Prison system discussed at justice center’s fundraiser
Published: October 20, 2009
CHARLOTTESVILLE -- With 2.3 million people incarcerated in America's prison system, prisoners in the United States make up one-quarter of the world's jail population.
Once released, an estimated two out of every three inmates end up back in jail.
Prisons have become "warehouses" for the mentally ill.
The number of drug offenders in America's prison system has jumped from 41,000 in 1980 to more than 500,000 today.
Black men are six times more likely to be imprisoned than white men are.
This information was at the forefront of the Legal Aid Justice Center's annual fundraiser last night at the Paramount Theater, hosted by author John Grisham.
Alex Gulotta, executive director of the nonprofit Legal Aid, said he believes America's prison system is "inherently broken" and must be fixed.
Part of the problem, he said, is that politicians are all too willing to crack down on crime but are far less willing to back programs that emphasize treatment and rehabilitation over simple incarceration.
"It's easy to talk about getting tough on crime," he said. "It's hard to talk about getting smart on crime."
Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., delivered remarks by videotape to the crowd of 600. Webb has been a vocal proponent of prison reform and has introduced a bill to establish a nonpartisan blue-ribbon panel that would investigate the nation's prison system and make recommendations for reform.
"The United States, the world's greatest democracy, has an incarceration rate five times higher than the rest of the world," he said. "We either have the most evil people in the world or we're doing something wrong in our criminal-justice system."
After Webb's address, the crowd watched an episode of "30 Days," an FX series in which filmmaker Morgan Spurlock spends nearly a month locked inside a jail in Henrico County.
Spurlock notes that his cellmates have been in jail multiple times. After release, they return on different charges. "It's a revolving door," he says.
Spurlock and his fellow inmates are allowed to visit the gym for an hour once a week. They shower in two stalls in the middle of the common area. They have nothing to do, he says, but eat, sleep, read and play cards.
One inmate goes through heroin detox. He has been in and out of jail since the age of 13. Another acts violently and has mental illness, but trades his medication away for candy or Ramen noodles.
"Prisons or jails are becoming really a dumping ground," he said.
During a panel discussion after the screening, Helen Trainor, director of the Virginia Institutionalized Persons Project, read letters her organization has received from Virginia inmates. One described his difficulties getting the prison's medical staff to see him when he was feeling ill. He died shortly thereafter, Trainor said.
Brian McNeill is a staff writer at The Daily Progress in Charlottesville.
Reader Reactions
I don’t beleive it was stated anywhere that this article was talking about state only. What is a “ton”? If you have never experienced the federal system first hand you are a little misinformed. You are wrong about earning time off for going to school or completing other programs. Check out the truth in sentencing laws which drastically reduced the “good time” (NOT GETTING INTO TROUBLE AS YOU PUT IT)
RELIEF. And there is no door until you have served the sentenced time less the small amount of “good time” that is left, which means serving approximately 80% of your sentence. He isn’t out yet so we are not talking about recividism (your revolving door) and there is absolutely not a ton of help out there out there>
That’s right, it’s federal time, not Virginia time. For the Feds to consider it there had to be a ton of dope. Big time. He may have been tried in Virginia, but it was a federal court, not a Virginia Court and so he’s not pulling Virginia time. With the Feds, he can work that time way down by not getting in trouble, going to school, and completing other programs. It’s up to him how long he’ll serve. The only way he’ll go back to jail is if he get’s out and continues in the life. It’s up to him and there is a ton of help out there and he’ll be told about it. It’s a revolving door alright, but he’s the one that pushes it open or he’ll be the on that leaves it shut.
“This was a federal case. State laws do not apply. I do know what I am talking about!“
This was a federal case. State laws do not apply. I do know what I am talking about!
There is no way a first time drug offender got 10 years to serve in the state of Virginia unless there was violence, guns, a ton of dope, or a long criminal history involving other types of offenses. In fact, Virginia has a first offender law, where first time offenders can get the charge dismissed after a period of probation.
