WP: Prison Experts See Opportunity For Improvement

[DeepModem Mom]

Prison Experts See Opportunity For Improvement

By Peter Slevin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 26, 2005; Page A03


NEWARK -- Sister Antonia Maguire, a Catholic nun who works in a New York state prison, told a story about an inmate named Cathy who complained every day for a week that she felt sick. At the prison clinic, she was given medicine for a cold, and hot tea.

Refused permission to see a doctor, she grew worse. She begged her mother to contact the superintendent, Maguire said, but died before the call could be made. A post-mortem showed congestive heart failure. She was 32.

"Not once did she see a doctor," Maguire said. "Not once did anyone put a stethoscope to her chest. Not once did anyone take her blood pressure."

Maguire was speaking last week to the Commission on Safety and Abuse in America's Prisons as it pursued a year-long effort to illuminate life behind bars for 2.2 million inmates and the 750,000 men and women who staff the facilities. The idea behind the 21-member group is to identify problems and find salable ways to address them.

The nation's prisons and jails have hardly been a source of innovation or good news in recent years, despite the estimated $60 billion spent annually on corrections. But some experts see a shift in perception and politics that could create openings for creativity in sentencing, incarceration and parole....


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/25/AR2005072501484.html

[bemildred]

1. Hard to see how they could get worse, eh? nt

[redqueen]

2. I didn't see any references in that article to rehabilitation.

Guess no one's even bothering to pretend, anymore.

[nmliberal]

3. No rehabilitation efforts anymore

How sad

[DeepModem Mom]

8. Hello, nmliberal -- welcome to DU.

[pitohui]

4. rehab not the point

why bother to pretend, rehab was always a lie

right now the struggle is to get health care in women's prisons, untreated cancer, untreated heart disease, major illness is not getting care, if a woman says she is ill it is written off as a way to get out of the cell

no one even took the young woman's blood pressure, that says it all

prison is the new slavery and those too sick to work for pennies on the dollar should quickly and efficiently die and get out of corporate prison's hair :sarcasm:

[sojourner]

5. I have gotten to the point where I can't say anything about US prisons

without sounding mad as a hatter.

Remember that the guys in Iraq at Abu Gharaib and Guantanamo first worked in US prisons. There is no pretense at rehab because it's been a while since society believed in rehab as a worthy effort.

You think people vote for "law and order" because they want the bad guys rehabilitated? Hell no! People complain that the guys behind bars have it "too good". Three squares and a roof over the head. Free health care. Helluva deal!!

The systems that exist would not exist without OUR support and our demanding that they do the job we want them to do. Even if it's not you or I, it is the "public" who votes for the perception of a "tough on crime" stance.

Edited to add: comments based on my experience working with agency with oversight over jails.

[DeepModem Mom]

6. Thanks for a view from experience, sojourner. nt

[redqueen]

7. I still believe in rehab as a worthy effort.

:kick:

[sojourner]

9. so do I -- for the most part -- and the research backs us up.

but it doesn't go along with the "tough cowboy hanging the outlaws" image, does it? or the "eye-for-an-eye" religious justice concept, either (and never mind the concept of "being merciful" and "forgiving our trespasses as we forgive our trespassers" because those are Jesus' teachings and no longer apply nowadays).

[redqueen]

10. I wish so-called "Christians" would stop being hypocritical.

If that were to happen, they'd stop supporting those "tough on crime" types and start supporting reformers.