One area where America continues to lead the world. Aren’t we proud?

…in one area America is going from strength to strength—the incarceration of its population. America has less than 5% of the world’s people but almost 25% of its prisoners. It imprisons 756 people per 100,000 residents, a rate nearly five times the world average. About one in every 31 adults is either in prison or on parole. Black men have a one-in-three chance of being imprisoned at some point in their lives. “A Leviathan unmatched in human history”, is how Glenn Loury, professor of social studies at Brown University, characterises America’s prison system.

You have to read the whole article from The Economist but it sure is one area where we as a country should be shamed into action. At least one senator, Jim Webb is acknowledging the problem and trying to address it.

Few mainstream politicians have had the courage to denounce any of this. People who embrace prison reform usually end up in the political graveyard. There is no organised lobby for prison reform. The press ignores the subject. And those who have first-hand experience of the system’s failures—prisoners and ex-prisoners—may have no right to vote.

Which makes Jim Webb all the more remarkable. Mr Webb is far from being a lion of the Senate, roaring from the comfort of a safe seat. He is a first-term senator for Virginia who barely squeaked into Congress. The state he represents also has a long history of being tough on crime: Virginia abolished parole in 1994 and is second only to Texas in the number of people it executes.

But Mr Webb is now America’s leading advocate of prison reform. He has co-sponsored a bill to create a blue-ribbon commission to report on America’s prisons. And he has spoken out in every possible venue, from the Senate to local political meetings. Mr Webb is not content with incremental reform. He is willing to tackle what he calls “the elephant in the bedroom”—America’s willingness to imprison people for drug offences.

I sure hope he has the strength for the fight.

A story of forgiveness and healing.

This story really hits home to me and confirms why I am strongly opposed to the death penalty.  As a Christian, if you believe in forgiveness, it is hard for me to understand how you can take a life when that potential exists. Also, it reconfirms that real need in terms of dealing with reconciliation between victims and offenders.

In the past five years Patty O’Reilly of Sonoma has gone from a wife to widow, from a private person into a familiar face at San Quentin prison.

On a journey that began with heartbreak and fueled by deep religious faith, the mother of two young daughters finds herself these days focusing on hope.

She admits, she started off hating the man who killed “my Danny.”

“But I was reminded by a good friend that everyone can change. I remembered that as a Christian I am called to forgive as I am forgiven,” she said.

No one is more amazed than she to find herself devoted to the last thing she ever considered doing — volunteering as a surrogate victim in prison restorative justice programs.

“I remember thinking, you’re crazy,” said her daughter Erin O’Reilly, 17, now living in Washington, D.C., where she studies at the Washington School of Ballet.

“I thought, ‘I’m living with insane people,’” she said Erin O’Reilly of her first reaction. Today, she is proud of her mother. “She’s getting a lot out of it and she’s doing something really positive for people in prison. They need help.”

Patty O’Reilly has participated in two pilot programs, the Victim-Offender Dialogue Program through the State of California and Victim-Offender Education Group at San Quentin State Prison. It was through such programs, which facilitate dialogue between victims and inmates, that O’Reilly eventually traveled to Folsom Prison to meet with and forgive Mike Albertson, 51, who is serving a 14-year prison sentence for killing Danny O’Reilly.

[.....]

“The fact is that everybody that is in jail — the so called bad people — they’re coming out,” said B. Sullivan of the Restorative Justice and Detention Ministries in the Diocese of Santa Rosa. “Don’t you want people going in and getting rehabilitation? They’ll be back.”

In 2007, Patty O’Reilly was given a Champion of Courage Award by the Sonoma County District Attorney’s office for her work in restorative justice.

In the five years since the death of her husband, O’Reilly and her daughters have forgiven. Their wish for the man responsible for that death is that he one day attains his own peace.

Read it all.

We need reform of our criminal justice system.

“The United States has by far the world’s highest incarceration rate. With 5% of the world’s population, our country now houses nearly 25% of the world’s reported prisoners. We currently incarcerate 756 inmates per 100,000 residents, a rate nearly five times the average worldwide of 158 for every 100,000. … All told, about one in every 31 adults in the United States is in prison, in jail, or on supervised release.”

Sen. Jim Webb in today’s Parade Magazine

If you haven’t thought much about our criminal justice system, some of this may be new to you. The bottom line is that I hope you’ll go to this Webb web page and click subscribe – second choice from the right on the navigation.

Stay informed, take action.

Thank you Senator Webb!

Remembering Dominique Green–”A Saint on Death Row.”

