BY POLLY MANN
There I was sitting on the long bench facing the condominium’s mail boxes going through the mail—at least eight requests for donations from organizations that, each and every one, represent good causes. I delegate the majority to the recycle bin since there’s a limit to what I can do. Like most of us, I have a few favorites, and among them is the local Women’s Prison Book Project, which does exactly that—sends books to women prisoners. The rules under which books may be given to prisoners specify that the books must come from the publishers—can’t be too careful about a weapon being smuggled in between the pages of a 600-word novel so cash contributions are the only form of donation acceptable.
I’ve been in jail a couple of times for civil disobedience protesting U.S. military policy. The longest period was about five days in the St. Paul Workhouse, which, all in all, was not too bad an experience. However, it, of course, couldn’t be compared to a stay of a month or more. The thing that stays with me is the remembrance of the noise, the constant noise, especially loud in the evenings. As I recall there was a television somewhere that played constantly—loud, loud, loud.
A letter from The Sentencing Project tells me that the U.S. prison population is 2.2 million and that we incarcerate more people per capita than most European countries and Canada. While some prison programs are successful at educating and rehabilitating inmates to reduce recidivism, the majority of prisons exist to protect the public and punish the offender. Many U.S. prisons are privately owned and operated and return a profit. You can imagine then that food and services costs are kept to a minimum.
The Nordic prison systems are more successful at deterring future criminal activity than those in the United States. When Norway implemented the prison model of Denmark, Finland and Sweden, the prison population dropped from 200 per 100,000 people in 1950 to 65 per 100,000 in 2004. In contrast to American prison systems, education is a high priority within the Nordic prison system; it is provided to the extent that the offender desires, and guards are taught to encourage it. Prisoners have the option of attending school full-time and the prisons offer all levels of education, including university degrees.
The current view on the treatment of prisoners in the United States is that an increase in punishment yields a decrease in crime rates. Not so. U.S. crime and the recidivism rate is higher than that of any other country in the Western world. Our legislators could study the Nordic prison systems and put into place similar U.S. programs that would reduce recidivism. This fall President Obama ordered the release of 2,600 federal prisoners whose crimes were nonviolent. Similar releases should also occur in state prisons.
Last spring New York Times columnists Mark Mauer and David Cole compared U.S. prison terms to those of European countries: twice as long as those of Britain, four times as long as Holland and 10 times as long as France. They called for a 50% reduction in the prison terms for violent offenders. For additional information you can go to www.sentencingproject.org.
