Kentucky's Overcrowded Prisons
The Inquirer, Cincinnati, OH
May 17, Tuesday.
Kentucky Overcrowding Defies Reason
Your Voice Column: Paschal Baute
Editor: Ray Cooklis.
Regarding The Kentucky Enquirer article "Campbell County inmates sue" (April 30), on a lawsuit by 27 Campbell County Detention Center inmates who claim that extreme overcrowding at the facility violates their constitutional rights:
Kentucky's growth rate among Ohio Valley states clearly beats all the surrounding seven states in at least one area - growth in prison population.
In the number of prisoners in state and federal corrections, Kentucky's rate of growth, compared with the average of the seven surrounding states, is not twice, not three times, but almost four times the average rate of all seven surrounding states, an increase of 8.5 percent from 2003 to 2004. Kentucky's growth rate in prison population is also three times the national average, according to a recent Associated Press report.
Does Kentucky have more criminals, four times the average of the surrounding seven states? Or is its "tough on crime, lock 'em up and throw away the key" sentencing code one of the harshest in the country?
How is this happening? The vast majority are in jail for using or selling drugs. We have gone from paying $7 million in 1970 to $300 million-plus per year for "corrections" in Kentucky. There is little left for rehabilitation. If we take time to examine the situation, we shall find that we are simply punishing addictive behavior by incarceration - mostly without rehabilitation, so that two-thirds are back in jail within three years.
Jails and prisons in Kentucky are so overcrowded that in some county jails inmates are living in Third World conditions. Even when volunteer programs are offered, some county jails' staffs are too busy with the overcrowded warehousing of inmates to accept the offer. I have firsthand experience in this.
Black people are five times more likely than white people to be in prison. Is the current sentencing code creating a new underclass of those trapped in addiction, joblessness and resentment?
Are the streets, shops, stores and homes any safer in Kentucky? Is this a corrective justice system , or a stealth reverse apartheid, which is undermining our safety and security by generating an increasing population of unreformed addicts? Who will examine this situation?
Paschal Baute is a pastoral psychologist in Lexington, Ky.
Link
http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050517/EDIT02/505170314/1021/EDIT01
May 17, Tuesday.
Kentucky Overcrowding Defies Reason
Your Voice Column: Paschal Baute
Editor: Ray Cooklis.
Regarding The Kentucky Enquirer article "Campbell County inmates sue" (April 30), on a lawsuit by 27 Campbell County Detention Center inmates who claim that extreme overcrowding at the facility violates their constitutional rights:
Kentucky's growth rate among Ohio Valley states clearly beats all the surrounding seven states in at least one area - growth in prison population.
In the number of prisoners in state and federal corrections, Kentucky's rate of growth, compared with the average of the seven surrounding states, is not twice, not three times, but almost four times the average rate of all seven surrounding states, an increase of 8.5 percent from 2003 to 2004. Kentucky's growth rate in prison population is also three times the national average, according to a recent Associated Press report.
Does Kentucky have more criminals, four times the average of the surrounding seven states? Or is its "tough on crime, lock 'em up and throw away the key" sentencing code one of the harshest in the country?
How is this happening? The vast majority are in jail for using or selling drugs. We have gone from paying $7 million in 1970 to $300 million-plus per year for "corrections" in Kentucky. There is little left for rehabilitation. If we take time to examine the situation, we shall find that we are simply punishing addictive behavior by incarceration - mostly without rehabilitation, so that two-thirds are back in jail within three years.
Jails and prisons in Kentucky are so overcrowded that in some county jails inmates are living in Third World conditions. Even when volunteer programs are offered, some county jails' staffs are too busy with the overcrowded warehousing of inmates to accept the offer. I have firsthand experience in this.
Black people are five times more likely than white people to be in prison. Is the current sentencing code creating a new underclass of those trapped in addiction, joblessness and resentment?
Are the streets, shops, stores and homes any safer in Kentucky? Is this a corrective justice system , or a stealth reverse apartheid, which is undermining our safety and security by generating an increasing population of unreformed addicts? Who will examine this situation?
Paschal Baute is a pastoral psychologist in Lexington, Ky.
Link
http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050517/EDIT02/505170314/1021/EDIT01
posted by Paschal Baute at 1:22 PM
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1 Comments:
I strongly agree that something should be done for the rights of these inmates. My friend is in prison and I know first hand that the living conditions are much like a third world country. We need to take action to get the people out that need to be out and take just action to change what we can within the system.
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