Even though I’ve been staying away from blogging during Lent, I haven’t stayed away from reading and have read a wonderful book that I highly recommend.  Thomas Cahill’s, “A Saint on Death Row:The Story of Dominique Green” is a moving and sensitive story of a young man who is hard to forget. As Desmond Tuto says on the jacket: “Read it and discover how even the obscenity of capital punishment can be transformed into an occasion of light and peace.”

If you have  read any of Thomas Cahill’s books like “How the Irish Save Civilization,” “The Gifts of the Jews: How a Tribe of Desert Nomads Changed the Way Everyone Thinks and Feels,” or “Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter,” you may be surprised by the personal nature of Cahill’s plea against injustice, racism, poverty and the death penalty.

If you believe in forgiveness, you will be amazed at Dominque Green, who, while sentenced to death, becomes instrumental in leading most of his fellow inmates, on Death Row in the State of Texas, to forgive everyone who has ever harmed them and to ask forgiveness from those they have harmed.  This image of Dominique is from a fellow Death Row inmate:

“Even when his world was crashing, he always remained cool. And really, I don’t think he was trying to be cool.  He was just at peace.”

Then there is the moving encounter between Desmond Tutu and Dominique Green. I read it as tears poured down my cheeks.  Archbishop Tutu’s words summarize it,

“I was humbled to be in his (Dominque Green’s) presence because I felt I was in the presence of God.  This is not the monster that many would expect or think, but a human being, a human being who has grown.  He’s like a flower opening and you see the petals come up, particularly when you see him speaking about his concern for others.”

The story would, obviously, not be complete without it’s moments of despair; Dominque Green was awaiting his death.  As the date of his execution was sealed (October 26, 2004), Dominque watches as fellow inmates and close friends are executed, he struggles to maintain his cool and the weight of the reality presses in. But even on his last day, as he makes his way to the Hunstville Death House, as the name of Archbishop Desmond Tutu is called as a witness to his execution (even though Dominique knew he would not be there), the joy and love shows through in this young man, “A Saint on Death Row.”

Do yourself a favor, regardless of your viewpoint on the issue of the death penalty, read this book, read it twice (as I did within the past week) and you will never forget this man’s last days. But also watch this video to get a sense of both men, Dominque Green and the author Thomas Cahill.

The words on Dominique Green’s memorial stone, in the Bascilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere, Italy, read:

DOMINIQUE J. GREEN

HOUSTON 13 V 1974 – HUNTSVILLE X 2004

BROTHER AND FRIEND

It is the Lord who set out the steps of a man

and takes pleasure in his journey.

Though he fall, he will not be sent sprawling–

For the Lord is holding him by the hand.

Psalm 37

Reform our prison system, now.

This article from Slate.com is a worthwhile read as it addresses an issue that needs major attention.  I don’t agree 100% with all of this but this country needs to begin a serious discussion of reform in our criminal justice system.

The United States has a prison population like nowhere else. With one out of every 100 adults behind bars, our incarceration rate is the highest in the entire world. Our inmates—1.5 million in prison, with another 800,000 in jail—comprise one-third of the world’s total. This is a surprisingly recent development. After barely budging for 50 years, our incarceration rate increased sevenfold (to 738 per 100,000 people) between 1978 and 2008.

The system is now at its breaking point. Federal judges in California just issued a tentative order demanding that the state release nearly 60,000 inmates over the next three years to alleviate intolerable overcrowding. New York state’s sentencing commission released a 326-page report calling on the Legislature to cut back on severe drug sentences. And with budgets growing ever-tighter in a collapsing economy, states are beginning to realize that large prison populations are boom-time luxuries they can no longer afford.

Reform is inevitable.

The Old Fart’s Thursday Recommendations.

• A bit of humor to start. “Although it was promised that the Meek shall inherit the Earth, there appear to have been some delays fulfilling this aspiration.”
• Joshua Kezer exonerated after spending 14 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit. “This is proof that God is real,” Kezer said from prison. “This is proof. This is wonderful.”
• David Ignatius, on the media obsessing over the political ball game of the stimulus package while the Country suffers. “Did President Obama have a good day Tuesday when he signed the stimulus bill? You bet he did. But the point that weirdly seems to get relatively little attention is that it was a good day for millions of Americans who are getting hammered by the recession.”
• Arnold defends Obama and the stimulus package.
• Hypocritical GOP legislators now fight for money they opposed. Is anyone surprised?

Movies to watch for.

