Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Prison Planet

Speaking of prison shows (I rented from NetFlix every episode of "OZ" and I also enjoy a show on MSNBC called "Lockdown") I am not sure how to explain my fascination with prison dramas. But that doesn't negate the incredible impact that the growing rate of incarceration in this country is having on the population as a whole. A recently published article in Boston Review asked the question: "Why Are So Many Americans in Prison?" The answer, not unlike the answer to many other questions asked today, is, at least in part, "the profit motive." I have been following a web site called the November Coalition for years now. The site exists, among its many purposes, to educate the public about the ever-increasing number of non-violent offenders who are doing long, hard time for simple possession of a controlled substance.

As of 2005, there are 2 million people locked up in federal, state, and county facilities. Though crime rates are down, that's up more than 600% since the 1970s. More than 6 million people are under state supervision in the form of parole or probation. The United States incarcerates more people than any other country in the world.

Black men are 6% of the U.S. population but over 40% of our prison population.

Every day in the United States 200 new jail cells are constructed.

Most prisoners come from disadvantaged backgrounds. Most have not completed high school. Many can barely read. Roughly one-third were been unemployed before imprisonment. Another third had annual incomes of less than $5,000.

Children of incarcerated parents have increased risk of anxiety, depression, aggression, truancy, attention disorders and poor scholastic performance.

Black people are 7.8 times more likely to be imprisoned than whites, when convicted of the same crime.

Prisons cost taxpayers more than $32 billion a year. Every year that an inmate spends in prison costs $22,000. An individual sentenced to five years for a $300 theft costs the public more than $100,000. The cost of a life term averages $1.5 million.

States are spending more money on prisons than education. Over the course of the last 20 years, the amount of money spent on prisons was increased by 570% while that spent on elementary and secondary education was increased by only 33%.

It seems to me that in this country we could do much better than this system of warehousing fellow human beings at such a tremendous cost to all people in America.

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

On the Road... Route 66

I've been on the road a lot lately and have many more miles to drive before the summer ends. I've been listening to CDs of the Stephanie Miller Show that I burned over the past several months as I drove across the middle of the country on a trip to Jamestown, Indiana from Tulsa, Oklahoma in order to help my parents celebrate their 50th Wedding Anniversary. I went back and we had a loverly and simple reception at my Dad's Meeting House (my father attends Quaker Meeting as a member of the Society of Friends). It was worth driving back on a Thursday and right back on the next Monday just to see my parents stand together and greet their friends and family and watch them cut the cake and mark 50 years together through tough times and better times.

I realize that it has been over a week since my last post and all I can say is if you are out there and eagerly awaiting a new post, I'm sorry to keep you waiting, and I can't promise that this post will satisfy you or reward your patience. I feel like I must post something as I made a commitment when I started this blog that I would add at least two new posts each week and as there has been over a week without a post, I feel I must at least explain why my posts have trailed off, and in the process I will also likely reveal the lackluster attitude that has come over me in the last couple weeks.

I control many aspects of my environment - including to a large degree what I listen to every day - which is hours and hours of the Stephanie Miller Show with an occasional foray into Thom Hartmann with the evening viewing of Keith Olbermann, a prison show, and Jon Stewart capped off by Letterman if I last that long. From Thursday evening until Monday morning I didn't listen to Steph and the mooks at all, and I didn't think about my blog, I deleted virtually every e-mail message that I received going online to do so via my father's dial-up connection maybe twice a day (for somebody who usually spends hours every evening online that is a significant change). Anyway, I'm back for just three days - I'm heading out to Joshua Tree National Park on Friday. Even though Joshua Tree is not my final destination, it has become the focus of this trip to California - the ultimate end of my trip is Morongo Band of Mission Indians Casino, Resort & Spa, but I have always wanted to visit Joshua Tree, so that is where I am heading on Saturday morning, driving out of Albuquerque, New Mexico, after leaving Tulsa, OK the day before.

The initial inspiration for this post was a rather brief letter to the editor that appeared in the Concord Monitor. It was entitled In League with the John Birch Society. It is a simple letter that reminded me of the first time I was ever aware of the John Birch Society. It was a roadside billboard or series of billboards along an American interstate. It's message boiled down to the strong suggestion that the United States should shun the United Nations, or that the New World Order was something to be feared. I remember, knowing instinctively, without having to ask my parents, that it was a fringe group (anybody looking at the billboards could tell that they were amateurs). But that only made their message all the more intriguing to a young girl sitting in the back seat of the family station wagon, seeing the world fly by around 65mph. Perhaps that's the same part of me that enjoys watching prison shows...

Who knows???

I promise more frequent and enthusiastic posts from INDN's List Campaign Camp and Prez on the Rez where I'll be next week helping to train and support Progresssive Native candidates who are preparing to run for local, state, and national political offices. More later...