Roy Exum
I've always been a huge believer in prison reform and it bothers me that of all the countries in the world, the United States has more people serving time in jail, percentage wise, than anywhere else on the globe. The latest statistics show 730 out of every 100,000 in America are in the lock-up. Russia, with 525, Rwanda with 450, and Iran with 333 don't come close. And in Communist China -- where harsher measures are the norm -- the count is 122 per 100,000.
I was shocked to read a revealing article in the New Orleans Times-Picayune the other day that identified Louisiana as the worst state in America with 1,619 per 100,000 in prison.
Can you imagine that, when the U.S. average is less than half of that? Mississippi is the national runner-up and isn't it ironic the two states have the worst schools, the worst poverty, and the highest infant mortality in our nation? Want more proof? One out of every three convicts in Louisiana reads below the 5th-grade level and most never finished high school.
The well-researched Times-Picayune story was full of heady stuff. In the city of New Orleans one out of every seven black males is either in prison, awaiting trial or on parole. That's not racial profiling, that's fact. And while it conjures up images of the sickening looting and lawlessness in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, right now approximately 5,000 black men from within the Big Easy's city limits are doing time in a state prison, as compared to an estimated 400 white men.
Now here's my point -- in Louisiana alone last year the taxpayers spent $633 million to care for 40,000 inmates. If I could devise a way to go inside the walls at Angola and other state prisons and institute a "get-out-quick program," I could probably get elected as governor on money-saving alone.
With one out of every 86 Louisianans now locked away, it would be relatively easy to identify thousands who are not a threat to society. If the state legislature created something akin to the Works Progress Administration that America had back in the late '30s, they could take a sizable unskilled-labor force to do public works projects and ease the burden of the $24.39 cost per inmate per day the state now pays.
I never pass a prison that I fail to see a possibility. I'd go out to Chattanooga's Silverdale workhouse and -- once a non-violent inmate earned the right -- I'd put them to work. For every day they'd work I'd credit them with two and, if any escaped, I'd double their original sentence. But they have to work hard every day.
Here's another thought; while I have no respect for Bernie Madoff, who swindled billions, I believe if you took Bernie and about 30 other white-collar criminals somewhere and tasked them with finding a solution to our own Social Security "Ponzi scheme," they might startle you. Or take the shamed ex-governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich -- you don't think he could fill your ear on voter fraud, money laundering and ways to stop stuff like that?
I honestly believe if you give a man some hope, the possibility to better himself and dig out of a hole, that 98 out of every 100 will try their dardest to get back into society. Our prison population has doubled in the last 20 years and, as one prison administrator recently promised, "You can't build yourself out of this problem."
Cindy Chang, who wrote the brilliant Times-Picayune story, used a 49-year-old named Preston Russell as a good example of a guy who was "put away for good" 13 years ago as an habitual criminal. Russell was a drug-desperate thief but he got the same sentence that another man would for first-degree murder after he broke into a bar named Fat Harry's and jacked $4,000 from the video poker machines one night.
"Louisiana don't feel no pity. I feel like everybody deserves a second chance," said Russell, a New Orleans native who received life without parole for a string of burglaries and a crack charge. "I feel like dudes get all this education ... under their belt and been here 20, 30 years. You don't think that's enough time to let a man back out and give him another chance at life?"
I most definitely think a guy should get another chance. Think about this: if Russell is left to die in prison he will wind up costing the state about $1 million during that time. Louisiana spends a whopping $24 million taking care of between 300 and 400 sick inmates every year -- that's a ridiculous expense that is easy to handle; let non-violent prisoners free on "time served" and rely on their families and Medicare to pick up the slack.
I know America is the smartest country in the world. I also know that no other country on the planet has a better grip on criminal activity and rehabilitation that our self-assured experts do. But do you think, just maybe, that if we would force our Congressional geniuses and our state legislators to wonder what our brothers and sisters around the world do with far-less prison space, we might escape the onus of having more people in prison, percentage-wise, in just the State of Louisiana than anywhere else in the whole world?
I think it is a $633 million question in just Louisiana alone.
royexum@aol.com