Yesterday I saw the overrated “Slumdog Millionaire,” finally.  But, rather than talk about how I wasn’t taken with either the poverty of Mumbai or the hope of the TV game show, I want to point you to two previews I saw that seem like movies to keep an eye out for.

First was “American Violet,” which is based on real events and is the story of Dee Roberts and her encounter with “the law” and being falsely accused of a drug violation. Rather than take a plea that would brand her a felon forever, Dee takes on the powerful DA and changes the Texas justice system.

The second one was “The Soloist,” with Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey, Jr., about a cellist who becomes homeless. I first found out about this one as a client, the newly formed Corona Symphony Orchestra, is making its plans for joining other symphony orchestras around the country to help feed the hungry. The preview looks like it will be worth watching.

I have no idea if either will be good but at least I have something to look forward to in my Saturday morning movie viewing. Both seem to deal with issues that are on the top of my awareness.

The Old Fart’s Sunday Recommendation.

• Frank Rich on the GOP’s early declaration of the death of the Obama presidency. “…Republicans are isolated in that parallel universe and believe all the noise in its echo chamber, they are now as out of touch with reality as the “inevitable” Clinton campaign was before it got clobbered in Iowa. The G.O.P. doesn’t recognize that it emerged from the stimulus battle even worse off than when it started.”
• Michael Moore’s next target–bankers.
• A win for equal rights in Utah as their GOP governor endorses civil unions and gay adoption. It won’t change their legislative action but it sure points to the way the wind is blowing on this issue.
• I missed this one yesterday but it’s worth pointing you to, as the NY Times editorial writers hit the nail on the head regarding the California Prison System and what needs to be done. “Like many states, California is putting too many people behind bars for too long, and it doesn’t have the money to build more facilities. Instead of appealing, as it has vowed to do, California should get to work overhauling its misguided incarceration policies. [.....] A large number of California prisoners are behind bars for technical parole violations. Others are in for minor, nonviolent crimes. Inmates like those can and should be released, and given help to reintegrate into society. The state’s limited prison space should be used for people who truly need to be there. It is not ideal when a court has to intervene so directly in managing prisons. But California has been unwilling, on its own, to run a prison system that complies with the Constitution.”
• And, from earlier in the week, the NY Times delves into the serious art of updating your Facebook status.

Here’s a step in the right direction.

This will help with the overcrowding in the CA prisons as well as, hopefully, impact the state budget where we are now getting IOUs if the state owes you money.

They say the state can cut the population of its 33 adult prisons through changes in parole and other policies without endangering public safety.

I was chating with someone today, while cooking lunch for 130 homeless souls, about the need for the state to address this problem and soon.  Too many men are in prison for too long for things that should not require long, mandatory sentences.  We need to address rehabilitation for individual drug use, etc. And, don’t get me started about 3-strikes.

This kind of thing should NOT happen in a civilized society.

In 1985, Timothy Cole was a student in Lubbock when he was arrested and accused of being the Texas Tech rapist. A string of coeds had been raped, and the young African-American man from Fort Worth, who’d never been in trouble with the law before, was convicted largely on the eyewitness account of one rape victim.

Nearly two decades later, a jailhouse confession by another man prompted new DNA testing in the case. Those tests proved that Cole was innocent, that he should be exonerated and released. But in this case, that proved impossible.

It was impossible because he had already died in prison.  While he wasn’t executed, innocent people can be, by our current death penalty statutes.  We need to eliminate the death penalty and provide a chance for redemption. The story also points out the need for better medical care in prison too.

Read the entire story here.

Juvenile Life without Parole.

In 44 states juveniles can be sentenced to life in prison without parole for serious crimes. Thankfully there is growing resistance to that. Read an interview with Kenneth Young, one of those who may spend there entire life in prison.

Enter law professor Paolo Annino, who runs the Children in Prison Project at Florida State University. Annino has been trying for years to get the Florida legislature to allow parole consideration for all juvenile offenders in the state to give them a second chance, his arguments as much moral as they are legal.

(to Prof. Paolo Annino): Is it your position that no juvenile should be sentenced to life without parole?

Professor PAOLO ANNINO (Florida State University): Oh, absolutely, and I think we’re immoral, ultimately, as a nation. This is no different from slavery or other major moral issues. Placing children in adult prisons for life is a death sentence for children. Do we want to do that as a society? Do we want to ignore our Western traditions? I mean, we do have Western traditions, and one part of our Western traditions is called redemption, and for many people in our culture redemption is an important value.

Our Screwed Up Criminal Justice System.

