Makhaila Walker, Incarceration: The Life Sentence

Incarceration: The Life Sentence

by Makhaila Walker

Over the last four decades, America's prison and jail population has risen from 648,000 in 1980 to over 2.2 million prisoners in 2021, this excluding the 5 million on probation ("Prison population," 2021). As a country with only 5 percent of the global population, why has our prison population soared to 25 percent of all global prisoners? In the 70s, President Reagan's “War on Drugs” policies started to flood the prison system. By the 80s, arrests for all crimes increased 28 percent, but arrests for drug offenses increased 126 percent (Austin & McVey, 1989). In 1983, Thomas Beasley, Doctor R. Crants, and T. Don Hutto started the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA). This company was the first private prison company in the world and decided to run prisons for-profit. According to the CCA, they could run a larger prison with less staff than government-run prisons by using surveillance cameras (Funding Universe, n.d.). The CCA, now the CoreCivic, remains the largest private prison company today, racking in a 500% profit increase since the 80s (CoreCivic, 2021). A common criticism of private prisons is that they create incentives. In private prisons inmates work to create products, then companies like CoreCivic will sell these products. Most private prisons have "lock-up" quotas that require a minimum number of inmates or the prison risks paying penalty fees (Watson, 2015). These incentives to earn revenue and incarcerate more people discourage rehabilitation, push back efforts to reform harsh sentencing laws and remove a major reason to reduce prison population rates. Around the time prisons were commonly becoming privatized, rehabilitation started to diminish. Prisoners are no longer encouraged to develop occupational skills and to resolve psychological problems, such as substance abuse or aggression. Prisons now use a "get tough on crime" approach that sees punishment as the main function. The justice system has prioritized making money overseeing effective results. Rehabilitation has shown to reduce recidivism, committing a subsequent crime within three years of release, by 20 percent (Pealer, 2017). Inmates who receive drug treatment are less likely to relapse after being let out of prison. Similarly, those who earn a GED in prison are more likely to be employed after release (Huebner & Inzana, 2009). A Mid-State Technical College online survey was conducted on the topic of prison reform (see appendix). The survey results found that out of 8 students, 100% of them agreed that rehabilitation is a necessary function of incarceration (online survey, 2021). Too often in the US, we see people crippled by societal issues. Being cornered by financial stress causes people to commit theft, misguided youth turn into gang members, untreated mental health and substance abuse cause people to commit drug crimes. Rehabilitation is more effective than punishment as it directly tackles the root cause of criminality. If the goal is to reduce crime, prisons should be focused on rehabilitation. Private prisons are currently operating for prisoners to return. If they don’t want prisoners to leave, the implication is that they want inmates to stay there for life working for the benefit of the prison.

Because private prisons were created with the intention of having to pay less staff, they have become dangerous. According to a report by the Department’s Office of Inspector

General, private prisons do not maintain the same level of safety and security as government-operated prisons. A 2016 Justice Department report found that private prisons had twice the number of inmate-on-staff assaults, 28% more inmate-on-inmate assaults, and twice the number of illicit weapons than federal prisons. Additionally, private prisons have been skimping on medical care for inmates. PBS interviewed an ex-inmate, Adnan Khan, who was wrongfully convicted of a crime and spent 16 years in various prisons. Khan claims, “There was a joke among [inmates] that no matter how dire your situation was, doctors would just prescribe ibuprofen and call it medical care.” Forty-four percent of inmates report being “not at all satisfied” with the medical care they receive in prison, and another Forty-four percent expressed being “somewhat satisfied”. Just twelve percent of inmates felt “satisfied” with the medical treatment they receive (Maruschak, 2006).

Inmates have noted poor medical care can turn a minor sentence into a death sentence for some. In a South Carolina prison, medical records showed inmate, Roosevelt Dunlap, “gouged his eyes” after staff failed to give him an antipsychotic medication, one of his eyes ruptured and had to be surgically removed. According to CNN, among Dunlap’s doctors was one who has been found to be a danger to the public and had his ability to practice suspended in multiple states. A Justice Department report noted several examples of chaotic violence at these private prisons, including an incident at Adams County Correctional Center in Mississippi. At this particular event, twenty inmates were harmed and a correctional officer was murdered. This report goes on to state, “The disturbance involved approximately 250 inmates who were angry about low-quality medical care.” Inmates at the Big Springs Correctional Center assaulted prison staff in February 2011. The inmates were dissatisfied with the staff's response to a medical emergency on the compound that resulted in the death of an inmate. In February 2015, Willacy County Correctional Center (Texas) inmates “set fires and caused extensive damage” to the prison. Once again, these inmates shared their anger stating the lack of medical care in these facilities. Without a doubt, prisons can be beneficial for communities. Prisons can provide jobs, as they require a full staff to be run properly, and these jobs help support the local economy (Clear, 2010). Correctional facilities also protect civilians from violent criminals and give victims peace. From 1974 to 1991 Dennis Rader terrorized the people of Kansas. He gave himself the nickname BTK, an abbreviation for bind, torture, kill. Dennis Rader spent some time flying under the radar, but finally, in 2005 he was caught and incarcerated. When Dennis Rader was caught, he confessed to the murders of Charlie Otero’s father, mother, younger brother, and younger sister. When Charlie was in the tenth grade he walked from school and came home to see his family tied up and brutally strangled. Through this tragedy, Charlie can still discuss the peace he has found now that Dennis Rader is in prison. The Wichita Eagle caught up with Charlie in 2019 to ask how he felt about Rader’s sentencing. Charlie smiled and said, “[Dennis] is in there, and I’m out here. He’s locked up and will never get out, and that brings me peace.” These facilities help victims cope and ensure that the law is respected and upheld. Although prison certainly has a place in our society, privatized prisons have created an environment where imprisonment is dangerously profitable. It’s time that the United States moves away from privatized prisons and starts encouraging government-operated prisons. Evidence shows that government-operated prisons are safer, more humane, and more

effective. If our goal as a country is to reduce crime, it is essential that we abolish privatized prisons.

References

Clear, T. R. (2010). The prison industry and the marketplace. Dialectical Anthropology, 34(4), 585-587. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10624-010-9213-7 CoreCivic. (2021). Quarterly results. CoreCivic, Inc. https://ir.corecivic.com/financial-information/quarterlyresults

Ellis, B., & Hicken, M. (2019, June 25). CNN investigation exposes preventable deaths and dangerous care in jails and prisons across the country. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2019/06/us/jail-health-care-ccs-invs/ Funding Universe. (n.d.). History of Corrections Corporation of America. Search Thousands of Company Profiles – FundingUniverse. https://www.fundinguniverse.com/companyhistories/corrections-corporation-of-america- history/ Huebner, B. M., & Inzana, V. (2009). Rehabilitation. Criminology. https://doi.org/10.1093/obo/9780195396607-0046 Office of the Inspector General, & U.s. Department of Justice. (2017). Review of the Federal Bureau of Prisons' monitoring of contract prisons. Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. Pealer, J. A. (2017). From rehabilitation to punitive measures. Correctional Rehabilitation and Therapeutic Communities, 10-71. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315267531-3 Watson, J. (2015). Report finds two-thirds of private prison contracts include “Lockup quotas” | Prison Legal News. https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/news/2015/jul/31/report-findstwo-thirds-private-prison-contracts-include-lockup-quotas/ The Wichita Eagle. (2019, August 19). Charlie Otero finds peace, stability after nearly 40 years after BTK murders. https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.kansas.com/news/specialreports/btk/article1115176. html