tag:theconversation.com,2011:/fr/topics/us-prisons-16323/articlesUS prisons – The Conversation2023-11-13T13:33:03Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2165212023-11-13T13:33:03Z2023-11-13T13:33:03ZWe studied jail conditions and jail deaths − here’s what we found<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/557804/original/file-20231106-21-2dyu2x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=431%2C44%2C2564%2C1944&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Since Jan. 1, 2023, 10 inmates have died at Fulton County Jail.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-fulton-county-jail-is-seen-on-august-23-2023-in-atlanta-news-photo/1634699529?adppopup=true">Joe Raedle/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The family of Samuel Lawrence, one of 10 people to die in Georgia’s Fulton County Jail in 2023, is fighting for answers and accountability.</p>
<p>“I got to think about him every day of my life and I don’t know when the pain stops,” Lawrence’s father, Frank Richardson, <a href="https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/samuel-lawrence-fulton-county-jail-death-release-autopsy-report#tbl-em-lnvxq3su1oqm8a7sjt9h">told a local TV station</a> in October 2023. “I pray to God that he touches that jail and puts people in place to help the other ones that are left behind.”</p>
<p>Shortly before his death, Lawrence, 34, had <a href="https://www.theroot.com/before-a-fulton-county-inmate-was-found-dead-he-sent-a-1850787506">filed a complaint</a> about jail conditions, alleging that he was brutally beaten and isolated, with insufficient food and water.</p>
<p>But Fulton County Sheriff Patrick Labat <a href="https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/family-of-fulton-county-jail-inmate-samuel-lawrence-holding-press-conference#tbl-em-lnvx469bxojzi9ayzta">largely blamed</a> the jail’s “outbreak of violence” on “the long-standing, dangerous overcrowding and the crumbling walls of the facility.” </p>
<p>In order to “save lives,” Labat said, his county would be requesting a “replacement jail.” </p>
<p>The Georgia sheriff is among many law enforcement officials to claim that people like Samuel Lawrence would be safer if communities reduced overcrowding by <a href="https://www.vera.org/downloads/publications/broken-ground-jail-construction.pdf">building new jails</a> or enhancing existing ones. </p>
<p>But recent research my colleague <a href="https://facultyweb.kennesaw.edu/wchen30/index.php">Weiwei Chen</a> and <a href="https://sipa.fiu.edu/people/faculty/history/adler-jessica.html">I</a> published on escalating jail mortality rates nationwide calls into question that rationale. </p>
<p>In an article published in the June 2023 issue of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2022.01229">Health Affairs</a>, we examined relationships between <a href="https://www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/hp20230622.621918/">jail conditions and jail deaths</a>, analyzing factors such as percent of jail capacity occupied, admission and discharge rates and population demographics. </p>
<p>Among the variables that appeared to be most significantly related to jail mortality were <a href="https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2022.01229">turnover rate</a> – the number of people admitted to and discharged from a facility relative to its average population – as well as the percentage of Black people in the jail population.</p>
<h2>Jail mortality</h2>
<p>Jails are sometimes referred to as the <a href="https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/10.1146/annurev-criminol-011518-024601">“front door” of the criminal justice system</a>. Unlike prisons, which are run by federal and state governments and hold convicted people serving relatively long sentences, jails are locally managed, and <a href="https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2023.html">the majority of their populations</a> are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-criminol-011518-024601">being detained pretrial</a> while unconvicted.</p>
<p>Data on how many people die while incarcerated is <a href="https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/subcommittees/investigations/hearings/uncounted-deaths-in-americas-prisons-and-jails-how-the-department-of-justice-failed-to-implement-the-death-in-custody-reporting-act/">notoriously inaccessible</a> and <a href="https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/12925/death-custody">often unreliable</a>. Still, available reports on jail deaths from the Bureau of Justice Statistics offer some perspective. </p>
<p>In 2019, overall jail death rates were below the adjusted national average of 339 per 100,000, but leading up to that year, they had steeply increased. Between 2000 and 2019, <a href="https://bjs.ojp.gov/library/publications/mortality-local-jails-2000-2019-statistical-tables">jail mortality</a> rose by 11%, from 151 per 100,000 to 167 per 100,000. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A group of people stand on a staircase while holding posters that have the names of people written in large letters." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/557898/original/file-20231106-253869-75fy2h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/557898/original/file-20231106-253869-75fy2h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/557898/original/file-20231106-253869-75fy2h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/557898/original/file-20231106-253869-75fy2h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/557898/original/file-20231106-253869-75fy2h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/557898/original/file-20231106-253869-75fy2h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/557898/original/file-20231106-253869-75fy2h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People hold banners with the names of people who have died in Rikers Island jail during a rally on July 11, 2023, in New York City.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/people-hold-banners-with-the-names-of-people-who-have-died-news-photo/1534248945?adppopup=true">Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>To conduct what <a href="https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/11788/life-and-death-rikers-island">epidemiologist Homer Venters</a> referred to as an “apples-to-apples comparison” of circumstances and deaths in multiple jails during a period of escalating mortality, we relied on a combination of datasets. </p>
<p>For information about facility deaths, we turned to statistics compiled by Reuters news agency reporters, who submitted Freedom of Information Act requests to obtain <a href="https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2021.306385">mortality data</a> from the largest jails across the U.S. </p>
<p>Our data on jail conditions – such as annual admissions and releases, facility capacities and demographics – came from the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ <a href="https://bjs.ojp.gov/data-collection/census-jails-coj">census</a> and <a href="https://bjs.ojp.gov/data-collection/annual-survey-jails-asj">annual survey</a> of jails.</p>
<p>Ultimately, we assessed mortality rates and conditions in approximately 450 U.S. jails between 2008 and 2019. </p>
<p>Some of our most robust findings about jail deaths had to do with two factors: turnover rate – the sum of weekly admissions and releases divided by average daily population – and demographics.</p>
<p>In the jails we examined, average turnover was 67% (slightly above the national average of <a href="https://bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pdf/ji19_sum.pdf">53%</a>). Relatively high turnover rates, we found, were associated with higher death rates overall, as well as due to suicide, drugs and alcohol, and homicide.</p>
<p>In addition to revealing a relationship between turnover rate and mortality, our research showed that the presence of greater proportions of non-Hispanic Black people in populations of relatively large jails was associated with more deaths due to illness. </p>
<p>Race-based differences in illness-related deaths could be due to a variety of factors, including populationwide <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33471116/">health disparities</a> in the U.S. </p>
<h2>Reliance on jails</h2>
<p>Our findings about both turnover and racial disparities should be considered alongside the broader context of jail incarceration in the United States.</p>
<p>Roughly <a href="https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/repeatarrests.html">4.9 million people</a> are arrested and jailed each year, some of them multiple times. Overall, there were approximately <a href="https://bjs.ojp.gov/library/publications/jail-inmates-2019">10.3 million admissions</a> to more than 3,000 U.S. jails in 2019. </p>
