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Prison Employment
Jake Terpstra, page 22
May 11, 2001
US Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Holland MI) is introducing legislationg
to eliminate the "monopoly" that Prison Industries has
ins elling prison-made furniture to governmental agencies. The prisoners
are paid from 23 cents to $1.25 an hour. The bill number apparently
is not yet available. he believes that private manufacturers should
be able to compete for business.
The current practice goes back at least to the 1940s.
Two million Americans are now incarcerated, and the rate is growing
so fast that, at the present rate, the number will be three million
by 2005. If the rate should continue, one half of our population
would be imprisoned by 2052. As numbers increase, the explosiveness
of this population also increases, to say nothing of the direct
cost, from $25,000 to $50,000 annually for each prisoner.
Currently American prisons do not attempt to rehabilitate, but simply
hold prisoners until their release or til they die. Some estimates
are that 40 percent of prisoners have some degree of mental illness,
but prisons are now used as an alternative to mental hospitals,
largely because the cost is far less, and in many states mental
health services have been decimated in recent years. A large percentage
of prisoners are there because of drug possession, but are not a
direct danger to anyone (or weren't before their imprisonment).
The MI Dept. of Corrections estimates that 40 percent of the prisoners
are nonviolent; some other estimates are as high as 60 percent.
So who is in prison? Obviously the full range of social and economic
strata are represented, but the VERY LARGE majority are poor and
minorities. According to some estimates, as many as 66% of prisoners
have spent part pf their childhood in foster care.
With a growing number of exceptions, prisoners eventually come back
to live with the rest of us. Recidivism (repeat offenses) rates
are often 70% and even higher. The Bureau of Justice Statistics
estimates that more than 600,000 will be released in the next year.
A study at Lorton prison in Virginia in the mid 90s showed that
when prisoners were able to earn a college degree in prison, the
recidivism rate for those prisoners dropped to 6 percent, compared
with 70 percent of those who did not. However, Congress in all its
wisdom denied prisoner access to Pell Grants in 1994. Who were they
trying to punish?
About two years ago an article in the Grand Rapids Press described
a computer program in a prison, where the prisoners worked for private
business, and were paid prison wages by those businesses. The change
in recidivis, rate for those who did, and did not, participate in
the program was very similar to the stats at Lorton prison - 6%
to 70%. They were employable when released.
Now Rep. Hoekstra wants to make it possible for business to compete
with prison industries (which already has a limited market), possibly
forcing many prisoners into forced idleness, jeopardizing a program
that has been carried out successfully for at least half a century.
It is not surprising that Rep. Hoestra would try to please his constituents,
but as so often happens, it is at the expense of the most helpless
- the poor and minorities. At best, even if his plan would benefit
a small segment of society, it is likely to exact a very high price
for society at large in increased crime. Please use any contacts
you can to oppose this thoughtless, cruel effort.
Jake Terpstra
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