Fundraiser to examine state of prisons
Published: October 18, 2009
CHARLOTTESVILLE -- The state of the nation's prison system will be the topic of the Legal Aid Justice Center's annual fundraising event tomorrow night.
"Incarceration Nation" will feature a panel discussion about the prison reform movement and an episode of the documentary series "30 Days" featuring filmmaker Morgan Spurlock's month in jail.
The event, which will begin at 7 p.m. at Charlottesville's Paramount Theater, features author John Grisham as master of ceremonies.
Legal Aid is a nonprofit organization that provides legal representation to low-income people in Virginia.
Alex Gulotta, the agency's executive director, said the community education event and fundraiser focuses on a timely topic each year. This year's subject was inspired in part by U.S. Sen. Jim Webb, who wants to create an 18-month review of the nation's criminal justice system through the National Criminal Justice Commission Act of 2009.
"We thought it would be a good time to focus people's attention on crime and how we treat people once their behavior is criminalized," Gulotta said.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Statistics, one of every 31 American adults was in jail or prison or on probation or parole by the end of 2007.
Legal Aid is home to the Virginia Institutionalized Persons Project, a 2-year-old effort that investigates the conditions of Virginia's prisons and mental institutions. Helen Trainor, the project's director, said the criminal justice system has touched many people.
"I think that there are now so many people in prisons and jails in Virginia and elsewhere that almost everyone knows someone whose relative has been in a jail or prison," Trainor said. "It's an issue that now has finally reached home."
Before the project's creation, Trainor said, no one had ever looked at prison and jail conditions in Virginia. She said a detailed study is in order.
The panel discussion is expected to include Webb; R. Dwayne Betts, a poet and author of a book on how Virginia prisoners are treated; and David Fathi, the director of Human Rights Watch's U.S. program.
More than 600 people attended last year's fundraising event, which raised more than $150,000 for Legal Aid.
Tasha Kates is a staff writer for The Daily Progress in Charlottesville.
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Reader Reactions
We have 5% of the world’s population and 25% of the world’s prison population. We lock people up way too easy for non-violent crimes. This needs Reforming. Sen Webb is working on it.
Thank you for your article which helps brings this pervasive problem to light. Studies commissioned by government have shown that there are far better ways to deal with the prison issues than locking ever more people up for ever longer terms. Rehabilitation, education, psychological assistance, community service, are all ways to divert thousands of men and women from going to prison. But that would not be profitable, and the “law and order machinery” is preventing any sensible reform. We, the taxpayers, have to wake up and revolt against being taken for this absurd ride. We need our tax dollars to go to education and constructive services not to the goons, judges, DA’s and corrupt politicians who all benefit from the disastrous warehousing of our prison population.
The only good thing about the French is how they ran their prisons in South America.
Bring back Devils Island.
“We thought it would be a good time to focus people’s attention on crime and how we treat people once their behavior is criminalized,“ Gulotta said.
America needs fewer laws, not more prisons.
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