A Simple Prop
All the gods are dead
except the god of war
--Soul on Ice, Eldridge Cleaver
except the god of war
--Soul on Ice, Eldridge Cleaver
So welcome back baby
To the poor side of town
--Poor Side of Town, Johnny Rivers
___________To the poor side of town
--Poor Side of Town, Johnny Rivers
Tallahassee is a far piece from Afghanistan or Iraq, but an old Washington Post report on crime trends in our Frenchtown community may be relevant to recently reported crime reductions in Baghdad and other blighted areas our military is confronting.(High Incarceration Rate May Fuel Community Crime.)
Frenchtown is the "wrong side of the tracks" -- a depressed area into which most southern cities bifurcate. Crack deals, prostitution -- all the usual suspects occur there. But up to 1997, crime rates were falling in Frenchtown, due to vigilant patrolling and incarceration of offenders.
However, after that year, rates began to level off, and are once again on the rise. The theory is that though incarceration initially helps reduce crime, any area eventually reaches a "tipping point,"
"where so many people in a given neighborhood are going to prison that it begins to destabilize the community and becomes a factor that increases crime."
"'Until recently, nobody has really thought about incarceration in the aggregate,' said Dina R. Rose, one of the researchers studying the relationship between incarceration and crime in the Frenchtown area. 'Many people assume that incarceration reduces crime. But when incarceration gets to a certain density, that is when you see the effects change.'"
Sociologist Rose suggests, "(w)ith high incarceration rates, prison can be transformed from a crime deterrent into a factor that fuels a cycle of crime and disorder by breaking up families, souring attitudes toward the criminal justice system and leaving communities populated with too many people hardened by the experience of going to prison."
The article concludes with the concerns of a Frenchtown mother of a 6-year-old boy:
"'His biological father is incarcerated. His stepfather is incarcerated,' she said. 'If somebody does not come along as a mentor or something and show him a different way, he is going to think that jail is the place where he will ultimately be too.'"
This reminded me of my first visit to the local library's computer bank. The young woman next to me was accessing the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's website, showing the young children with her the booking photos of their uncle online. A perverse family photo album.
I do not know if these local lessons can be extrapolated abroad. I am neither a criminologist nor a sociologist. If anyone can bring something to the table, please do.
--Lisa
Labels: frenchtown tallahassee high incarceration rate, imprisonment as incentive to crime
posted by Lisa at 3:01 PM
20 Comments:
right now the only industry in california that surrpasses the prison system (both in percentage of the state budget and percentage of citizens in the employ) is, get this, pot farming.
you can see the ads for all the california produce and agriculture but pot dwarfs them all.
we don't need more prisons. we need fewer laws. if this keeps up too much longer the only thing we will have in society are gaurds and prisoners.
MB,
I am with you. Bringing it to its logical end, there you have it. Some would say we are all prisoners of our devices anyway, but we're not all behind bars.
I think that is why they loosened the strictures on mandatory crack sentencing recently. The powers that be open the steam valve when necessary. Generally speaking, we are all made so afraid of some nebulous menace that the electorate predictably howls for more prison beds and only sleep soundly with their Sonitrol alarms on.
I see the medical behemoth in the same way. Gerontology is a massively exploding field now, and "managed care" is the system's watchword. That is, lifetime medicalisation. We are made lifers on government-sanctioned drugs and treatment.
"Wellness" and preventative care are but quaint notions when there is profit to be had in sickness.
Guards and prisoners, hospitals and sick people.
I was driving home the other night and listening to the Jerry Dole Show and he was interviewing Sen Mike Gravel of Alaska on why he was not allowed to be in this Democratic debate. The official reason was that he hadn't raised enough money ($1 million) but the general view was that they didn't want to be confronted by his questions and answers. Anyway, Mike spoke to Jerry about decriminalizing drugs and the awful cost to the inner cities of the war on drugs. I can't remember the specifics but he spoke of the graft and corruption of the war on drugs. Said there were many Halliburtons out there making billions of our tax payer dollars fighting the war on drugs getting no bid contracts just like they did in Iraq. Building prisons being one of the many lucrative contracts.