So very true!!! It is amazing the power that the government has given to the proseuctors. I have witnessed a Judge asking the prosecutor what he ( as Judge) can do. The prosecutor has become the accuser, the Judge and the Jury. They compensate attorneys for the resolution of a plea agreement. This compromises the entire
legal system. They throw together loose bits of information from questionable witnesses (almost always witnesses who are negotiating for their own benefit)and then threaten the accused into acceptance of a plea agreement whether he is guilty or not.
Then the defense attorney encourages the acceptance of this agreement because he/she will be compensated for it. More money, faster and with little to no effort. Makes everybody in the judicial system look so-o-o efficient.
Quicker turnover of cases, more guilty pleas, less trials, and creates prisons that are out of capactiy. Why is it that so few can see this?
The issue has more to do with legislators creating a legal system out of the judicial system. The empowerment of prosecutors has gotten out of control to the point that they have become the accuser, judge and jury for most crimes in today’s society. Please read the article and followup from yesterday’s Times Dispatch where only 1% of felonies are heard by a jury, simply because it is too risky. Time for legal reform as well as prison reform.
My condolences to you and your son, sgoin. From a political point of view, prohibiting the use of drugs not approved by the government and classifying the defiance of the ban as a disease is indistinguishable from prohibiting reading or writing books not approved by the government and classifying the defiance of the ban as a disease.
Libertarians univocally assert that the prohibition against initiating violence is a cardinal principle of libertarianism. The peasant in Colombia who grows coca is not initiating violence. The politician in the District of Columbia who enacts laws authorizing the use of military aircraft to bomb and destroy the peasants’ crop does.
The person who buys and uses a drug, whether it’s alcohol or Xanax, is not initiating violence. The legislator who authorizes the use of force to prevent him from taking the drug he wants and to compel him to take the drug he does not want; the Supreme Court Justice who declares these laws “constitutional”; and the psychiatrist who incarcerates and forcibly drugs the “patient”—one and all, initiate violence.
Paraphrasing the writings of Libertarian psychiatrist Dr. Thomas Szasz, the combination of medical licensure laws, prescriptions laws, tort laws, and the war on drugs has closed and bolted America’s door to a free market in drugs. Today, the only way a person can buy or hope to buy the drugs he really want to take is by breaking the law, transacting his business with a seller in the black market. That is exactly the way citizens of the Soviet Union once had to buy the books they really wanted to read.
The two cardinal principles of the Libertarian credo is the claim of the right to bodily and mental self-ownership and the prohibition against initiating violence. The person who buys a drug and puts it into his body, and the person who refuses to put a drug into his body that a psychiatrist wants to put into it, is exercising his elementary right to self-ownership. The person who sells a drug is not initiating violence.
Every physician and psychiatrists who does not explicitly repudiate our drug laws and participates in forcibly “treating” “addicts” and “drug abusers” is guilty of violating the basic human rights of free men and free women. If Libertarians do not stand up against the true “drug criminals,“ the drug prohibitionists, who will?
Love the comments posted thus far! Couldn’t agree with you more Mr. Grossman and Mr. Bickle. We need more than words, we need action and we need it now!!! As the mother of the victim of the misguided drug policies I have seen it first hand! My son was strong armed/threatened and misguided into a plea agreement that ended up costing him 10 years of his life in prison!!
This is not the way to deal with a first time drug offender!! This is just a way to shove the problem out of sight and out of mind. This is why we have prisons that have filled beyond capacity.
Hear, hear Mr. Grossman! America needs fewer laws, not more prisons.
Ending our nation’s misguided policy of drug prohibition and eliminating mandatory minimum prison sentences would go a long way toward solving these problems.
Brian J. Grossman
Attorney at Law
Post a Comment(Requires free registration)
- Please avoid offensive, vulgar, or hateful language.
- Respect others.
- Use the "Flag Comment" link when necessary.
- See the Terms and Conditions for details.
Advertisement