<p>As of 2019, <a href="https://bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pdf/ji19.pdf">Black people were jailed</a> at a rate more than three times that of white people. </p>
<p>People in jails have been found to be “<a href="https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/incomejails.html">significantly poorer</a>” than people outside of jails, and more than 30 percent of those who are detained remain incarcerated because they <a href="https://www.americanbar.org/groups/crsj/publications/human_rights_magazine_home/economic-justice/criminal-justice-debt-problems/">cannot afford to pay bail</a>. </p>
<p>Jailed people are also disproportionately likely to face health challenges. They are <a href="https://bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pdf/mpsfpji1112.pdf">more likely to report having had</a> chronic health issues, infectious diseases, mental illnesses and <a href="https://bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pdf/dudaspji0709.pdf">substance use problems</a>. </p>
<p>The United States’ remarkably <a href="https://www.prisonpolicy.org/global/2021.html">high population of incarcerated people</a> – and the composition of that population – are related to decades’ worth of <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691174525/getting-tough">cuts in social welfare programs</a>, <a href="https://newjimcrow.com/">structural racism</a>, <a href="https://www.pennpress.org/9781512823493/this-is-my-jail/">local</a> and <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674979826">national</a> political trends, and <a href="https://www.versobooks.com/products/178-the-end-of-policing">policing practices</a>. </p>
<p>Research has shown that the <a href="https://thenewpress.com/books/usual-cruelty">cash bail system</a> – a key driver of high jail turnover – “<a href="https://www.vera.org/news/how-the-united-states-punishes-people-for-being-poor">punishes the poor</a>” by ensuring that they are more likely to be detained than their wealthier counterparts for the same crime. A reliance on cash bail also reportedly increases recidivism and <a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/article/5-ways-cash-bail-systems-undermine-community-safety/">undermines public safety</a>.</p>
<h2>Beyond incarceration</h2>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2022.01229">Our study</a> suggests that ongoing initiatives geared at reducing incarceration – and by extension, jail turnover – could help achieve Sheriff Labat’s goal of saving lives. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A middle aged man dressed in a white shirt adorned withlaw enforcement patches is speaking to a crowd." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/557896/original/file-20231106-270180-x9owg5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/557896/original/file-20231106-270180-x9owg5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/557896/original/file-20231106-270180-x9owg5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/557896/original/file-20231106-270180-x9owg5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/557896/original/file-20231106-270180-x9owg5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=536&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/557896/original/file-20231106-270180-x9owg5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=536&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/557896/original/file-20231106-270180-x9owg5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=536&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fulton County Sheriff Patrick Labat speaks during a news conference.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/fulton-county-sheriff-patrick-labat-speaks-during-pepsi-news-photo/1311333461?adppopup=true">Paras Griffin/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Some communities, for example, have successfully <a href="https://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2022/03/28/harris-county-pretrial-reform-results/">limited the use</a> of cash bail. Others have enhanced <a href="https://www.vera.org/beyond-jails-community-based-strategies-for-public-safety">community-based services</a> that address mental illness, drug use and homelessness without involving police, so jails are less likely to be sites of first resort for people with complex needs. </p>
<p>A year before Samuel Lawrence died, a <a href="https://www.aclu.org/report/there-are-better-solutions-analysis-fulton-countys-jail-population-data-2022">report from the ACLU</a> suggested that by adopting at least some of the above measures, Fulton County could “reduce its jail population significantly.”</p>
<p>It could also, our research suggests, save lives.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216521/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Funding for this "Scholarly Works" project was made possible by Grant No. G13LM013522-01A1 from the National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health. The content is solely the responsibility of the author and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.</span></em></p>Higher jail mortality is related to jail turnover rates and demographics.Jessica L. Adler, Associate Professor of History, Florida International UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1982022023-01-30T13:13:10Z2023-01-30T13:13:10ZWhy are there prisons? An expert explains the history of using ‘correctional’ facilities to punish people<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505667/original/file-20230120-6022-zao2ux.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=3%2C6%2C2105%2C1408&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Cells at Alcatraz, a famous former prison on an island off the coast of California.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/alcatraz-cellhouse-in-san-francisco-royalty-free-image/10070645?phrase=alcatraz&adppopup=true">Andrea Pistolesi/Stone via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/curious-kids-us-74795">Curious Kids</a> is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to <a href="mailto:curiouskidsus@theconversation.com">curiouskidsus@theconversation.com</a>.</em></p>
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<blockquote>
<p><strong>Why are there prisons? – Andrew H., age 8</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>When people are found guilty of committing a crime, a judge will decide how they should be punished. Sometimes they are allowed to live in their own homes and they have to pay a fine or serve their communities, but sometimes they are incarcerated, which means they are ordered to live in a jail or a prison. During this time, they cannot leave and they have to follow the rules of the facility.</p>
<p>Jails and prisons are called correctional facilities because they are meant to help correct the person’s behavior so that person does not commit any more crimes. But as <a href="https://www.uml.edu/fahss/criminal-justice/faculty/long-joshua.aspx">a criminologist</a> – someone who studies crime and prisons – I often wonder how people decided that incarceration was a good way to “correct” people.</p>
<p>There is <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-oxford-history-of-the-prison-9780195118148?cc=us&lang=en&">a long history</a> of using jails and prisons as punishment for breaking the law, and to keep communities safe. But there is also debate about how well those systems work, how fair they are and how to improve them.</p>
<h2>Jail vs. prison</h2>
<p>Although jails and prisons are similar, they usually have <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/jail-vs-prison-difference">different purposes</a>. Most of the people living in jail have not been convicted of a crime yet and are waiting for the court to decide if they are guilty. A person who is found guilty can be sent to live in the jail as punishment, but they typically stay for less than one year.</p>
<p>If the judge sentences someone to be incarcerated for a longer period of time, that person is normally sent to a prison in another part of the state. Sometimes the prison is far away from their home, and it can be difficult for their families to visit. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man in an orange top puts his head in his hands as a woman makes a heart sign with her hands." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505964/original/file-20230123-7791-312baj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505964/original/file-20230123-7791-312baj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505964/original/file-20230123-7791-312baj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505964/original/file-20230123-7791-312baj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505964/original/file-20230123-7791-312baj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505964/original/file-20230123-7791-312baj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505964/original/file-20230123-7791-312baj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Sometimes people visiting loved ones in prison must talk on a phone, with a piece of glass separating them.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/male-prisoner-sharing-love-with-wife-in-prison-royalty-free-image/1250157575?phrase=%22prison%20visit%22&adppopup=true">South_agency/E+ via Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>Prison then vs. prison now</h2>
