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CounterPunch
January
13, 2003
When Doing Time
Isn't Enough
a review of
Invisible Punishment
by ELAINE CASSEL
Invisible Punishment: The Collateral Consequences
of Mass Imprisonment, Ed.
Marc Mauer and Meda Chesney-Lind
(The New Press 2002).
As 2003 begins, more than two million people are
incarcerated in American jails and prisons. While the absolute
number of U.S. prisoners is staggering, even more disturbing
is our incarceration rate: the U.S. locks away more people per
capita than any country in the world: 702 prisoners per 100,000
inhabitants (Russia is second with 664 per 100,000). Meanwhile,
another five million people are under parole or probation supervision.
What happens to prisoners, their families,
and society as a consequence of America's obsession with harsh
criminal sanctions, especially incarceration? Invisible
Punishment: The Collateral Consequences of Mass Imprisonment
attempts to answer that question, in a collection of essays that
are incisive, wide-ranging, provocative and backed up with solid
data.
A Variety of
Essays Take on A Common Topic: Mass Imprisonment's Fallout
Much has been written about the "prisonization"
of American (Hard Time Blues: How Politics Built a Prison Nation
is a good recent example, which I also reviewed for this site).
Invisible Punishment's essays--which are written by criminologists,
sociologists, anthropologists, policy analysts, and law professors--are
a useful adjunct to that body of literature.
Collectively, they address the unseen
effects of the American way of punishment--the stigmas and deprivations
that linger, often for a lifetime, long after a sentence has
been served and the prison gates flung open. They examine, respectively,
the lifetime consequences of convictions on prisoners; the prosecutors
and prison entrepreneurs who create the infrastructure of mass
incarceration; and the impacts of this misguided policy on families,
communities, and national and international society.
Once a Con,
Always a Con: How Society Pushes Former Offenders Back Into Crime
It is common knowledge that many felons
lose their right to vote (some forever, unless the disability
has been removed by court order). What is less well-known, however,
is that disenfranchisement has the potential to have significant
impact on local and federal elections.
As reported by Marc Mauer in the essay
"Mass Imprisonment and the Disappearing Voter," in
Florida, more than 200,000 convicted felons (any felony conviction
bars voting for life there) could not vote in the close 2000
presidential election. And across the country, four million Americans
were banned from the polls during that election because of prior
convictions.
Meanwhile, it is not only at the voting
booth that prior convictions spell trouble. Some felony and misdemeanor
convictions bar a person from being licensed as a barber, plumber,
security guard, or teacher. And federal laws enacted in the "get-tough-on
crime" 1990's deny ex-convicts a host of government entitlements,
as discussed in "Welfare and Housing--Denial of Benefits
to Drug Offenders" by Gwen Rubenstein and Debbie Mukamal.
As Rubenstein and Mukamal explain, someone
with a drug conviction cannot live with or visit a family member
or friend who resides in public housing unless the tenant wishes
to risk eviction (a rule the Supreme Court upheld in 2002 in
the case of Department of Housing and Urban Development v. Rucker).
A drug conviction bars one from being eligible for public housing,
federal educational aid, food stamps, and other welfare benefits.
These deprivations are the most wide
reaching of "invisible punishments"--so-called because
most defendants and lawyers don't know about them; they get slipped
into Congressional bills unnoticed, and are tied to states' receipts
of federal funds.
The American Bar Association has called
for states to reveal post-prison consequences at plea-bargain
and sentencing hearings, and its recommendation should be heeded.
Defendants should know the true extent of the penalties they
will face.
Rending the
Social Fabric: Another Consequence of Mass Incarceration
In "Families and Incarceration,"
anthropologist Donald Braman writes about the impact of mass
incarceration on families and neighborhoods. The data he cites
are alarming--over half of the members of the African-American
male population in Washington, D.C. between the ages of eighteen
and thirty-five are under some probation or parole supervision,
and over 10 percent are in prison on any given day.
If current trends hold, over a lifetime,
seventy-five percent of Africa-American men in the District will
be incarcerated. Similar statistics, and social impact, are reported
in Baltimore, Maryland and New Haven, Connecticut.
Other essays dealing with the effect
of incarceration policies on families describe the heart-breaking
emotional strain on family members and prisoners who are isolated
from each other by virtue of geography and strict visitation
policies. Family members of prisoners, including children, in
effect are punished, too.
Mass incarceration deprives families
and neighborhoods of fathers and mothers (young women represent
prisons' most rapidly expanding population). "Imprisoning
Women: The Unintended Victims of Mass Imprisonment," by
criminologist Meda Chesney-Lind, describes the profound effect
of mothers' incarceration on their children. A majority of women
in prison were raising their children alone before they were
incarcerated, leaving the children without a caregiver once their
mothers are incarcerated.
