J. R. Woodgates
Black defendants are 15% more likely than white defendants to be imprisoned for misdemeanor offenses and drug offenses, and 14% more likely than their white counterparts to be imprisoned for felony drug offenses, according to a July 2014 study.
New York City’s police chief says so many young blacks have arrest records, it’s hard to find qualified recruits for the NYPD. Others fault the chief’s own stop-and-frisk procedures that criminalized harmless behavior:
Judge Bennett [considered] the weight of 10 years: one more nonviolent offender packed into an overcrowded prison; another $300,000 in government money spent. ‘I would have given him a year in rehab if I could,’ he told his assistant. ‘How does 10 years make anything better? What good are we doing?’
Nearly half of all federal prisoners are nonviolent drug offenders. Many federal judges who sentence them feel coerced by the congressionally mandated sentencing laws that lock away so many men and women.
This is a long read about one Iowa judge but it’s worth your time:
The voices of the more than 12 million people who annually pass through one (or more) of the nation’s 3,000 jails seem absent from this process. So too are the voices of their loved ones and most dedicated advocates.
Is it really good news that Koch Industries and the MacArthur Foundation, among other deep-pocket entities, are financing prison reform initiatives? Or are they big-footing grass roots reformers?
Here’s an unofficial survey of inmate intake, ranging from bad to worse:
FYI: Here’s the menu sheet from my last week at FCI Butner Low.
Gardeners work long days, scorched by the sun and tormented by flies. Their work is slowed by the rhythms of prison life: When other inmates move through the yard…gardeners must lock up the shovels so someone with escape on his mind can’t get near them.
Not only do inmate gardens yield good fruit (and vegetables) but they also dramatically lower recidivism rates:
In recent years, federal sentencing guidelines have been revised, resulting in less severe prison terms for low-level drug offenders. But…tens of thousands of inmates who were convicted in the “war on drugs” of the 1980s and 1990s are still behind bars.
The average annual cost of housing a federal inmate in general population is $27,500. The price tag for an older inmate who needs medical care – including expensive drugs and treatment – is $59,000.
THE PAINFUL PRICE OF AGING IN PRISON
Why are we keeping someone behind bars who is bedridden and needs assistance getting out of bed and feeding and clothing himself?
As a parent, you have unique authority from God to influence the spiritual atmosphere around your child. Whether he’s living behind bars, under your roof or out on his own, your child will be affected by these intercessory prayers – all based on Scripture promises.
Taken from the Christian newspaper, Herald of His Coming, which your incarcerated loved one can receive by mail for free.
I saw grown men tear up and cry because they hadn’t touched a dog in 35 years, 15 years, 10 years, and never thought they’d have the chance to do that again. It’s made my institution safer.
Some of the maximum security inmates at South Carolina’s Lee Correctional Institution are experiencing the healing influences of “man’s best friend”:
Not only priests minister behind bars. Catholic laity and religious can also have a huge influence on the spiritual lives of locked up men.
Since Stanford University Psychology Professor Phillip Zimbardo conducted his controversial 1971 prison experiment showing how easy it is for young men to be negatively manipulated, he has continued charting a steady decline in the academic, professional and social skills of young American Men (outlined in his 2011 TED Talk, The Demise of Guys).
Our focus is on young men who play video games to excess, and do it in social isolation – they are alone in their room.
Now, after studying 20,000 subjects, Zimbardo is warning that, because of their even greater preoccupation with video games and pornography, today’s young men are in a “masculinity crisis.”