<p>In the past, people were not sent to jails and prisons as a legal punishment. Instead, these places were used <a href="https://daily.jstor.org/the-invention-of-incarceration/">to contain people</a> who were suspected of a crime, to keep them from escaping before their punishment was decided.</p>
<p>If they were found guilty, sometimes they were punished with physical pain, such as being whipped. Sometimes they were forced to work without pay or for very low wages. Others might be sent far away from their communities and not allowed to come back. The most serious punishment was execution, and many people were killed for their crimes.</p>
<p>Over time, most countries decided that these types of punishment were cruel or ineffective, so they <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/23307878">started using jails and prisons</a> as places where people could be punished by losing their freedom for a specific amount of time. Judges could give some people longer sentences if their crimes were more serious, and shorter sentences if their crimes did not deserve a long punishment. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A black and white sketch shows a grumpy-looking man in stocks." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505730/original/file-20230122-22-g57pbm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505730/original/file-20230122-22-g57pbm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505730/original/file-20230122-22-g57pbm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505730/original/file-20230122-22-g57pbm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505730/original/file-20230122-22-g57pbm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505730/original/file-20230122-22-g57pbm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505730/original/file-20230122-22-g57pbm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Stocks were an old-fashioned form of punishment where someone had to sit with their legs sticking through the holes for a while.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/man-in-stocks-from-the-illustrated-library-shakspeare-news-photo/188005368?phrase=stocks%20punishment&adppopup=true">Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>People expected that some prisoners would learn a lesson from their prison experience. If they were scared of going back to prison, hopefully they would be less likely to break the law in the future. Some prisons tried to “rehabilitate” people by giving them an education, job training or therapy that might help them prepare to return home.</p>
<h2>Longer sentences</h2>
<p>In the 1970s, there was <a href="https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/americas-faulty-perception-crime-rates">an increase</a> in the number of crimes reported in the United States, and many people were scared. They thought that society would be safer if more people were <a href="https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/correctional-theory/book244021">sent to prison</a>. The size of the prison population increased from <a href="https://www.vera.org/reimagining-prison-web-report/american-history-race-and-prison#:%7E:text=The%20numbers%20are%20stunning.,it%20had%20grown%20to%20481%2C616.">around 200,000 people</a> in the 1970s to <a href="https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2022.html">around 2 million people</a> in recent years.</p>
<p>People started spending very long periods of time in prison, and more people were given <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/03/02/life-sentences-growing/">life sentences</a>, meaning that they could never return home. Before, those punishments had been reserved for very serious crimes, but new laws passed during this time made them more common.</p>
<p>Prisons <a href="https://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2020/12/21/overcrowding/">became overcrowded</a>, which <a href="https://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/wajlp22&div=24&g_sent=1&casa_token=7UULMYy7JzUAAAAA:k3niXJcHR0c3X3Uz-ck8mC8vWQgxN9GE9QfJauy7CNVq-Ox3oTUYfNEORYMxnnM4qR1YWkA&collection=journals">spread resources more thinly</a>, including programs to help prisoners prepare to return to society. More people wound up <a href="https://global.oup.com/ushe/product/the-warehouse-prison-9780195330472?cc=us&lang=en&">committing crimes again</a> after they returned home. </p>
<h2>Improving prisons</h2>
<p>People who study correctional facilities, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=k14M84kAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">like me</a>, have found many problems to fix. Some have to do with the large number of people in prisons. Many nondangerous people <a href="https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/how-many-americans-are-unnecessarily-incarcerated">wind up serving time there</a>, when they could serve a different punishment and receive therapy in their communities instead.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A few men sit at classroom desks in a simple room with a blue floor." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505968/original/file-20230123-5967-zduwlb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505968/original/file-20230123-5967-zduwlb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505968/original/file-20230123-5967-zduwlb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505968/original/file-20230123-5967-zduwlb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505968/original/file-20230123-5967-zduwlb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505968/original/file-20230123-5967-zduwlb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505968/original/file-20230123-5967-zduwlb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Prisoners in France wait to receive computers they will be allowed to keep in their cells to do schoolwork.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/prisoners-wait-to-get-a-computer-in-the-prison-of-news-photo/1232073840?phrase=degree%20prison&adppopup=true">Olivier Chassignole/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Another major problem is <a href="https://newjimcrow.com/">racial discrimination</a>. Many researchers have found that Black, Hispanic and Native American people are <a href="https://www.ussc.gov/research/research-reports/demographic-differences-sentencing">more likely to be sent to prison</a> than people from other racial and ethnic groups, even if they were convicted of the same crimes. This can cause a lot of serious problems for their families and communities.</p>
<p>Societies might always need to incarcerate some people who have committed serious crimes or who pose a danger to others. Perhaps the system can become safer, fairer and more successful in punishing crimes while rehabilitating.</p>
<hr>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joshua Long does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Prisons and jails have a long history, but they weren’t always used for the same kinds of punishment.Joshua Long, Assistant Professor of Criminology and Justice Studies, UMass LowellLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1952512022-11-29T13:35:15Z2022-11-29T13:35:15ZAlabama’s execution problems are part of a long history of botched lethal injections<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497724/original/file-20221128-5230-q7icct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C5%2C3457%2C2175&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In some cases, death row inmates have been strapped to the gurney for hours.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/DeathPenaltyProblemsExplainer/86ba64530aa64b6ba241c943b619f14a/photo?Query=alabama%20execution&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=68&currentItemNo=2">AP Photo/Sue Ogrock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey has <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/11/21/1138357929/alabama-executions-pause-lethal-injection">announced</a> a pause in her state’s use of capital punishment. It follows a run of botched lethal injection executions in the state, including two where the procedure <a href="https://eji.org/news/kenny-smith-alabama-execution/">had to be abandoned before the inmates succumbed to the cocktail of death drugs</a>.</p>
