PARADE Magazine cover story, "What's Wrong with our Prisons?" Senator Jim Webb, Sunday March 29, 2009

8/14/2019 PARADE Magazine cover story, "What's Wrong with our Prisons?" Senator Jim Webb, Sunday March 29, 2009

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/parade-magazine-cover-story-whats-wrong-with-our-prisons-senator-jim 1/3

America imprisons 756 inmates per 100,000 residents,a rate nearly fve times the world’s average.About one in every 31 adults in this country is in jail

or on supervised release. Either we are the most evil peopleon earth or we are doing something very wrong.





by Senator Jim Webb

by Senator Jim Webb

by Senator Jim Webb

What’s WrongWith Our Prisons?



sunday, march 29, 2009



America’s criminal justice system hasdeteriorated to thepoint that it is anational disgrace.

Its irregularities and inequi-

ties cut against the notion that we are a society found-ed on fundamental fairness.Our ailure to address tis prolem as caused teatio’s prisos to urst teir seams wit massiveovercrowdi, eve as our eioroods ave e-come more daerous. We are wasti illios o dollars ad dimiisi millios o lives.

We eed to fx te sstem. Doi so will requirea major atiowide recalculatio o wo oes topriso ad or ow lo ad o ow we addresste lo-term cosequeces o icarceratio.Twet-ive ears ao, I wet to Japa o as-simet or PARADE to write a stor o tatcoutr’s priso sstem. I 1984, Japa ad a populatio al te size o ours ad was icarcer-ati 40,000 seteced oeders, compared wit580,000 i te Uited States. As soci as tat

disparit was, te dierece etwee te coutriesow is eve more astoudi—ad prooudl disturi. Sice te, Japa’s priso populatioas ot quite douled to 71,000, wile ours asquadrupled to 2.3 millio.

ThE UnITED STATES hAS by AR ThEworld’s iest icarceratio rate. Wit 5%o te world’s populatio, our coutr ow

ouses earl 25% o te world’s reported pris-oers. We curretl icarcerate 756 imates per100,000 residets, a rate earl fve times te av-erae worldwide o 158 or ever 100,000. I ad-ditio, more ta 5 millio people wo recetl let jail remai uder “correctioal supervisio,”wic icludes parole, proatio, ad oter com-

muit sactios. All told, aout oe i ever 31adults i te Uited States is i priso, i jail, oro supervised release. Tis all comes at a ver iprice to taxpaers: Local, state,ad ederal spedi o cor-rectios adds up to aout $68

illio a ear.Our overcrowded, ill-

maaed priso sstems areplaces o violece, psicalause, ad ate, mai temreedi rouds tat per-petuate ad mai te sametpes o eavior we purportto ear. Post-icarceratio re-

etr prorams are apazard or, i some places,oexistet, mai it more difcult or ormeroeders wo wis to overcome te stima o avi doe priso time ad ecome ull, co-triuti memers o societ. Ad, i te ace o te movemet toward mass icarceratio, law-eorcemet ofcials i ma parts o te U.S.

ave ee overwelmed ad uale to address a daerous wave o oraized, requetl violeta activit, muc o it ru leaders wo are

ased i oter coutries.Wit so ma o our citizes

i priso compared wit te

rest o te world, tere are ol two possiilities: Eiter we areome to te most evil peopleo eart or we are doi some-ti dieret—ad vastl couterproductive. Oviousl,te aswer is te latter.

Over te past two decades,we ave ee icarcerati

more ad more people or oviolet crimes ador acts tat are drive metal illess or drudepedece. Te U.S. Departmet o Justice es-timates tat 16% o te adult imates i Ameri-ca prisos ad jails—wic meas more ta350,000 o tose loced up—suer rom metalilless, ad te percetae i juveile custod is

PAGE 4 • M arch 29, 2009 • PArAdECOVER PHOTO BY BRAND X PICTURES/FOTOSEARCH; OTHER PHOTOS BY DOVARgANES/AP (INMATES) AND ZAklIN/EPA/CORBIS (WEBB)

Why We Must Fix

Today, one out of every 31 adultsin the U.S. is inprison, in jail, oron supervisedrelease.

Inmates at a facility inCalifornia, a state thatspent almost $10 billionon corrections last year



eve ier. Our correctioal istitutios are alsoeavil populated te “crimiall ill,” icludiimates wo suer rom hIV/AIDS, tuerculosis,ad epatitis.

