Wednesday, October 28, 2009

The Drain of Jail Time

I had a piece published in the BYU political review.
Posted by Jon Ogden at 11:14 AM
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4 comments:

daine said...

That's a great article, Jon. What about the people who want to go to jail, however? Now that I'm living in Chicago, and south-side and west-side ghettos are not far from my house, I'm struck by the sad fact that jail is probably safer, warmer, and has more food than many of the residents here have in their regular lives. I think that something needs to be done to improve their lives in order to make jail less appealing.

10:19 AM
Jon Ogden said...

I visited Chicago briefly last year and was asked by a guy on the south-side if I wanted some "raw." I had no idea what he was talking about and had to ask him explain the euphemisms for drug names.

Jail is safer and warmer than many other options, including options for my friend here. In fact, at one point the court wouldn't release him even though he'd served his time because it was winter and he had no place to stay. At least in jail he wouldn't die from the cold, they reasoned.

I wonder if this requisite labor idea wouldn't also provide the incentive to stay away from jail. If someone could leave jail with some strong vocational skills then they'd be more likely to get food and shelter. And once they had those things the deterrent of not being able to hang out with girlfriends might be enough to make them not want to return to jail. As it is, food and warmth occasionally trump even the draw of girlfriends.

2:35 PM
Jeremy said...

Two comments:

One, your suggestion about work could be helpful, but it is predicated on the assumption that incarceration is designed for rehabilitation. As of now, at least in the US, there appears to be divergence as to whether the prison system is designed for purely punitive purposes, or for some measure of rehabilitation. (Thinking of this really brings Foucault to mind, and while I know you are generally into most theory, I really think you should have a look at Discipline and Punish) There needs to be a push for public policy about the purpose of the prison system before ideas like yours could be implemented because I cant see any way to reconcile these two divergent views of the system which means that I also can't see how changes can be made when the idea or method we are changing from is unclear.

And two, I would like to know how your suggestion about labor would be protected from enterprising capitalist endeavors wanting to appropriate the cheap labor, and therefore volleying for measures that would lead to an increase in inmate numbers to sustain a labor force. If there is profit to be had from the prison system, it worries me because then it becomes a capitalistic mechanism, rather than a place for either punishment or reform. If any group depends on prison labor for its support, then it depends on the perpetuation of that labor. Even if people started to improve behaviorally on a national level, I could see how court rulings would favor jail time because of the benefit to some lobbyist group. And then prisons become recruitment camps (goodbye reform and goodbye punishment) for corporate cheap labor. Reform and punishment disappear because inmates become profitable, and that means that the system would only reform or punish as a byproduct of the commercialization of the prison system. Seems far away from any legitimate use of the prison system, but maybe you have some points to raise that I have not thought of.

So, I'd love your thoughts on my two concerns.

Take care, my friend.

11:54 PM
Jon Ogden said...

Jeremy, you do good.

I must tell you that I've been eying Foucault's book on this topic. Does he just pontificate or does he offer pragmatic solutions?

I don't see too much of a problem with your first point, since I see work as a punitive purpose. If people know that when they go to prison they'll be forced to work for very low wages, it'll deter them from wanting to go to prison, no? So I'd lobby for people to view the prison system as both punitive and rehabilitative. Am I looking at that too briskly?

The second point, though, puts me in a tough spot. A spot so tough I must say I don't have an answer for you.

I think you're on to something when you say that adding incentives would probably make the system a capitalist mechanism, but the alternative (the status quo?) looks so much worse that I'm willing to take it. The stats I was looking at in the 2000 Corrections Yearbook said that something like .03 percent of prisons currently had private institutions hiring prisoners for work, but another source said that these programs are the best for helping prisoners transition successfully out of prison.

Honestly, that point about increasing incentives for businesses was something I threw in at the last minute. I still think it's a good idea, but I admittedly don't understand economics well enough to know if it's completely feasible. Again, it only seems better than the status quo.

I'd love to hear what solutions you/Foucault have come to.

3:50 PM

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