<p>The last straw appears to have been the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/17/us/alabama-execution-kenneth-smith.html">failed attempt to put Kenneth Smith to death</a> on Nov. 17, 2022. The state had to call off the procedure after difficulty in securing an IV line.</p>
<p>But that was just the latest execution not to go as planned. In September, Alabama had to stop <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/10/alabama-inmate-execution-alan-miller/671620/">the execution of Alan Eugene Miller</a> after prison officials poked him with needles for more than an hour because they could not find a usable vein in which to secure an IV.</p>
<p>Even when the execution was carried out resulting in death, the manner has been problematic. When the state executed <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/joe-nathan-james-jr-alabama-apparently-botched-recent-execution-anti-death-penalty-group-asserts/">Joe Nathan James</a> on July 28, 2022, the process – which is normally supposed to be over in a matter of minutes – <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/08/joe-nathan-james-execution-alabama/671127/">took more than three hours</a>. During that time, officials tried repeatedly to insert the IV lines necessary to carry the deadly drugs and jabbed James with needles. </p>
<p>In a statement on Nov. 21, Ivey <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/21/politics/alabama-executions-pause-review-ivey">ordered</a> the state Department of Corrections to do a thorough review of the procedures used in executions and asked the state’s attorney general, Steve Marshall, to stop the process for two upcoming executions.</p>
<p>Alabama officials <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/21/us/alabama-executions-lethal-injection.html">have blamed</a> their problems on what they have described as frivolous, last-minute legal maneuvers by death penalty defense lawyers. In the cases of Miller and Smith, state officials claimed that they ran out of time before the death warrant was due to expire.</p>
<p>But whatever the cause, Alabama’s execution difficulties are not unique to that state. </p>
<p>My <a href="https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=23979">research shows</a> that since 1900, in states across the country, lethal injections have been more frequently botched than any of the other type of execution methods used throughout that period. This includes hanging, electrocution, the gas chamber and the firing squad – even though these approaches are not without their problems.</p>
<h2>The early history of lethal injection</h2>
<p>Lethal injection <a href="https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/a25689/gerry-commission-report-methods-of-execution/">was first considered by the state of New York</a> in the late 1880s when it convened a blue ribbon commission to study alternatives to hanging. During its deliberations, Dr. Julius Mount Bleyer <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=E7S3C4_IYmYC&pg=PA73&lpg=PA73&dq=that+%E2%80%9Cthe+condemned+could+be+executed+on+his+bed+in+his+cell+with+a+6-gram+injection+of+sulfate+of+morphine.%E2%80%9D&source=bl&ots=DX7rmZpYKi&sig=ACfU3U2t-1PK08QmFL3jwZ63iRWRO6URAw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiOpYe52Zv4AhWBZjABHbQKD00Q6AF6BAgCEAM#v=onepage&q=that%20%E2%80%9Cthe%20condemned%20could%20be%20executed%20on%20his%20bed%20in%20his%20cell%20with%20a%206-gram%20injection%20of%20sulfate%20of%20morphine.%E2%80%9D&f=false">invited the commission to envision</a> a future in which a person condemned to death “could be executed on his bed in his cell with a 6-gram injection of sulfate of morphine.”</p>
<p>Bleyer and his allies <a href="https://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/medlejo5&div=43&g_sent=1&casa_token=">argued</a> that the procedure would be painless. They said that unlike hanging, the method could not be messed up. It also would be cheap, they claimed – all that was needed was a needle and a small amount of morphine.</p>
<p>Lethal injection’s critics told the commission that the method would actually be easily botched, especially if doctors did not conduct the procedure. And even when done right, those in favor of the death penalty as the ultimate sentence further argued that it would be too humane. It would take the dread out of death and dampen capital punishment’s deterrent effect.</p>
<p>Ultimately, lethal injection’s opponents prevailed, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Executioners-Current-Westinghouse-Invention-Electric/dp/037572446X">aided by the medical community’s unwavering stance against it</a>. Doctors “did not want the syringe, which was associated with the alleviation of human suffering, to become an instrument of death.”</p>
<p>For nearly 100 years after New York’s decision, no jurisdiction in the United States authorized execution by lethal injection. But the early debate over lethal injection foreshadowed arguments that were heard in 1977 during Oklahoma’s consideration of this execution method.</p>
<p>Proponents echoed Bleyer and <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2005/09/guilty-man/">declared</a> that executions using this method could be accomplished with “no struggle, no stench, no pain.”</p>
<p>This time they won.</p>
<p>The specific drugs to be used in lethal injection – the anesthetic <a href="https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/molecule-of-the-week/archive/s/sodium-thiopental.html">sodium thiopental</a> and <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/339801/">pancuronium bromide</a>, a muscle relaxant – would not be chosen until four years later. Although the original law only called for those two drugs, a third drug was soon added: <a href="https://www.hrw.org/reports/2006/us0406/4.htm#:%7E:text=Potassium%20chloride%20is%20the%20drug,within%20a%20minute%20of%20injection.">potassium chloride</a>, which causes cardiac arrest. </p>
<p>Together, these three drugs would <a href="https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-alper-3-drug-cocktail-20170420-story.html">make up what became the “standard” three-drug, lethal injection protocol</a>. And what started in Oklahoma spread quickly. Lethal injection soon became the execution method of choice across the United States in every state that had the death penalty. </p>
<h2>Lethal injection’s troubles</h2>
<p>But right from the start, administering lethal injections proved to be a complex procedure that was difficult to get right. In fact, the <a href="https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/charlie-brooks-last-words/">first use of lethal injection by Texas in 1982</a> gave a foretaste of some of the problems that would later come to characterize the method of execution.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A black and white photo shows a white gurney with straps in a bricked room." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497726/original/file-20221128-13-taimz1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497726/original/file-20221128-13-taimz1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497726/original/file-20221128-13-taimz1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497726/original/file-20221128-13-taimz1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497726/original/file-20221128-13-taimz1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497726/original/file-20221128-13-taimz1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497726/original/file-20221128-13-taimz1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lethal injection chambers have remained relatively unchanged since being introduced in Texas in 1982.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/TexasDeptofCorrectionsExecutionRoom1982/00ea6690975145cca2dfd711504ce77e/photo?Query=lethal%20injection%201982&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=14&currentItemNo=13">AP Photo/Ed Kolenovsky</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Texas team charged with executing a prisoner named <a href="https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/first-execution-by-lethal-injection#:%7E:text=The%20first%20execution%20by%20lethal,when%20administered%20in%20lesser%20doses.">Charles Brooks</a> repeatedly <a href="https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1982/12/16/painful-questions-pbtbhe-execution-of-charles/">failed in their efforts to insert an IV</a> into a vein in his arm, splattering blood onto the sheet covering his body. And after the IV was secured and the drugs began to flow, Brooks seemed to experience considerable pain.</p>