Ah yes, another one of the evils of capitalism.
Hi
tw your right is a link to a on line book and if you read chapter 9 you'll see what they were talking about.
I've followed Wall Street and the Drug World for along time and she even covers these worlds. It's a about greed.
http://www.dunwalke.com/contents.htm
jo6pac
In Calif pirson guards make more than teachers, go figure. No I wouldn't want to be one.
tw,
Yes, democracy=capitalism=
profiteering. Not only are the private contractors on the gravy train, so are the faithful; the "faith=based" providers are profiteering to the same tune as the secular providers. Jesus loves a full collection plate.
Jim says: It started with the war on poverty and then on drugs and then on terrorism. I guess you could throw AIDS in for good measure. Yet another war, for a country who sees the solution to every problem in a fight. It's a family affair.
All these wars are open-ended with no clearly defined endgame. Which takes priority, drugs or terrorism? There are only so many resources.
Afghan drugs fuel a worldwide drug glut and Afghan druglords are less than savory or democratic, but the American taxpayer has swallowed the bullshit that they stand between us and destruction. Without a free Afghan/Iraq we are told, the US will be assailed by radical Islam.
And somehow, the U.S. military might can make that happen.
Such propaganda is reminiscent of the earlier Yellow Peril concept. Both policies are racist and designed to dredge up basal fears.
Yes we are the home of the free, but ask the untold thousands held in secret prisons by the CIA and you might get a different answer.
Approximately 28,500 are imprisoned by the US forces alone in Iraq. Yep, jails are a great tool of democracy. And contracting them out makes them a profitable tool, as well.
jo,
Thank you for the book link. A shame that teachers earn less than prison guards. Jim surmises that prison guards probably earn more than soldiers.
Hi
The online book is an interesting read, I just finished Noami Kliens book Shock Doctrine it covers parts of history that this doesn't.
jo6pac
off to town
Howdy Jim and Lisa,
Re: your comment
... "Afghan drugs fuel a worldwide drug glut and Afghan druglords are less than savory or democratic, but the American taxpayer has swallowed the bullshit that they stand between us and destruction. Without a free Afghan/Iraq we are told, the US will be assailed by radical Islam." ...
I wonder if anyone has access to the comments that were made by the pro-war factions within the Soviet Union during their war in Afghanistan. I would not doubt that various politicians and pundits and etc. were saying "We must not leave - otherwise the great Soviet Union will be over run by the Muslims !"
In this case, the Afghans were (and still are) between 2,000 and 3,000 miles away from Moscow with nothing close to the Atlantic Ocean seperating the two. Instead of having an major ocean seperating Russia and Afghanistan - you actually have more Muslims separating Russia and Afghanistan (i.e., the people of Kazakhstan - for example).
Yet, since retreating from Afghanistan in 1988, the Soviet Union/Russia has been ruled by the non-Muslim Mr. Gorbachev, the non-Muslim Mr. Yeltsin and the non-Muslim Mr. Putin. Putin is likely to be succeeded by a non-Muslim as well - like, maybe his non-Muslim self. :-)
Anyway, it would be interesting if some historian had access to the dire, but ultimately wrong, predictions made the pro-war Soviets during their Afghan war. I wonder if the Soviets had a pro-war pundit named William Kristolpov back then ...
the "war on drugs" was also the place where the big erosion of our liberties began. no knock warrants (oops, we blew that address and shot the retired pharmacist in bellflower, silly policemens), easy access wiretaps, fly over surviellance, infrared imaging of our homes, all these intrusions in the name of fighting drug abuse.
not one law they made, not one intrusion on my liberties ever discouraged me from seeking and using drugs. when my life quit working for me i found the way and the strength to quit. being sent to prison would have been merely a time out. if law enforcement was such a great tool for social engineering we could pass a law against say, homelessnes, and voila, problem solved.
it doesn't work like that though, anymore than sending an army half a world away promotes peace and democracy. if that was the true aim of the operation they would have sent the quakers instead of teenagers with automatic weapons.
p.s. the afghani heroin is all fine and stuff but the kind still comes from off the shan plateau in burma. that stuff was so good that when you did a dose the guy next to you puked.