Some facts from Ben Trachtenberg’s article in the ABA Journal.

U.S. prisons and jails held 2,299,116 inmates, meaning more than 1 percent of American adults were incarcerated. We top the world in per capita imprisonment, increasing our lead every year. Since 2000, while the total U.S. population increased by 7 percent, our prison population has grown by 19 percent.

Read all the article for his intelligent take on the problem that needs solving and some worthwhile recommendations.

A rational criminal justice system would—while shortening sentences of certain offenders—keep others out of prison altogether. With alternative treatments and punishments, a state shrinks its prison budget, allows convicts to keep their jobs and support their families, and makes recidivism less likely.

[.....]

By adopting “smart on crime” programs instead of knee-jerk toughness, states can reduce crime while spending less. Reworked federal incentives would encourage smart state policymaking. While no one supports freeing rapists and murderers, warehousing every offender wastes money, destroys lives and contributes to our shameful status as the world’s leading incarcer ator. We need Washington to reward good policy, not costly grandstanding that bankrupts our state gov ernments and confines more than one of every 100 American adults.

The Old Fart’s Monday Recommendations.

Monday’s recommendations will again be few as I am off again to do my Monday cooking for the growing homeless population. Today, turkey ala king over rice for probably 150.

• Musician John Forte, whose sentence was commuted by former-President Bush after serving 7 years, writes about his first day out of prison.
• Cynthia Tuckers opinion piece in the Atlanta Journal Constitution on the role science should play and President Obama’s role.

I still can’t help myself. I love to say “President Obama” and “Former President Bush.” It warms the cockles of my heart.

Bravo Sen. Webb.

I’m returning briefly to wish you all a very happy 2009 and to post, what I think is, an important article in the Washinton Post about Sen. Jim Webb’s plan to introduce reform of the US prison system.

I have to say AMEN!  Not sure how far this will go but it’s long overdue. Just the fact that this might receive some attention is a major step forward. The article summarizes the problem pretty well.

With 2.3 million people behind bars, the United States has imprisoned a higher percentage of its population than any other nation, according to the Pew Center on the States and other groups. Although the United States has only 5 percent of the world’s population, it has 25 percent of its prison population, Webb says.

A disproportionate number of those who are incarcerated are black, Webb notes. African Americans make up 13 percent of the population, but they comprise more than half of all prison inmates, compared with one-third two decades ago. Today, Webb says, a black man without a high school diploma has a 60 percent chance of going to prison.

Webb aims much of his criticism at enforcement efforts that he says too often target low-level drug offenders and parole violators, rather than those who perpetrate violence, such as gang members. He also blames policies that strip felons of citizenship rights and can hinder their chances of finding a job after release. He says he believes society can be made safer while making the system more humane and cost-effective.

You say there are many more important issues and I probably agree but this one does not need to be swept under the rug.  How we deal with it may be a sign of how our culture moves forward in this century.

UPDATE: The January 1, New York Times has an editorial supporting this corrageous move by Sen. Web. Let’s hope his actions are echoed by more Senators and that the support for this effort grows.

This country puts too many people behind bars for too long. Most elected officials, afraid of being tarred as soft on crime, ignore these problems. Sen. Jim Webb, a Democrat of Virginia, is now courageously stepping into the void, calling for a national commission to re-assess criminal justice policy. Other members of Congress should show the same courage and rally to the cause.

[*****]

Many inmates are serving long sentences for nonviolent crimes, including minor drug offenses. It also is extraordinarily expensive. Billions of dollars now being spent on prisons each year could be used in far more socially productive ways.

Senator Webb — a former Marine and secretary of the Navy in the Reagan administration — is in many ways an unlikely person to champion criminal justice reform. But his background makes him an especially effective advocate for a cause that has often been associated with liberals and academics.

Wrongly Accused Guardian Angel.

The Pasadena Weekly has a story about my friend, Gloria Killian.  Gloria and I worked together on the Get on the Bus project and another effort when I was a chaplain at LA County Jail.

Killian was released after 16 years of being wrongfully imprisoned for a homicide she had purportedly masterminded.

[...]

Gloria could justifiably be bitter and hostile now, stewing over the 22 years she spent working at clearing her name and sitting in prison. Instead, she has taken her tragic circumstances and turned them into goodness — and yes, some greatness — for others.

Read the entire story and, if you can, throw a few dollars to the charity she runs, Action Committee for Women in Prison.

California’s Failed Prison System.

An editorial in today’s NY Times indicts the prison system here in California. Here is a highlight.