<p>The difficulties in Brooks’ execution and in subsequent lethal injections result from the fact that medical ethics <a href="https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4294&context=flr">do not allow</a> doctors to take part in choosing the drugs or administering them. In the place of doctors, prison officials are responsible for the lethal injection procedure. In addition, dosages of the drugs used are <a href="https://people.howstuffworks.com/lethal-injection5.htm">standardized</a> rather than tailored to the needs of particular inmates as they would be in a medical procedure. As a result, sometimes the lethal injection drugs don’t work correctly. </p>
<p>Despite the effort to medicalize executions, the history of lethal injection has been anything but smooth, sterile and predictable. In fact, my research reveals that of the 1,054 executions carried out from 1982 to 2010 using the standard three-drug lethal injection protocol, more than 7% were botched.</p>
<p>Since then, owing in part to <a href="https://www.themarshallproject.org/2016/04/12/how-the-drug-shortage-has-slowed-the-death-penalty-treadmill">difficulties death penalty states have had in acquiring drugs</a> for the standard three-drug protocol, <a href="https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=35871">things appear to have gotten worse</a>. States have turned to questionable drug suppliers, including compounding pharmacies that are <a href="https://www.fda.gov/drugs/human-drug-compounding/compounding-and-fda-questions-and-answers#:%7E:text=Are%20compounded%20drugs%20approved%20by,safety%2C%20effectiveness%2C%20and%20quality.">not subject to extensive regulation by the Food and Drug Administration</a>.</p>
<p>In the last decade, states have used no less than 10 different drug combinations in lethal injections. Some of them were used multiple times, while others were used just once.</p>
<p>As states have experimented in the hope of finding a reliable drug protocol, <a href="https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=35871">my research shows</a> that botched executions have occurred as much as 20% of the time, depending on which of the newer drug protocols is employed. </p>
<p>During some of those executions, inmates have cried out in pain and repeatedly gasped for breath long after they were supposed to have been rendered unconscious.</p>
<p>In September 2020, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/09/21/793177589/gasping-for-air-autopsies-reveal-troubling-effects-of-lethal-injection#:%7E:text=Most%20states%20use%20three%20drugs,as%20cruel%3F%22%20says%20Zivot.">an NPR investigation</a> helped explain the high rate of bungled executions. It found signs of pulmonary edema fluid filling the lungs in many of the post-lethal injection autopsies it reviewed. Those autopsies reveal that inmates’ lungs failed while they continued to try to breathe, causing them to feel as if they were drowning and suffocating.</p>
<h2>Responding to lethal injection’s problems</h2>
<p>Alabama now joins <a href="https://sanquentinnews.com/gov-mike-dewine-halts-executions-in-ohio/">Ohio</a> and <a href="https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/politics/2022/05/02/tennessee-governor-pauses-2022-executions-lethal-injection-review/9612950002/">Tennessee</a> as states that have paused executions and launched investigations after lethal injection failures. Other states <a href="https://account.thestate.com/paywall/subscriber-only?resume=251151894&intcid=ab_archive">have resurrected</a> previously discredited methods of execution – like electrocution or the firing squad – and added them to their menu of execution options on the books. </p>
<p>Lethal injection’s problems also have contributed to <a href="https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/state-and-federal-info/state-by-state">the decision of 11 states to abolish the death penalty since 2007</a>.</p>
<p>Reviewing the history of the different execution methods used in this country, Supreme Court Justice Sonya Sotomayor <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/16pdf/16-602_n758.pdf">wrote in 2017</a>: “States develop a method of execution, which is generally accepted for a time. Science then reveals that … the states’ chosen method of execution causes unconstitutional levels of suffering.”</p>
<p>And, referring specifically to lethal injection and its problems, she observed, “What cruel irony that the method [of execution] that appears most humane may turn out to be our most cruel experiment yet.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/195251/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Austin Sarat does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Alabama has paused the carrying out of death sentences after a series of cases in which the state struggled with the procedure.Austin Sarat, William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science, Amherst CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1925612022-10-19T12:39:33Z2022-10-19T12:39:33ZHow college in prison is leading professors to rethink how they teach<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490184/original/file-20221017-11-apu2i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C17%2C5991%2C3835&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Programs that offer college in prison are becoming more prevalent.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://theconversation.com/drafts/192561/edit#">Scott Shymko via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When it comes to education in prison, policy and research often focus on <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/how-we-rise/2021/08/20/the-societal-benefits-of-postsecondary-prison-education/">how it benefits society</a> or improves the <a href="https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR266.html">life circumstances</a> of those who are serving time.</p>
<p>But as I point out in my new edited volume, “<a href="https://brandeisuniversitypress.com/title/9781684581061/">Education Behind the Wall: Why and How We Teach College in Prison</a>,” education in prison is doing more than changing the lives of those who have been locked up as punishment for crimes – it is also changing the lives of those doing the teaching.</p>
<p>As director of a <a href="https://emerson.edu/epi">college program in prisons</a> and as a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=R00JOgwAAAAJ&view_op=list_works">researcher</a> and <a href="https://emerson.edu/faculty-staff-directory/mneesha-gellman">professor</a> who teaches in both colleges and prisons, I know that the experience of teaching in a correctional facility makes educators question and reexamine much of what we do.</p>
<p>My book collects experiences of college professors who teach in prison. A common thread is that we all went into education behind the wall thinking about ourselves to some extent as experts but have since critically reflected on what we know through interactions with incarcerated students and the institutions that hold them.</p>
<h2>Rewriting the book</h2>
<p>One semester in 2020, I volunteered to tutor for a class on something that occurs frequently behind prison walls: conflict and negotiation. The class featured two books that are considered essential to the field. The first is “<a href="https://www.mheducation.com/highered/product/interpersonal-conflict-hocker-berry/M9781260836950.html">Interpersonal Conflict</a>,” a 2014 text that invites readers to reflect on how conflict has played out in their personal lives. The second is “<a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/324551/getting-to-yes-by-roger-fisher-and-william-ury/">Getting to Yes</a>,” a 2011 text described by its publisher as a “universally applicable method for negotiating personal and professional disputes without getting angry – or getting taken.”</p>
<p>“You know, I know these are very important books and all, but this isn’t really what would work in here,” one incarcerated student said after a few class meetings, gesturing to the prison walls. “Here, you can’t talk openly about your feelings like the authors want us to, and the rules of relating to people are different.”</p>
<p>I responded that his observation was astute, and that knowing both sets of rules – and how to switch between them – could be profoundly useful. For example, I theorized, I imagine he behaves differently during yard time than on a phone call with a family member on the outside. If the textbooks about conflict on the outside didn’t adequately address how to handle conflict in prison, I suggested he write an equivalent book for conflict negotiation in prison.</p>
