note that in the Egyptian revolt over 90% of the people were young men.  But were we told that?  No, we were told about how many women were involved.  There may have been a purpose to that deceit.

As usual with articles on prison reform the bugaboo is taken as racism while the two more clear and extreme biases are ignored, even as they hide in plain sight.

quoting:
“Connie Rice, a civil rights attorney who heads the Advancement Project, has long fought for racial justice by police, prosecutors and the courts, as well as in the schools and other institutions. She told the journalists the war on drugs was based on crime suppression in poor, minority areas. Cops stop young men and arrest them when they suspect drug possession. Arrests add up over the years to a third strike.”

The main biases are against class and against gender, not race.  I suspect the worst of all of them is gender but I have no data on class bias.  The gender ratio easily exceeds the race ratio, but because of the far worse gender discrimination in our society, nobody can ever point this out.  Again, the obvious class bias cannot be pointed out because of the way our society is run for the wealthy.

Instead we have race as a proxy for class and gender. 

But Oprah Winfrey isn’t being locked up in jail.  It’s young men without wealth who are imprisoned.

The basis for all of the horror that is the American prison and justice system is that it is a multi-billion dollar industry based on Jim Crow law which was always seen as a means of keeping Negros “in their place” and keeping the economic advantage of free slave labor alive.

Also, since the 1970’s incarceration turned from rehabilitation to pure punishment and hasn’t changed since. The most racist cause of the extraordinary out of whack ratio of who populates the prison system is the disastrous War on Drugs which has been specifically aimed at communities of color.

More Black Men Now in Prison System than Enslaved in 1850.

Let’s face it, the poor and especially people of color have always been considered grist for cultural elites (and wanna be elites) throughout history; it is certainly no different today.

gerard,
The editor was probably lying. Saying that the readers don’t care is easier than saying that the board of directors do not approve of the material. The BOD probably does not want to see too much action taken to actually solve the problem. Incarceration is big business and business is good, so don’t rock the boat.

Racism in the criminal justice system also fuels racism in the general populace.

For many Americans, the disproportionate number of people of color in our prison system has a simple and obvious explanation: blacks and Hispanics are natural born criminals.  Having received this seeming confirmation of their racist convictions, they are disinclined to listen to other explanations.

Surely, more would care if they understood the unfairness of the system, but sad to say, even then many would react with “It’s not me, what do I care?” and push their consciences aside.

“One reporter said her editors weren’t interested in the subject because they didn’t think the readers cared.”

Vicious circles—the readers “don’t care” because the editors have decided since readers “don’tcare”
editors “don’t need to care” either.  And since editors “don’t care”, most people don’t know anything about what’s going on in prisons, and so they “don’t care” either. 

“Don’t care” is a synonym for inhumanity, oppression, suffering, hopelessness and suicide.
Everyone in the “chain of command” is responsible for “don’t caring.” 

America desperately needs a vast awakening of social conscience. “Rugged individualism” works against
social conscience, not for it.  Ditto capitalism.
Ditto war-making and empire-building.  Ditto intolerance.  Ditto loss of cooperation and community.

Most people and all minorities know we have a race problem. But know one wants to deal with unless it affects them directly. Our country is bankrupt in many ways. It has lead to where we are today.

Wake America. We don’t have live like this.

“JOIN THE REVOLUTION”

Read “Common Sense 3.1” at ( http://www.revolution2.osixs.org )
“Spread the News”
—-
FIGHT THE CAUSE - NOT THE SYMPTOM

I lost count of the times I have heard someone say, “Slavery is over, get over it!”

The Repubs are wanting to slash more social programs to balance the budget…or is it to increase the prison population? I say we dump truckloads of money and social workers into our worst communities. Set up toll booths at the entrance to each city to collect a heavy tax on anyone making over 100,000 dollars a year. If they refuse to pay, they are to be shot on site, their remains turned into Soylent Green to feed the masses….Yummy!

Time for my meds, peace out.