Considering Prison Issues and Peace

Considering Prison Issues and Peace

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By Joanie Connors & Ethel Tobach

The good we secure for ourselves is precarious and uncertain, is floating in mid-air, until it is secured for all of us. Jane Addams, 1892

Many peace activists and scholars are against the death penalty and advocate reform of US criminal justice system on humanitarian grounds, but few are actively working to change these calamities. We see changing the US obsession with imprisonment and execution as an essential and necessary step towards achieving world peace.

US governmental policy towards prisoners deserves the attention of peace scholars and activists because it is a consequence of our government’s deep penchant for vengeance and retribution. The jailing or killing those who cross us is part of our identity now as a nation bent on revenge and crushing those who stand in our way.

The war in Iraq has brought US treatment of prisoners to the forefront in a horrifying way, making it important for us to examine the issues and call for change. Stories of prisoner abuse at both Abu Graib and Guantanamo make it clear that the entire US criminal justice policy, especially the treatment of prisoners, is sick and needs to be overhauled.

Criminal ‘Justice’ in the USA

Two million three hundred thousand of US citizens were in prison as of December 2006 (Human Rights Watch, http://hrw.org/english/docs/2006/12/01/usdom14728_txt.htm). This is more than any other country in the world, including China and Russia (Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_prison_population).

How does the US criminal “justice” system work?

· Seventy seven percent (77%) of US prisoners are there for nonviolent crimes, primarily drug offenses (Third World Traveler http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Prison_System/Bad_Company.html)

· Black men are six times more likely to be incarcerated than white men in the US, and four times more likely than Black men in South Africa (Haney, http://home1.gte.net/cjhawk/Haney_Race_Rage_Punish.htm).

· The number of mentally ill people in prison has quadrupled over the last 6 years, with few getting treatment and many reporting abuse (Human Rights Watch, http://hrw.org/english/docs/2006/09/06/usdom14137.htm).

· The fastest growing segment in US prisons is undocumented aliens, comprising 1.6 million, most of whom have not committed crimes (Corpwatch, http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14333)

· In May, 2000, the UN rebuked the US for the “brutality” of its prisons, citing the use of electroshock stun belts, torture and the growing use of ‘supermax’ high security cells (UNHCR, http://www.unhchr.ch/huricane/huricane.nsf/view01/1DB59AA2EAB21919802568DC002E2C54?opendocument)

· Over 100,000 children are locked in juvenile facilities, with a growing number being sent to adult prisons (Human Rights Watch, http://www.hrw.org/prisons/united_states.html)

Do We have a “Rage to Punish”?

Statistics on the ethnicity, gender and class of most of the prisoners in USA jails make it clear that vengeance is not just an attitude we hold towards our enemies, it is endemic in the criminal ‘justice’ forced on our own low income and underclass citizens, especially Black and Hispanic men. For example, our justice system gives Black men prison time and the death penalty so far out of proportion that one scholar has characterized our system as motivated by a “rage to punish” (Haney, Race and the Rage to Punish, http://home1.gte.net/cjhawk/Haney_Race_Rage_Punish.htm).

The most unforgivable outcome of our national ‘rage to punish’ is the proliferation of capital punishment, which has killed a disproportionate number of minorities. Since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, we have executed 1066 people in this country, 43% of whom were nonwhite (Death Penalty Information Center www.deathpenaltyinfo.org ).

Fifty eight percent of the 3,400 prisoners currently on death row are nonwhite also, and dozens of studies have found racial bias in who is charged with capital crimes and sentenced to death. The death penalty is also imposed largely based on class – 90% of those on death row could not afford to hire an attorney (The Case Against the Death Penalty, http://users.rcn.com/mwood/deathpen.html ).

The Rage to Punish Goes International

The attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001 have provided an excuse to extend our obsession with punishment to the international front, onto nations identified as Arabs or Muslims. Our soldiers have been trained to bomb and personally execute the wide swath of those who are now defined as our enemies, including civilians (for an example, see “60 Minutes”, 3/18/07, http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/03/15/60minutes/main2574973.shtml ). The brutal execution of Saddam Hussein on a Muslim holy day (performed by the Iraqi government but controlled by the US) was an ugly warning to any leader who might stand in the way or our oil (and conveniently prevented Saddam from telling the story of his work with the US in the past).

In a further step towards internationalizing our quest for vengeance, since the 9-11 attacks, the US has used a different name for prisoners of war - “enemy combatants”, so that it doesn’t have to abide by the Geneva Convention’s provisions for the treatment of POW”s. We hold over 14,000 Iraqis imprisoned in Iraq, 600 in Afghanistan, and unknown numbers in detention facilities in east Europe, Indonesia, and Egypt (Human Rights First http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/media/hrd/2007/statement/316/index.htm).

Over 600 residents (mostly foreign nationals) have been imprisoned as “enemy combatants” at Guantanamo Bay and other prisons, denying them the rights of representation and due process. They and all the others imprisoned as “enemy combatants” are subject to horrible conditions (lack of water, lack of medical care, cold, heat, tent camps, unsanitary conditions), interrogations and unspeakable torture.

How to Make a Difference

Peace activists and scholars can do many things to become more strongly involved in changing our punitive criminal justice system and improving our treatment of prisoners. We suggest:

· Stay informed about criminal justice issues and reform efforts.

· Advocate reform in the criminal justice system and improvements in prison conditions through letters and calls to the media and government officials.

· Learn about Restorative Justice, which shows great promise in changing the life directions of convicted felons (see resources below)

· Advocate research on nonpunitive ways of managing prison populations (such as job training, meaningful work, study opportunities and life history journaling).

· Join and support campaigns to restore habeas corpus rights and applying the Geneva Convention to all people in US custody.

· Support the International Criminal Court, and advocate US membership in the ICC.

· Join one or more of the campaigns against the death penalty (see resources below) because it is cruel, unjustly applied, and ineffective.

Conclusion

Please keep the imprisoned in our actions and conversations about peace. Do not forget the 5.3 million individuals who languish in US prisons and other facilities (as of 2001, the most recent statistics available at the Bureau of Justice Statistics site http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/crimoff.htm) and the untold number in foreign prisons. They are our children and part of the legacy of our nation’s influence on international peace. Don’t let them disappear.