<p>“Maybe I should,” he chuckled, and looked around to his classmates. “Maybe we should.”</p>
<p>The experience showed me how even though there are textbooks that are considered “universal,” that universality may not always extend itself to correctional institutions.</p>
<h2>A new understanding of status</h2>
<p>As a full professor and chair of the sociology department at Clark University, a small, private university in Worcester, Massachusetts, <a href="https://www2.clarku.edu/faculty/facultybio.cfm?id=162">Shelly Tenenbaum</a> is used to being accorded a certain degree of respect for her professional accomplishments and credentials. But none of those things mattered once she passed through the gates of medium-security prisons for men located in Massachusetts. </p>
<p>“Status that I might have as a scholar, full professor, department chair … is rendered invisible as we enter prison,” Tenenbaum writes. When passing through security, “I have been abruptly instructed to obey commands and my questions are ignored.” </p>
<p>Encounters with correctional officers are frequently unnerving for educators, particularly at the entrance gates.</p>
<p>“I find myself in the position of needing to second-guess what I may (or may not) have done wrong and defer to people who are considerably younger than I am,” Tenenbaum continues. “There were times that I followed rules only to be scolded when the rules appeared to be differently interpreted from one day to the next. To be in the subordinate role of a power dynamic is a humbling experience. … It takes having expectations defied to realize that they even existed.” </p>
<p>Whether the rules are about clothing faculty members are allowed to wear or the number of pieces of paper we can carry in, the decisions are frequently about power. In her chapter, Tenenbaum writes that having had her status questioned has led to a new sense of humility and altered the power dynamics in her professional world. She does not take it for granted that her expertise is currency for respect.</p>
<h2>Modeling apology</h2>
<p>When an incarcerated student told Bill Littlefield, a retired English professor, that the novel “Frankenstein” had no relevance to his experience or life, Littlefield’s first reaction was to push back.</p>
<p>“‘Good writing is always relevant,’ I said, ever the professor,” writes Littlefield. Littlefield tutors and teaches at the Massachusetts Correctional Institution in Concord and Northeastern Correctional Center. He is also author of the newly released book “<a href="https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2022/08/03/mercy-bill-littlefield">Mercy</a>,” as well as popular host of WBUR’s sports radio show “<a href="https://www.wbur.org/radio/programs/onlyagame">Only A Game</a>.”</p>
<p>“He said he would read it, certainly … even though he knew that the story of the lonely, ultimately vengeful monster created by the gentleman scientist’s preposterous, insane overreach would have nothing to say to him,” Littlefield writes. “I argued that he was wrong.”</p>
<p>But in the week that followed, Littlefield said he came to see his own reaction as a mistake and an act of arrogance.</p>
<p>“When we met again, I made a point of apologizing to the student, in front of his classmates,” Littlefield writes. “I told him that I’d realized it was no business of mine to tell him what was relevant to his life. If he did the reading, he’d decide for himself.” The student thanked him.</p>
<h2>More college in prison</h2>
<p>As college programs in prison <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2021/05/18/new-moment-prison-education">become more prevalent</a>, I fully expect that in the coming years there will be more and more college professors being transformed by the powerful experience of teaching behind bars. This is especially so given that Congress has <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2021/01/27/pell-grants-restored-people-prison-eyes-turn-assuring-quality">lifted a long-standing ban</a> on federal financial aid, namely, Pell Grants, for people who are incarcerated. </p>
<p>In 2022, there are 374 prison education programs run by 420 institutions of higher education operating in 520 facilities, according to the <a href="https://www.higheredinprison.org/national-directory/stats-view">National Directory</a> maintained by the Alliance for Higher Education in Prison.</p>
<p>Collectively, college programs in prison have been shown to <a href="https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR266.html">lower the odds</a> that a person who participates in them will return to prison after being released. But as I show in my book, the programs are also dramatically changing the perspective of the college professors who teach them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/192561/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mneesha Gellman is affiliated with the Emerson Prison Initiative. </span></em></p>The author of a book collecting the experiences of college professors who teach in prisons explains how they are changed by the experience.Mneesha Gellman, Associate Professor of Political Science, Emerson CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1908672022-10-14T12:21:03Z2022-10-14T12:21:03ZWe talked to 100 people about their experiences in solitary confinement – this is what we learned<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489439/original/file-20221012-18-tkslmw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5751%2C3837&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Living conditions in a solitary cell at New York's Rikers Island jail.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/Solitary-Confinement-New-York/73d3f8de299e4d2eabdc78d507b7f4b7/photo?Query=solitary%20confinement&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=386&currentItemNo=32">AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The United States <a href="https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2014.302205">leads the world</a> in its use of solitary confinement, locking away in isolation more of its population than any other country.</p>
<p>Every day, <a href="https://law.yale.edu/centers-workshops/arthur-liman-center-public-interest-law/liman-center-publications/time-cell-2021">up to 48,000</a> inmates – or around 4% of the incarcerated population – are locked in some form of solitary confinement in detention centers, jails and prisons across the U.S.</p>
<p>Some spend months – or even years – at a time in isolation, only being allowed out a few times a week for a 10-minute shower or a short exercise period in an outdoor dog run. And it doesn’t only affect prisoners. Up to <a href="https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes333012.htm#nat">20,000 other people</a> are affected as well – working as correctional staff or providing mental health services or other programming.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="The black cover of a book with 'Way Down in the Hole' written on it." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489440/original/file-20221012-11-olheqr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489440/original/file-20221012-11-olheqr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489440/original/file-20221012-11-olheqr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489440/original/file-20221012-11-olheqr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489440/original/file-20221012-11-olheqr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1134&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489440/original/file-20221012-11-olheqr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1134&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489440/original/file-20221012-11-olheqr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1134&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Interviews with guards and prisoners in solitary are collected in the book ‘Way Down in the Hole’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://smithandhattery.com/books/">Cover image by James D. Fuson</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Over three summers, we interviewed people who were confined or employed in solitary confinement units to better understand what it is like from both sides of the bars. The interviews form the basis of “<a href="https://smithandhattery.com/">Way Down in the Hole</a>,” a book published on Oct. 14, 2022.</p>
<p>In the course of our research, we spent hundreds of hours in solitary confinement units in facilities in a mid-Atlantic Rust Belt state. We conducted in-depth interviews with 75 prisoners and 25 staff members – including both civilian staff and prison officers.</p>
<p>This is what we learned from the interviews. Names have been changed to protect identities.</p>