Dru oeders, most o tem passive users or mi-or dealers, are swampiour prisos. Accordi todata supplied to Coress’

Joit Ecoomic Commit-tee, tose imprisoed ordru oeses rose rom 10%o te imate populatio toapproximatel 33% etwee1984 ad 2002. Expertsestimate tat tis icreaseaccouts or aout al o te dramatic escalatio ite total umer impris-

oed over tat period. yet loci up more o tese oeders as doe oti to rea upte power o te multiillio-dollar illeal drutrade. nor as it rout aout a reductio i teamouts o te more daerous drus—suc ascocaie, eroi, ad metampetamies—tatare reaci our citizes.

Justice statistics also sow tat 47.5% o allte dru arrests i our coutr i 2007 were ormarijuaa oeses. Additioall, earl 60%

o te people i state prisos servi time ora dru oese ad o istor o violece or o a siifcat selli activit. Ideed, our outo fve dru arrests were or possessio o illealsustaces, wile ol oe out o fvewas or sales. Tree-quarters o tedru oeders i our state prisoswere tere or oviolet or purel dru oeses. Ad altou experts

ave oud little statistical diereceamo racial roups reardi ac-tual dru use, Arica-Americas—wo mae upaout 12% o te total U.S. populatio—accout-ed or 37% o tose arrested o dru cares, 59%o tose covicted, ad 74% o all dru oedersseteced to priso.

AgAInST ThIS bACkDROP O ChAOSad mismaaemet, a daerous orm o oraized ad sometimes deadl a ac-

tivit as ifltrated America’s tows ad cities. Itcomes larel rom our cou-tr’s souter order, admuc o te crimial activ-it ceters aroud te move-met o illeal drus. Te

weapos ad tactics ivolvedare o te iest order.Te Mexica dru car-

tels, wose comied pro-its are estimated at $25 il-lio a ear, are ow toemplo ma elite ormer sol-diers wo weretraied i some

o America’s most sopisticatedmilitar prorams. Teir rutal tac-tics too te lives o more ta 6000Mexicas last ear aloe, ad teloodsed as ee spilli over teorder ito our ow eioroodsat a rapid pace. Oe terrile result istat Poeix, Ariz., as ecome teidappi capital o te UitedStates, wit more ta 370 cases i

2008. Tat is more icidets ta ia oter cit i te world outside o Mexico Cit.

Te callee to our commu-ities is ot limited tote states tat orderMexico. Mexica car-tels are ow reported toe rui operatios

i some 230 Americacities. Oter a activ-it—muc o it directed rom Lati

America, Asia, ad Europe—aspermeated our coutr to te poittat o area is immue. As oe ex-ample, several tousad memers o

te Cetral America a MS-13 ow operate iorter Viriia, ol a stoe’s trow rom ouratio’s capital.

I sort, we are ot protecti our citizesrom te icreasi daer o crimials wo per-petrate violece ad itimidatio as a wa o lie,ad we are loci up too ma people wo doot elo i jail. It is icumet o our atioalleadersip to fd a wa to fx our priso sstem.

I elieve tat America ieuit ca discoveretter was to deal wit te prolems o drusad oviolet crimial eavior wile still mii-mizi violet crime ad lare-scale a activit.

Ad we all deserve to live i a coutr made etter suc caes.

PArAdE • M arch 29, 2009 • PAGE 5 Visit us at PArAdE.COM

Our Prisons by Senator Jim Webb

Im now intoucing lgiltiontht will ct ntionlcommiion to look t vy

ct o ou ciminl juticytm with n y towhing th oc om to to

bottom. I bliv tht it i tim to bing togth thbt min in amic to con, ot, n mkcifc commntion bout how w cn om

th oc. Thi commiion will b tk with givingu cl nw to h qution, incluing:

Why o mny amicn cuntly in ioncom with oth counti n ou own hitoy?

Wht i thi olicy coting ou ntion, both in txoll n in lot ootuniti?

How cn w h ou ntion’ ug olici?How cn w btt igno n tt mntl illn?How cn w n violnc within ion n

inc th qulity o ion minitto?How cn w buil wokbl -nty ogm o

tht ou communiti cn imilt om onn ncoug thm to bcom ouctiv citizn?How cn w n oulv gint th gowing

coug o violnt, intntionlly b gng ctivity?

More and morepeople aregetting lockedup for nonviolentoffenses, whiledangerous gangsare besieging our

towns and cities.

How would you change theprison system? Take our poll atParade.com

/prisons

Senator Jim Webb (D., Va.) is a PARADE Contributing Editor and the author of nine books, including “A Time to Fight.”

It’s time to

change the law

Senator Webb

Documents

PARADE Magazine cover story, "What's Wrong with our Prisons?" Senator Jim Webb, Sunday March 29, 2009