Yeah, you're in sociology territory here, Lisa. We really have several issues at play. First, the drug laws. Now, I happen to believe that drug usage should be legal. None of my business what mind-altering potions people want to take. But the fact is, drugs are not legal.
Next issue is why so many people actually engage in the self-destructive behavior that lands them in jail. Drugs=illegal and jail time. This is not exactly unknown to the populace.
Then you have to ask why so many families are dysfunctional and why so many of their children do not go to school and do not find decent employment, which leads to them spending their lives essentially doing nothing.
Finally, you must recognize the crime associated with drugs. First, the actual drug penalties—which I discount because I think it should be legal—but then the reality that an awful lot of law-abiding citizens get hurt because of the drug trade. What do we do about them when we're sympathetic to the drug guys?
I have to say, I have a hard time finding a whole lot of sympathy for 19-year-olds who can't read or write, but know how to mug people to get drug money. I may understand why they are the way they are, but it doesn't do me much good when I'm shot for the contents of my wallet. Yes, this is a serious sociological issue. But let's not just blame everything on the "man." The man is working with existing law and also trying to protect the citizenry from the violent crimes against people associated with drug trafficking.
Change the drug laws.
Publius
Your comment to Lisa - "you're in sociology territory" is not trivial. Sociology can be very ethereal.
You posed a question to Lisa - and before I address it, I have a short story.
A very good friend of mine was once a very senior and highly regarded person working
for a major municipality. I am paranoid about "outing" the person so let's say the municipality was either New York, Chicago or LA.
Once my friend retired, my friend spiralled into clinical depression.
I will put it this way. If you have a deck of cards with Clubs and Spades (the "Black" cards) representing good decisions and Hearts and Diamonds (the "Red" cards) representing bad decisions - at this point, my friend couldn't pick a "Black" card ( i.e, make a good decision) if you sifted through the deck, picked out a Black card and said "here, pick this card" ...
It was stunning to see how this person who was so adept at both being strategic (seeing several moves ahead) and managerial (effectively managing both up and down) could disentegrate into a pulp of a person who *literally* (and I mean literally) could not make a correct decision for themselves if their life depended on it.
So your point that I am addressing is the ... " Next issue is why so many people actually engage in the self-destructive behavior that lands them in jail." ... point.
Lisa may correct me - but I think Lisa's point was more that we may be appraoching a tipping point where you start to get major clusters of society acting like a clinically depressed person (i.e, self-destructive) - more so than giving "the man" a hard time for efforcing laws designed to protect innocent people.
I think the key question is "What are all of the elements in the equation that can cause parts of society to become, essentially, clinically depressed?"
I invited Noam Chomsky and Bill Maher to join me and my water bong for Thanksgiving. If they show up, I'll run this by them and I'll let you know what they think.
KW,
Lisa here: I could not have explained my point any better than you have with your excellent though sad analogy. Thank you for the amplification.
Jim: Your analogy of large classes acting in a self-destructive manner akin to clinical depression is interesting and accurate, I think.
Lisa chose this article to illustrate on the micro level what is perhaps happening on a macro level elsewhere. The issue of drug addiction was not the point here. My entire country is acting out a violent fantasy totally destructive to the fabric of society, much moreso than the problem of crack addiction could ever do.
The crack addict may mug you, but GWB is doing much worse to the country at large.
Re. your first posting: Excellent point re. the hysteria which fueled and is fueling Afghanistan paranoia.
publius,
Publius,
Lisa: First, let me say that the drug angle was not the point of my post.
When you talk about "the drug guys," you're comparing apples to oranges. The users are the victims in many ways, and the very end of the pipeline. Many people are profiting off of them, from jail employees to the the major drug runners, who will never spend a night in prison.