<h2>Solitary confinement is dehumanizing</h2>
<p>Everyone we interviewed, both prisoners and officers alike, told us that solitary confinement is like being locked away out of sight, out of mind, and that the consequences on their physical and mental health were significant, and often stripped away their humanity.</p>
<p>Locked in a cell about the size of a mall parking space, prisoners are confined 23 hours a day with virtually no human interaction other than to be subjected to strip searches and have their hands cuffed and their feet shackled. They eat, sleep, meditate, study and exercise just inches away from where they defecate.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Blue pained doors with numbers in white paint on them are seen along a barren prison corridor." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489614/original/file-20221013-24-k39g8i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489614/original/file-20221013-24-k39g8i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489614/original/file-20221013-24-k39g8i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489614/original/file-20221013-24-k39g8i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489614/original/file-20221013-24-k39g8i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489614/original/file-20221013-24-k39g8i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489614/original/file-20221013-24-k39g8i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Numbered doors in a solitary wing at New York’s Rikers Island.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/TransgenderInmateDeath/93adebf09e954202a52a3aa17f9e9032/photo?Query=solitary%20confinement&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=386&currentItemNo=46">AP Photo/Seth Wenig</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One prisoner, an avid reader we will call Scholar, spoke to us nine months into his stay in solitary confinement. “All human privileges are gone; they treat you like a dog. They bring you food, they throw it to you, you shower in a cage, you exercise in a cage. Just because I’m wearing orange [the color of the jumpsuit for incarcerated people confined in solitary] doesn’t mean I’m not human.”</p>
<p>His experience isn’t an isolated one. Marina, who has been confined in solitary for more than a decade, remarked: “I’m treated like I’m in a zoo … I’m being treated like an animal. I feel lost and forgotten.”</p>
<p>Correctional officer Travis, who has worked in solitary confinement for 12 years, expresses a similar sentiment. “You don’t realize how stressful it is inside the walls,” he said. “You feel like an inmate. Inmates are running institutions and you have to do things to take care of them, and no one is taking care of us.” </p>
<h2>Solitary confinement breeds racial resentment</h2>
<p>Prisons are disproportionately filled with Black and Hispanic people, and solitary confinement is even more intensely racialized. </p>
<p>Black men comprise <a href="https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/US/PST045221">around 13% of the male population</a>, yet make up <a href="https://www.bop.gov/about/statistics/statistics_inmate_race.jsp">nearly 40% of the incarcerated population</a> and <a href="https://law.yale.edu/centers-workshops/arthur-liman-center-public-interest-law/liman-center-publications/time-cell-2021">45% of those locked in solitary confinement</a>.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, in many states, including where we conducted our research, most prisons are <a href="https://www.prisonpolicy.org/racialgeography/incarcerated_in_disproportionately_white_counties.html">built in rural communities that are overwhelmingly white</a>. As a result, many corrections staff members – who tend to be drawn from the local population – are white. In hundreds of hours of observation in seven different prisons, we did not see more than a handful of corrections staff who were nonwhite. Yet the majority of people we saw in solitary confinement and whom we interviewed were Black or Hispanic. </p>
<p>In our conversations, guards certainly spoke to the resentment they felt toward prisoners in general and those in solitary in particular.</p>
<p>From their perspective, prisoners have better living conditions than the victims of their crime or the people who staff prisons.</p>
<p>“Inmates get TVs, tablets, kiosks, email; victims get nothing. They don’t get their family member back,” corrections officer Bunker said. “I lived in a bunker in Iraq for a year, and these guys have a better commode … not made of wood that they don’t have to burn.” </p>
<p>Because prisoners in solitary are <a href="https://law.yale.edu/centers-workshops/arthur-liman-center-public-interest-law/liman-center-publications/time-cell-2021">locked up 23 hours a day</a>, every daily need must be met by an officer. Officers hand deliver and pick up meal trays three times a day. Toilet paper is dispensed twice a week. Prisoners must be escorted to showers and the yard and even to therapy sessions. And before each and every movement out of cell, they must be strip searched, handcuffed and shackled. We watched officers do this for hundreds of hours, and it’s exhausting for the guards. Under these circumstances – and given the <a href="https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes333012.htm#nat">relatively low pay guards receive</a> – it is easy to see how resentment builds up.</p>
<p>An officer we call Porter said: “I have an elderly family member who had to give up their house to get a medical procedure, and the inmates get the best medical care for US$5. I knew a guy on death row that got chemo. Imagine that … paying to keep a guy alive just to kill him!”</p>
<p>And, because staff members are almost all white and the prisoners are disproportionately Black, this resentment becomes racialized. Scholar told us the prison he is incarcerated in is “one of the most racist prisons. [The guards] have no problem calling us ‘n*****.’”</p>
<h2>And yet, some prisoners choose solitary</h2>
<p>Despite the dehumanizing conditions of solitary confinement and the resentment it breeds, we met many prisoners who actively sought out solitary – and staff members who opted to guard those prisoners.</p>
<p>Many corrections staff preferred to work in solitary confinement units for a variety of reasons. Some preferred the pace of the work; some lived for the adrenaline rush of a cell extraction. Others told us that compared to other jobs available in their community, working in solitary was more interesting.</p>
<p>An officer we call Bezos who worked at an Amazon fulfillment center before starting at the prison summed it up: “I could warehouse boxes or warehouse people; people are more interesting.”</p>
<p>Perhaps more surprising, many prisoners also told us they chose solitary. </p>
<p>Some requested solitary confinement for their own safety, to avoid gang violence or the threat of sexual assault by other prisoners or retaliation for debts they owed on the inside or on the outside. Those placed in “administrative custody” – that is, they are placed in solitary not for punishment but for safety – said they experienced fewer restrictions than those who were sent to solitary confinement as punishment.</p>
<p>But many prisoners we interviewed deliberately committed misconducts, such as refusing a guard’s order, as a way of deliberately getting sent to solitary confinement by way of punishment. It was seen by some as a way to control one aspect of their lives. </p>
<p>Others endured the dehumanization of solitary confinement simply to be moved from one housing unit to another or to another prison all together. They did this to be closer to home – which would allow their families more opportunities to visit – or to a prison that had more programming, such as education classes or treatment.</p>
<p>A prisoner we call Fifty committed a misconduct that he knew would get him sentenced to the supermax facility in the state, despite it being known as one of the most racist prisons in the system and one of the hardest places to do time. </p>
<p>The reason, as Fifty explained, was that it kept him isolated from the man who killed his brother. Fifty worried that if tempted, he might kill the man and spend the rest of his life in prison. </p>
<p>The move was successful. Fifty was paroled just a few months after we met him, directly from solitary confinement to the streets of a major U.S. city. </p>
<h2>A system in which no one wins</h2>
<p>The picture that emerges from the interviews is one of a system that doesn’t serve the prison population or those employed to guard them.</p>
