After quite a bit of reading preparation, today we learned more about a subject that cannot be tidily contained. It was extremely gratifying to have its complicated tendrils discussed in a first person way by four wise experts in the field. We discussed psychology (some people’s egos don’t regulate and structure their lives and so “prison substitutes for the ego,” -Professor Reynolds); systemic violence (“Violence is the language you speak in the streets and in prison,” -Mustafa Moore); stigmatization (“Get out on a felony and you’re still in prison. You’re locked in and (then) locked out,” -M. Moore); views of restorative justice (“It’s the lens through which we look at crime,” “(it’s) a policy and a value system,” and “(it’s) making sure people still have a role in the community when they come out,” -Nathaline Frener); politics (“This system isn’t working for anyone right now,” -Shaul Cohen); and structural racism (“Currently, one in fifteen African-American males are in prison,” -Paul Solomon).
It’s obvious to me that our country has shifted dramatically since the early 1980s. Our country used to be in a War on Poverty and now we’re waging a war on the poor. We have seen our social safety net contract drastically through the horrific policies of Ronald Reagan. Even Richard Nixon looks like a saint in comparison - at least his administration spent more on social programs than on defense.
Shaul Cohen’s words ring in my ears. He described his ethnoterritorial conflict research in Ireland as focused on how people “…step away from the conflict and into a political process.” We are still in the middle of the war (on the poor), but I submit that our society must experience structural political and economic change. We need to transition from a society focused on violence and individualism to one which supports families and children. As we heard from Paul Solomon, our on-the-ground visiting expert on the aftermath of convictions, “…the best money the state could be spending is on early intervention programs supporting at-risk youth.”
Rehabilitation does not seem to be a priority of our ‘justice’ system. But, even if it was, I wonder: rehabilitation from what? From being marginalized? From being second-class? From being shut out? Most of those in prison are victims of our economic system. I suggest social structural reform. We can’t make fixes to the prison system - it itself is an outcome of the vast structural inequity of our economic policies. We need to stop, drop, and rebuild a society based on community and equality. Lofty idealism? Okay, yes. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth trying. In our transition, we may be able to look at a real justice system that first and foremost supports communities. We should be building up community where parents have the time and mental space to care for their children, where violence is replaced by understanding, and where neglect is replaced by presence.
We are behaving as if there are people in our country who we can just ‘disappear.’ That is a profound failure. And I think the reason that “ex-cons” make us uncomfortable as a society - why we shut them out - is that facing the enormity of the issue raises irreconcilable truths about our failures at both justice and shared prosperity. In this country, without a support network, once you’re down you’re out.
By this time it must be clear that retributive justice is not in my value system. “What about the victims?,” you may ask. I say we’re all being victimized continually by our economic paradigm. Culturally, once we start down the path of dehumanizing a group of people, it becomes easier to do it to anyone.
Hmm, I see I’m ranting now. It’s rare I work up so much passion and I’m grateful to all the guests in class today for inspiring my fire.
Jennifer, I too am quite grateful for our guest speakers today. Today was easily my favorite of our days in this CRES class so far. Listening to the honesty with which Mustafa relayed his experiences, both down falls and triumphs brought tears to my eyes. I am considering becoming an advocate for prisoners after todays discussion. I have been witness to the cycle of economic depravity that leads people into a penal system that is only about punishment and does nothing to reform. Everyone of my siblings have been in jail at some point in time including myself and my older brother did 8 years at the Point Of The Mountain in Utah (he was caught up in stupid drug shit as a youth). Seems like that is part of the problem. I would offer that most people serving any real time behind bars have substance abuse problems or mental health issue problems, often times both. This aspect needs to be seriously addressed. I would like to believe that our penal system can be reformed but as you address, it is a product of our economic system. Nothing is going to really change until we do away with capitalism and the economic disparity and difference that it creates. The move toward private prisons is not only scary but insidious. If a corporation runs a prison their goal is to maximize profits and thus they are not in the business of reforming prisoners but maintaining them as prisoners while trying to create new prisoners. That is the corporate model. What happens when we need even more and more prisoners? What will we lock people up for after the drug war ends? I don't believe that people are just naturally bad. There aren't people that are just bad apples. People are intrinsically good, yet if they have never been given an equal break, how are they suppose to avoid the stone and bars of an economic system that needs to create demons to keep others in line? How can a person pull themselves up by their bootstraps if they have never been afforded the right to own boots?
ReplyDeleteBumper sticker I saw at Sundance yesterday after class: My other car is a pair of boots. So how do we pull up our own bootstraps so that we can help others afford their own boots?
ReplyDeleteFalse analogy. There are enough boots for everyone.
ReplyDeleteJennifer, are you addressing me or Lia about the boot analogy?
ReplyDeleteThe issue isn't scarcity it is distribution.
My claim that some have never been afforded the right to have boots, which certainly involves economics, is more of a situation of equality. One of Privilege.
Its easy to tell another to pull themselves up when you own the boot factory.
The anecdote of the rugged individual, a person that goes it alone, and in the end wins the day, is just an anecdotal story, a myth.
The myth of meritocracy.
There is no rugged individual, out there in the world, alone, with no aid, fighting and triumphing. Survival of the fittest. Bleeargh!
No person starts from zero. Many start from negative. But many also start from privilege.
We all do better, when we all do better.
Ah yes, sorry - it was too flip of me to leave it like that. I was struck by how completely different "afford" is from "to be afforded" and I thought about it a lot today. I think we have a problem of false scarcity. Some people really believe in that and see competitors everywhere. Some people are actively prevented from accessing basic necessities because of this assumption of scarcity. There's enough for everyone - but not with the outrageous unnecessary hoarding we are witnessing now. Which is what you're saying too, I think.
ReplyDeleteI really liked reading this post. It is a completely different perspective than I am coming from. I would love for society to be able to change the way that we punish crimes. I agree with you that there is a war on the poor and that dramatically affects the people we arrest and put in jail. My one question would be why couldn’t we work towards fixing society while also fixing the prison system? I am not ready to give up on rehabilitation just yet.
ReplyDeleteI think one thing that we could fix before anything else is how we offer rehabilitation programs. Most prisons set prisoners up on the point system. Good behavior, positive points; bad behavior, negative points. Those with positive points are rewarded with options to better jobs, more programs, etc. Those who are in trouble and need the rehabilitation more than anyone else are restricted from these rehabilitation programs. I understand the need by prisons to keep order through restriction of “rights” but it seems odd that we restrict those who need the programs more than anyone else. Most prisoners never have the options to use programs because of points, bad behavior, lack of space, lack of programs, etc. My wish is that while society works to fix the prison system (that’s a debate for later) we fix the way rehabilitation works.