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Politicians, Prisons and Crime

By TChris, Section Crime Policy
Posted on Sat Jan 22, 2005 at 12:45:39 PM EST
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by TChris

Commissions and study groups have repeatedly told Wisconsin's lawmakers that its soaring prison population burdens the state's taxpayers while doing little to prevent recidivism.

[T]hese groups of judges, attorneys, correctional officials, business people and academics offered wide-ranging solutions that emphasized more programming in prisons, closer supervision and treatment in the community and establishing some intermediate form of sanction between probation and prison.

Why hasn't the advice been heeded? As in other states, Wisconsin's politicians fear the consequences of being labeled "soft on crime."

"There's one answer to this: politics," said state Sen. Fred Risser, D-Madison, who has seen just about every effort at correctional reform in his 48 years in the Legislature. "Trying to develop long-range programs that don't show immediate results is not the best thing to campaign on."

Politicians also worry about jobs that depend on incarceration rates. Wisconsin's ratio of correctional employees to inmates is nearly one to three. The Wisconsin State Journal explores proposals for reform that have been offered to and rejected by the state's legislature.

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    • Politicians, Prisons and Crime | 8 comments (8 topical)
    Re: Politicians, Prisons and Crime (none / 0) (#1)
    by cp on Sat Jan 22, 2005 at 03:05:40 PM EST
    this should come as no surprise. politicians have been telling us for years that crime is totally out of control, rampant in all areas, scaring the pants off of their constituents, in order to be elected/re-elected. this, in spite of all evidence to the contrary. fbi and doj statistics bear little relevance to joe sixpack, when he sees crime reports on the 6 o'clock news. that's what he remembers. 30 odd years have been spent, drilling this into the citizen's heads, they aren't going to suddenly change overnight. as well, there is the economic issue, the billions spent on the prison, judicial and law enforcement industries. monies that flow into local economies, produce jobs, etc. it is not in the best interests of any of these groups to do anything that might actually reduce either the level of crime, or recidivism. they will fight it tooth and nail. the people and their elected representatives have only themselves to blame.

    Re: Politicians, Prisons and Crime (none / 0) (#2)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Jan 22, 2005 at 04:00:20 PM EST
    We were going to see the end of prisons much the same way we saw the end of large scale asylums, the proverbial three legged stool. 1. they became perceived to be a state budget burden (happening some); 2. an apparent alternative solution was available (psychoactivedrugs then, all kinds of nifty surveillance gadgets now); and some 'humane' ideology cover (Shame of the States, etc). The vague parallel to last one is the tough one for prisons.

    Re: Politicians, Prisons and Crime (none / 0) (#3)
    by jondee on Sat Jan 22, 2005 at 04:13:31 PM EST
    Cannibal mother to her son - "But son,we cannibals have ALWAYS eaten people.."

    Re: Politicians, Prisons and Crime (none / 0) (#4)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Jan 22, 2005 at 05:25:34 PM EST
    Experiment What we need is an attempt to do a Double Blind study. As I understand it, the entire federal sentencing system is being evaluated. My recommendation is that at the end of all the other stages in sentencing, the judge be required to flip a coin and if it comes up heads increase the sentence by, say 10% and if it comes up tails decrease it by 10% and then as time proceeds we can study what effect a difference in 20% in the time served causes. Note: Coin flips cold also be used to assign people to Hard times vs. Treatment... As it is now, the Right say that our decrease in crime is due to more people in jail and the Left say it is due to changes in age distributions? or whatever.

    Re: Politicians, Prisons and Crime (none / 0) (#5)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Jan 22, 2005 at 06:38:10 PM EST
    "correctional employees to inmates is nearly one to three"??? Are they including line officers, staff officers, admin., medical, and programs personnel? Even so, that still seems grossly overbloated! I was in charge of a dorm of 152 Min/Med inmates, by myself, last night! If I had been in a tower with Max's, there would have been TWO officers. We have approx. 1200 total, with around 30 personnel on at night. Probably another 25 during the day, and the ratio is still almost 20 to 1! And let me mention that our inmate population is at the lowest at this time of year, in another few months, it will be closer to 1600. While our personnel to inmate ratio is nothing to envy, the people of Wisconson are being CON'ed!

    Re: Politicians, Prisons and Crime (none / 0) (#6)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sun Jan 23, 2005 at 02:55:13 AM EST
    Jeff: Interesting you want to keep covicted criminals drugged up and electrically monitored. Wonder what the ACLU says about that.

    Re: Politicians, Prisons and Crime (none / 0) (#7)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sun Jan 23, 2005 at 04:49:11 AM EST
    Wile E Coyote--NO! Not what I meant to say. Basically, I am predicting the fall of prisons, but not for obvious "moral value" reasons that will lead peopole to see prisons as an abomination. Prisons will fall, I think sooner than we expect, but only when it suits the agenda of the control state (i.e. they can keep them drugged and electronically shackled and realize that many more can be monitored this way with contracts for the drugs and equipment and supervision and data management etc if they are not limited by the silly walls). THEN--after that is in motion, all will say it was because of the moral abomination. Not really deep theory, but consistenly predictive. My ACLU card is still snug in my wallet.

    Re: Politicians, Prisons and Crime (none / 0) (#8)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Mon Jan 24, 2005 at 05:37:30 AM EST
    If you read the article, you find the very same kind of complaints about the lack of real rehabilitation and re-insertion into society that have been around for the last 100 years. We as a society have to decide just what behavior is merely annoying (drug usage) and what merits real sanctions against true anti-social behavior. For a while, we've gone overboard in trying to make everything a 'Federal case' and now we longer have the money or the facilities to maintain this policy. Many of those people who were locked up when this mindset was in full operation are now due for release. They are, if anything, an even greater threat to society now than when they were first incarcerated. Some very bitter fruit is about to bloom from the poisoned tree.

    Politicians, Prisons and Crime | 8 comments (8 topical)