At that time there was great interest in prison reform. From John Kennedy to the Great Society, there was much optimism about improvement in human rights and justice. Ramsey Clark, attorney general under Lyndon Johnson, continued the New Frontier policies of Robert Kennedy. In addition to many civil rights actions, Clark sought to reform and professionalize law enforcement.
With funds from the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration, police, courts and prisons were upgraded. Constitutional and professional standards were established. Research and innovation were encouraged. The Bureau of Prisons established numerous pilot program, including an entire facility designated for research in Butner, North Carolina.
The research program at Draper was funded, not by the Department of Justice, but through the Department of Labor. The purpose was to develop training materials and procedures for teaching basic education and job skills. The portion of the study that I worked in was more conceptual -- to develop a model prison social culture by means of behavior modification through a token economy.
I spent five years with the Draper research project as a research assistant, working with great researchers. I was encouraged to develop independent ideas for research and publication. I left to study clinical and correctional psychology at the University of Alabama. As a doctoral student at Alabama, I first visited Tutwiler women's prison -- as part of a federal court-ordered investigation into abusive and neglectful treatment of mentally ill inmates. Sound familiar?
My training at the University of Alabama was funded by the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration, as part of an effort to upgrade the quality of mental health services in justice agencies. After graduation, I began a 20-year career with the federal Bureau of Prison, ending up back in Alabama at the federal prison in Talladega.
Five years ago, I decided for some reason to offer to help out with the ongoing problems at Tutwiler. I spent only two months there, leaving because I could not ethically play a role in that situation. I have seen many prisons and other asylums, but the culture of Tutwiler was vicious. No significant education or treatment occurred, medical care was horrendous, and incompetent and sadistic administrators operated without restraint.
Alabama prisons nearly 50 years ago were hard, but usually not vicious. The dominant principle of prison was hard work. At Draper, most inmates worked on the surrounding farm, supervised by guards on horses.If they arrived late to "deuce it up," to walk by twos out to the farm patch carrying hoes, then they were handcuffed standing by a chain link fence in the hot Alabama sun. At lunch they were offered another chance to go to work. More severe discipline might bring stretches of 21 days in the "doghouse," a four foot high box, also in the Alabama sun. The lash had been outlawed a few years before.
Alabama prisons today seem to be motivated by vengeance. Many in the public say the worse the better. In historical perspective, what is occurring in Alabama prisons will be seen as barbaric -- only slightly removed from public hangings and mutilation. But we are not really so far removed from those times. The Equal Rights Initiative lynching memorial demonstrates how recent and near that such things happened.
I am often mistaken for a softhearted liberal because I support criminal justice reform. but, I know more than most of the brutality of crime. I have dealt with the worst I had friends imprisoned and tortured for twelve days during a riot. I saw coworkers murdered and assaulted by prisoners. I once got too close to segregation unit bars to talk down an agitated inmate and was slapped silly. I recognize fully that there are people who must be confined, some of them for life.
However, the great majority of people in prison are not as much dangerous as inept. Most Alabama prisoners ar very poorly educated, have no job skills, and very many are drug addicted. A few terrifying years in prison will not change that for the better.
My position on prison reform is about not using a very expensive hammer for every task. Mass imprisonment is phenomenally wasteful of resources, but more important if is counterproductive to the original problem. Most criminals simply do not need years of prison-level treatment. community-based programs would cost much less, and would be more effective.
And then there is the moral issue. I write this today because of what I have seen and cannot unsee.
The jails and prisons of Alabama are dangerous and poisonous places. Staff and inmates alike suffer
PTSD.
The jails and prisons of Alabama are dangerous and poisonous places. Staff and inmates alike suffer
PTSD.
I know there is a more sensible and rational approach. I know there is a science of evidence-based
correctional techniques. State Senator Cam Ward is fully aware of the benefits of this approach, but
Alabama’s one-party political system seems unlikely to give up the vengeance strategy to crime control.
correctional techniques. State Senator Cam Ward is fully aware of the benefits of this approach, but
Alabama’s one-party political system seems unlikely to give up the vengeance strategy to crime control.
Recently Senator Ward made a statement that may help to change out political climate.He said,
And then there is the moral issue. I write this today because of what I have seen and cannot unsee.
The jails and prisons of Alabama are dangerous and poisonous places. Staff and inmates alike
suffer PTSD.
The jails and prisons of Alabama are dangerous and poisonous places. Staff and inmates alike
suffer PTSD.
I know there is a more sensible and rational approach. I know there is a science of evidence-based
correctional techniques. State Senator Cam Ward is fully aware of the benefits of this approach, but
Alabama’s one-party political system seems unlikely to give up the vengeance strategy to crime control.
correctional techniques. State Senator Cam Ward is fully aware of the benefits of this approach, but
Alabama’s one-party political system seems unlikely to give up the vengeance strategy to crime control.
And then there is the moral issue. I write this today because of what I have seen and cannot unsee.
The jails and prisons of Alabama are dangerous and poisonous places. Staff and inmates alike
suffer PTSD. If more people could see what I have seen, we would not have this political gridlock.
I have observed Alabama prisons for nearly 50 years, and I have never been more appalled by their
injustice.
The jails and prisons of Alabama are dangerous and poisonous places. Staff and inmates alike
suffer PTSD. If more people could see what I have seen, we would not have this political gridlock.
I have observed Alabama prisons for nearly 50 years, and I have never been more appalled by their
injustice.
I know there is a more sensible and rational approach. I know there is a science of evidence-based
correctional techniques. State Senator Cam Ward is fully aware of the benefits of this approach,
but Alabama’s one-party political system seems unlikely to give up the vengeance strategy to
crime control.
correctional techniques. State Senator Cam Ward is fully aware of the benefits of this approach,
but Alabama’s one-party political system seems unlikely to give up the vengeance strategy to
crime control.
Recently Senator Ward made a statement that might help to change out political climate. He said,
" We profess to be the most Christian state in the country, but no Christian would allow their fellow man
to be treated the way they are said to be treated." In modern language Deuteronomy, God says,
"It is mine to revenge; I will repay." I think there is a valuable lesson in that.
" We profess to be the most Christian state in the country, but no Christian would allow their fellow man
to be treated the way they are said to be treated." In modern language Deuteronomy, God says,
"It is mine to revenge; I will repay." I think there is a valuable lesson in that.
Notes:
https://www.al.com/news/2019/05/judge-rules-alabama-prisons-fail-to-adequately-prevent-suicides.html
Thompson wrote that the ADOC demonstrated a “pervasive and substantial noncompliance with the interim agreement and other remedial measures that they agreed to implement.”
https://www.al.com/news/2019/05/how-do-other-states-deal-with-overcrowded-understaffed-prisons.html
Texas, in 2007, faced with a projected need for 17,000 new prison beds in five years, began pumping hundreds of millions into drug courts and rehabilitation and education for offenders. Texas has reduced its prison population by 30,000 and closed eight prisons.
The Alabama Legislature has done that too, at least to some extent, passing sentencing guidelines and criminal justice reforms that have dropped the prison population from about 25,000 in 2014 to about 20,000.
A decade ago under former Gov. Nathan Deal, Georgia changed drug crime enforcement to emphasize accountability and treatment for offenders, not incarceration. Starting in 2009, the number of people going to prison dropped 15 percent over five years, including 19 percent fewer black men, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
https://www.al.com/news/2019/04/alabama-senator-calls-out-christians-over-prison-conditions-sparking-reaction.html
no Christian would allow their fellow man to be treated the way
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