My point is not to justify crime, nor to say I want to live next to a crack house. I do not. I am not some silly bleeding heart liberal, but I do know that people don't grow up and say, "I want to be a junkie one day."
And we're both against 19-yr-olds who can neither read nor write, yet join up with Uncle Sam to invade other countries, some of whom do so with drug convictions in their past. Some of whom will pick up the habit on their tours.
Jim: Maybe drug laws shouldn't be changed but the ways we enforce them. Possibly addressing the major distributors would be wiser than incarcerating every crackhead and his brother. In fact, favoritism and elitism in selective drug enforcement gave us GWB as a president, since he was never prosecuted.
Here in FLA, GWB's niece was a drug offender but drew no prison time; probably, privilege had something to do with this. We can surmise that a minority would probably have pulled prison time for the same offense.
MB,
Jim: You forgot to mention random Coast Guard searches on the high seas, and vessel confiscation. Seizing of assets, another result of the never-ending war on drugs.
As with Prohibition, you will never regulate morality, so why we do not stop this futile endeavor is a question. Profits enter into the picture here.
In fact, incarceration isn't even a time out, as drugs are in the system, too. One giant profiteering scheme, something Michael Milken would have been proud of.
Drugs will not be legalized in America when we cannot even agree to allow marijuana for legitimate medical usage, via doctor prescription. Now THAT is criminal.
Lisa: I very much like your statement on the futility of mandating against drug usage--
"{Laws] don't work like that though, anymore than sending an army half a world away promotes peace and democracy. if that was the true aim of the operation they would have sent the Quakers instead of teenagers with automatic weapons."
Touche.
General Comment:
Upon reviewing the dialog, I see that my original point was lost, namely, that claiming success in Baghdad on the basis of crime reductions may be hasty, as the reductions come as the result of larger incarceration rates (combined with emigration and slaughter.)
At a certain point, the detention of all suspect males will backfire in that society, and crime rates will enjoy a resurgence. I suppose we shall have to surge again, provided we haven't gotten out of Dodge -- unlikely, what with the new Emabassy.
Opps! Sorry about that but to your credit, your good post got us all going!
Keep up the good work!
tw,
Thanks, I have to smile now. That's the teacher in me -- wanting to keep everyone on track. But serendipitous things can emerge from wandering off track. Dialog is what this thing is all about after all, right?
I'll be less vigilant about any future meanderings ;)
--Lisa
As a former inmate myself 6 years ago (two months for fighting with the polis during a demonstration. Teargas brings out the worst in me :-() in admittedly lax norwegian prisons, I think the one thing you can say for sure is that it functions as a school for criminals. I learned how to blow a safe 8in theory), hotwire a car and lots of tips and hints, and spent endless hours listening to grown men plot and scheme. As far as I know, the US penal system is horrible and cruel in many cases, so to this add the dehumanizing effect of say, a two years stretch, wich is quite an average "first-time" stretch. So a "surge on crime" in an area will two years later be filled up with these people returning.
An analogy to Baghdad is what the outcome of it all will be in say, six years, when the traumatized 10-12 year olds feel the need to meet Allah and restore their honour. It works in generational cycles as well.
fnord,
Thank you for sharing your
experience. From what I've read and heard, I can deduce that brutality goes on in our prisons, as "guards" in any institutions are wont to abuse their power over the subjugated.
I also know that detention facilities of all types are "schools for scoundrels," if you will. Think: a corralled group of any "disruptive" sort amongst their own, 24/7. One can surmise that this is a ripe environment for them to pass along their skill sets.
One does not have to be overly "kind" to realize that without positive intervention of some kind while detained, nothing good will come of the detention.
With our recidivism rate in the general U.S. prison population(from 66-74%), The hypotheses of the researchers in the article seemed reasonable. So the much ballyhooed reduction in crime for now in Baghdad is to be expected following the surge/purge.
But the resurgence of violence in a few years is also quite reasonable.
I wonder -- will anyone be surprised when this occurs?
Post a Comment
<< Home