According to a new federally backed study conducted at the University of California, Irvine, the state’s corrections costs have grown by about 50 percent in less than a decade and now account for about 10 percent of state spending — nearly the same amount as higher education. The costs could rise substantially given that a federal lawsuit may require the state to spend $8 billion to bring the prison system’s woefully inadequate medical services up to constitutional standards.

The solution for California is to shrink its vastly overcrowded prison system. To do so, it would need to move away from mandatory sentencing laws that have proved to be disastrous across the country — locking up more people than protecting public safety requires.

In addition, the state also has perhaps the most counterproductive and ill-conceived parole system in the United States. More people are sent to prison in California by parole officers than by the courts. In addition, about 66 percent of California’s parolees land back in prison after three years, compared with about 40 percent nationally. Four in 10 are sent back for technical violations like missed appointments or failed drug tests.

We need major changes to the prison system here in California, especially our sentencing laws and parole system. If it doesn’t happen soon the system will implode.

Banning Shackling Pregnant Inmates.

Now, for a change of subject. One of the real crimes of our criminal justice system is the continued shackling of pregnant inmates. Some prisons even shackle women during childbirth. Anyway, here’s welcome news.

The ACLU welcomes the Bureau of Prisons’ recent policy change barring the shackling of pregnant inmates in federal prisons in all but the most extreme circumstances.

This new policy represents a sea change in the United States, where the shackling of pregnant women during transport, labor, and even delivery has long been routine in jails and prisons. Currently, only California, Illinois, and Vermont have enacted state laws restricting the practice of shackling pregnant women. By contrast, international human rights bodies have repeatedly expressed concern about policies that permit shackling of pregnant women.

On a related note, I will be volunteering this Saturday at the California Institution for Woman where the Get on the Bus organization will be sponsoring a picnic for inmates and their children inside the prison. We will be bringing 400 kids and their care givers to see their incarcerated moms. The food has even been donated by the men in the neighboring men’s prison. I will post photos and some additional thoughts after the event.

Alternatives to Prison.

Good news on the sentencing reform front. From the Washington Post we learn that the US Sentencing Commission is considering treatment for non-violent drug users instead of prison and employment training for some parole violators. It’s about time we consider alternatives to incarceration as our prisons are overcrowded and ineffective at rehabilitation.

We are leading the world in incarcerating adults, and that’s something Americans need to understand,” said Beryl Howell, one of six members of the commission, which drafts federal sentencing guidelines and advises the House and Senate on prison policy. “People should be aware that every tough-on-crime act comes with a price. The average cost [of incarceration] across the country is $24,000 a year per inmate. . . . It’s going up far faster than state budgets can keep up.”

The Least of These.

Paul Rosenberg, over at Open Left, has a post which attempts to put some focus on the most forgotten among us.

Yet, for all the talk about being “a Christian nation” we seem utterly determined to ignore what Jesus said. This is not just a nice “spiritual” admonition. In the process of demonizing criminals, we feed a process of starving what is best about us. We legitimize a punitive state, in place of one that seeks to develop the best in each of us. The prison/industrial complex grows as the welfare state shrinks.

His post is long, with charts and other info, but well worth reading all of it.

The Death Of A Crip Turned Peacekeaper.

I only met Darren Taylor once but he was most impressive and his life an example of what we all should strive for.  The impact he has had on men in LA and the community will live on for many years. Taylor died on Monday at the age of 42. May he rest in peace.

Taylor was a consummate mediator, whose years as a Crip gave him credibility and insight into problems that had divided the community and law enforcement into warring camps.

When the Los Angeles County jails were roiled by race riots five years ago, Taylor quickly assembled the gang leaders responsible for the violence and persuaded them to call off the fighting that left dozens injured.

He later led a program in the jails that reached 3,000 inmates with sessions to increase cultural awareness and impart concrete skills for managing anger and resolving conflict nonviolently.

“It was an unprecedented program in county jails,” Sheriff Lee Baca said Tuesday, because it relied on the counsel of a man who had once been firmly on the other side of the law.

The classes were demanding, Baca said, but “Bo knew how to change lives for the better. He did it very well.”

*****

Gang members listened because he had a “license to operate,” earned in his past life on the path they still walked. “Bo would tell his personal story of being a former gang member who would not let gang life trap him into a sense of hopelessness and despair,” said Najee Ali, an activist who has worked to reduce crimes between blacks and Latinos. “And he talked about working hard and not making excuses.”

Read the entire obituary from the LA Times. May each of us positively impact as many lives as he has.