I recently listened to a news report on NPR indicating that details of the $38 billion in congressional spending cuts were being discussed. Although $38 billion in spending cuts represents only pennies in relation to total expenditures, my ears perked up when I heard that law enforcement budgets would be cut. I'm looking forward to learning more.
Clearly, our country needs to fund law enforcement. However, the billions reserved to incarcerate 2.3 million people are mismanaged. Prisons are a limited resource, and legislators should reserve them for people who truly threaten the safety of society. Further, prisons should be used prudently rather than in the indiscriminate way they are used today. As I have written numerous times before (and as Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote), we confine far too many people in this country, and prisoners serve sentences that are far too long.
Although I understand that those who represent the Prison Industrial Complex succeed in controlling both the narrative and the message that influences so many, I doubt that taxpayers truly understand how punitive legislation wastes their tax dollars. Through my writing and publishing I'm trying to bring attention to the reckless spending. I'll continue working to reach beyond prison boundaries in an effort to connect more effectively.
According to published reports, taxpayers spend $75 billion each year to maintain America's bloated prison system. I've been in prison since 1987. In four months I will begin serving my 25th consecutive year as a federal prisoner despite my not having a history of violence, prior confinement, or identifiable victims in my case. During that quarter-century, I've educated myself, worked consistently to reconcile with society through measurable achievements, and prepared myself for a law-abiding life upon release.
Does anyone concern themselves with the absurdity of this continued waste of taxpayer resources? While legislators cut spending on useful social programs, they waste billions because of ridiculous policies that keep people in prison for far too long. At this stage I've lived more than half of my life in federal prison. I am now (and have been for two decades) immune, comfortably numb, to both the punishment and the purpose behind it. I don't understand the logic.
As laws stand today, taxpayers will continue forking over tens of thousands each year to confine me in the minimum-security federal prison camp in Taft California. I have two more years of imprisonment to pass through before my scheduled release. Does society benefit from this waste of public funds? Get your checkbooks out, it's going to cost you.
Follow Michael Santos on Twitter: www.twitter.com/prisonreform
I am the only person I've encountered who tells and retells that the population of prisoners is much greater than the population of farmers, and the cost of keeping so many imprisoned so dramatically exceeds the intensely vilified farm program, which includes food stamps and school lunch programs, that one would think that farming and keeping children from starving was the crime.
Nobody complains about the cost and the failure of our nation and our society represented by having 2% of our workforce imprisoned, a world record. I will keep telling my observations, and you should, too, but I don't expect our stories to have legs. I don't know where the forces are that determine this, but they are real.
More disturbing, we spend nearly twice as much on prisons as we do on education. I agree some spending on prisons will likely always be necessary, but which investment (prisons or education) is likely to have the greater return?
Take Maurice Clemmons (he killed the 4 police in Seattle). We complained and asked why he was out, and his sentence commuted. But we asked this after he killed 4 police. He was arrested at 17, for breaking into the home of a state trooper, stealing somethings (worth $8k I think) including a gun. He had a couple other non-violent crimes. He was sentenced to 108 years. Which most people would say is too much for a 17 year old who hurt nobody. 10 years later he was granted a commuted sentence to 47 years by Gov. Huckabee who said 108 years was too much (which not knowing the future most would agree with) and the parole board granted him parole. He was arrested later and served 2 or 3 more years. Because nobody decided to charge him on his parole violation he was let out. He then killed 4 officers. We complain now about him being let go, but we can't have it both ways. We either have these stiff sentences even for non-violent crimes, or we live with it if give fair sentences and they kill later.
Brian Baxter
You're going to have to keep explaining it. I'm sorry, but without at least a quick recap of what landed you in prison for so long, and why it was unfair, or maybe why it was truely a horrible crime but you have come to realize it and make ammends, your credibility is minimal .
It sucks that you have to keep telling and retelling your story. But that is the reality of having been in prison for 25 years. I'm trying to give constructive advice here, and I think I am more open-minded than most, and more willing to understand nuanced situations and to believe that people can change. It is possible that others have read your post and discounted it completely. I think you may have a valuable message, and I'm giving you advice on how to more clearly get your message accross.
http://www.november.org/thewall/cases/santos-m/santos-m.html
This I can agree with.
"rehabilitate violent criminals by treating them like valuable human beings"
There is no evidence that any particular method can 'rehabilitate' a violent criminal. Without a method of rehabilitation that is effective the vast majority of the time, it is irresponsible and, frankly, a bit stupid to release violent criminals back into society. They have already demonstrated that others are not safe when they are free. If you could guarantee rehabilitation I would be happy to see that. I'm sure some violent individuals CAN be rehabilitated - but they must do it themselves. There is no way to measure or verify that it has been done, no way to determine if the individual is still a threat to others. So no, we need to keep the violent ones incarcerated and stop wasting time and money on the non-violent offenders.
Prohibition also fostered boot legging, corruption, organized crime, murder & all of the other evils we see associated with the present prohibition against drug use, prostitution & gambling.
I certainly do, and this is just one of many. I commend you Michael on breaking the chain of self destruction that was your life. Me? I am an individual who believes in 2nd chances for nonviolent criminals and an opportunity to become successful members of society. However it looks as though "society" is going to be responsible for making the proper changes in attitude toward our correctional systems true purpose is. *reserve them for people who truly threaten the safety of society. Stop using them to warehouse those that are considered disposable by the closeminded.
http://www.exclusiveprisoner.com