It is unrealistic to expect that children
can establish or maintain a normal bond with parents who are
in prison. The rarity of opportunities for contact, the strain
of emotional, stilted visits in the presence of correctional
officers, and the economic deprivation brought on by incarceration
(and, perhaps for a lifetime thereafter) all have long-lasting,
multi-generational effects on families, and on society as a whole.
For instance, children whose parents have been incarcerated are
twice as likely to be incarcerated themselves.
In "Entrepreneurial Corrections:
Incarceration As a Business Opportunity," criminal justice
policy specialist Judith Green explains how state and federal
prisons tend to be clustered in rural areas, where they are often
the mainstay of local economies. There, prison doors--and the
revolving door of release and recidivism--must stay open to ensure
jobs.
International
Condemnation of U.S. Incarceration Policies and Rates
"Incarceration as Socially Corrosive"
by Vivien Stern, a British MP, examines the impact of U.S. policies
on the rest of the world and international criticism of these
policies.
Stern explains why, in spite of America's
widespread cultural influence, its love of harsh punishment has
not spread to other societies. Most of the world is appalled
by the death penalty--especially its use on the mentally ill
and juveniles. Beyond that, Europeans believe that the American
methods are a "de-civilizing" force on society as a
whole, and they want no part of them.
A January 2, 2003 article in The New
York Times describes how, in 30 years, Finland reversed its correctional
policies. Finnish policies had originally mirrored those of Russia
and the United States. Now, however, Finland has the lowest incarceration
rates in the world (52 incarcerated persons per 100,000 persons.
(Remember, the U.S. has a staggering 702).
Why and how
did Finland accomplish this?
Finland studied the effects of its retributive
policies and found that they simply were not working. Crime was
going up, even by low Scandinavian levels, violence in prisons
was high, and recidivism was rampant.
The Finnish government then shifted to
a new model of incarceration--one that mirrors good parenting
practices. Indeed, juvenile guards are actually thought of as
parents. And more generally, incarceration is used as a rehabilitative
tool to teach self-control, not to punishment.
Accordingly, prisons are more like schools
than armed camps. Guards do not carry guns or wear military-type
uniforms. Prisoners are schooled, coached in sports, and trained
in trades. The societal goal is reform, not revenge.
Finns have found that incarcerating fewer
citizens led to less, not more, crime. If only the U.S. would
similarly shift its goals and priorities.
Invisible Punishment
as a Form of Social Control: A Broader View
Beyond these specific topics, some essayists
in Invisible Punishment take a far broader--and more radical--view.
One is Jeremy Travis, who was formerly a director of the Department
of Justice's National Institute of Justice (where his policy
recommendations, unfortunately, are now rarely implemented by
the government), and currently is a fellow at the Urban Institute.
Travis authored the collection's opening
essay, "Invisible Punishment: An Instrument of Social Exclusion."
Travis comes close to--but stops short of--suggesting that American's
policies are part of an intentionally designed method of social
engineering and control that guarantees a growing disenfranchised,
marginalized, underclass.
Nevertheless, his and other thoughtful
essays in the collection set out plenty of incriminating evidence
indicating that the government (and those who run private prisons)
may have ulterior motives for favoring incarceration, beyond
pure retribution and revenge.
After all, imprisonment is a potent form
of social control, one that, in this country, continues far beyond
prison walls, or even the probation officer's building. Chances
are you already--or soon will--know someone who cannot get a
job, rent a house, drive a car, or vote because he or she had
a criminal conviction once in their lifetime.
In 2003, more than 615,000 prisoners
will attempt to reenter society, and some of the strongest obstacles
to their doing so will have been erected by their own government.
Released inmates who want to make a life for themselves will
be systematically denied the opportunity to do so. As a result,
recidivism, which keeps the prison economy flourishing and exponentially
adds to the numbers of underclass citizens, will be assured.
Invisible Punishment exposes the hidden,
repugnant retribution policies of the American criminal justice--or,
more accurately, injustice--system. It leaves the reader to judge
whether the policies were well-intentioned (albeit misguided)
efforts to deal with crime, or deliberate acts of a vengeful
society that can't get enough of mean justice.
Elaine Cassel
practices law in Virginia and the District of Columbia and is
a contributor to Counterpunch and Findlaw.com,
where this review originally appeared. She is the chair of the
American Bar Association's Behavioral Science Committee of the
Science and Technology Law Section and is the author, with Douglas
Bernstein, of Criminal
Behavior (Allyn & Bacon, 2001). She also teaches
law and psychology. She can be reached at: cassel@counterpunch.org.
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