<p>People who spend time in solitary confinement are more likely to die <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2752350">sooner after their release</a> – as are <a href="https://pdf4pro.com/view/florida-mortality-study-florida-state-fop-1ca76b.html">officers</a>, who also have one of the highest <a href="http://policepsychologyblog.com/?p=4245">rates of divorce</a>. There is also no evidence that confinement acts as a deterrent or is in any way rehabilitative. </p>
<p>Any amount of time in solitary confinement can cause declines in mental health. Many people <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/1745-9125.12241">placed in solitary confinement find they end up back in prison</a> after they are released because they are unable to function or because they haven’t learned tools that help them stay out of trouble. </p>
<p>And, because of the prisoner to staff ratios and individual cells, the cost of holding someone in solitary confinement is <a href="https://scholars.org/brief/root-americas-over-use-solitary-confinements-prison-and-how-reform-can-happen#:%7E:text=Solitary%20confinement%20is%20not%20only,cost%20of%20public%20university%20tuition">around three times that</a> of the general prison population. </p>
<p>From our interviews, the overarching takeaway is it is a system in which no one wins and everyone loses.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/190867/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Every day, tens of thousands of American prisoners are locked up in solitary confinement. This is how that looks for those behind bars, and those guarding them.Angela Hattery, Professor of Women & Gender Studies/Co-Director, Center for the Study & Prevention of Gender-Based Violence, University of DelawareEarl Smith, Professor of Women and Gender Studies, University of DelawareLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1878342022-10-07T12:21:32Z2022-10-07T12:21:32ZA Pennsylvania prison gets a Scandinavian-style makeover – and shows how the US penal system could become more humane<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/488141/original/file-20221004-12568-4r2yo4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Prisoners and staff share responsibility for taking care of the fish tank at the 'Little Scandinavia' housing unit in a Pennsylvania prison. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://filesource.wostreaming.net/commonwealthofpa/mp4_podcast/20680_DOC_LilScandSCIChester_AG_24.jpg">Commonwealth Media Services</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The United States has the <a href="https://www.prisonstudies.org/sites/default/files/resources/downloads/world_prison_population_list_13th_edition.pdf">largest number of people incarcerated </a> in the world – about 25% of all people imprisoned worldwide are in American prisons and jails. </p>
<p>Overcrowding, <a href="https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/conflicts-and-violence-prison">violence</a> and long sentences are common in U.S. prisons, often creating a <a href="https://eji.org/issues/prison-conditions/">climate of hopelessness</a> for incarcerated people, as well as people who work there. </p>
<p>Additionally, correctional officers, often challenged by long shifts, <a href="https://bjs.ojp.gov/library/publications/indicators-workplace-violence-2019">worries about their own safety</a> and stressful working conditions, have a <a href="https://nicic.gov/correctional-officer-life-expectancy">life expectancy that is on average a decade less</a> than the general population.</p>
<p>Some advocates have called for <a href="https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/diversion.html">diverting people away from prisons</a>, especially low-risk individuals. Others encourage <a href="https://famm.org/our-work/sentencing-reform/">shorter sentences and earlier releases</a>. </p>
<p>But reform efforts could also extend to changing the prison environment itself. </p>
<p>We are <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=los44hoAAAAJ&hl=en">American</a> and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=uk8l5BYAAAAJ&hl=en">Norwegian</a> criminologists. While trying to better understand our countries’ justice systems, we have spent significant time in correctional facilities across Scandinavia and the U.S. There, we often try to identify <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/2578983X.2020.1805235">overlooked similarities</a> within these <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-39911-5_3">very different places</a> – and ways they could learn from each other. </p>
<p>A recent collaboration between correctional services in Pennsylvania and several Scandinavian countries presents an opportunity to test these ideas. One Pennsylvania prison unit we are researching adapts elements from Scandinavian prisons, and offers a window into what drawing from other penal systems might look like in the U.S.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/488131/original/file-20221004-14-hadtq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man in a green outfit walks past a large mural of a world in an indoor hallway." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/488131/original/file-20221004-14-hadtq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/488131/original/file-20221004-14-hadtq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/488131/original/file-20221004-14-hadtq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/488131/original/file-20221004-14-hadtq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/488131/original/file-20221004-14-hadtq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/488131/original/file-20221004-14-hadtq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/488131/original/file-20221004-14-hadtq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This remodeled prison unit in Pennsylvania is home to 64 male residents.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://filesource.wostreaming.net/commonwealthofpa/mp4_podcast/20680_DOC_LilScandSCIChester_AG_01.jpg">Creative Commonwealth Media</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Prisons in Scandinavia</h2>
<p>Correctional systems throughout much of Scandinavia are guided by a general set of philosophical principles. In Sweden, these standards emphasize rehabilitation and encourage meaningful change, so incarcerated people can lead a better life. </p>
<p>In Norway, core values of <a href="https://www.kriminalomsorgen.no/informasjon-paa-engelsk.536003.en.html">safety, transparency and innovation</a> are considered fundamental to the idea of creating normality in prison, the feeling that <a href="https://online.ucpress.edu/fsr/article-abstract/31/1/58/110153/Normality-behind-the-WallsExamples-from-Halden">life as part of a community</a> continues, even behind walls and bars. </p>
<p>Adhering to these principles means that, in some cases, incarcerated people can wear their own clothes, work in jobs that prepare them for employment and cook their own meals.</p>
<p>Prisons in Scandinavia are also small, with some housing roughly a dozen people – which is possible, given relatively low incarceration rates in the region.</p>
<p>In most cases, people in prison in Norway have access to <a href="https://justice-trends.press/full-rights-citizens-the-principle-of-normality-in-norwegian-prisons/">many of the same social and educational services</a> and programs as people who are not incarcerated.</p>
<p>Many prisons, especially in Norway, are <a href="https://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2013/designandviolence/halden-prison-erik-moller-architects-hlm-architects/">designed in a fundamentally different way</a> than in the U.S. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2018.05.032">Proximity to nature</a> is often considered, for example. Cells in Norway are also for a single person – not multiple people, as in most cases in the U.S. Norway, perhaps unsurprisingly, <a href="https://www.themarshallproject.org/2017/10/31/i-did-it-norway">has attracted</a> <a href="https://magazine.ucsf.edu/norways-humane-approach-prisons-can-work-here-too">many</a> international visitors who come to observe their prison system. </p>
<p>Importantly, correctional officers have at least a two-year, university-level education and are directly involved in rehabilitation and planning for the incarcerated person’s re-entry into the world outside of prison. In the U.S., most officers receive just a few weeks of training, and their work focuses mostly on maintaining safety and security.</p>
<p>It is also worth noting that <a href="https://encompass.eku.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1680&context=honors_theses">recidivism rates</a> in Scandinavia are low. In Norway, it has been reported that less than half of people released from prison are rearrested after three years. <a href="https://www.cor.pa.gov/About%20Us/Statistics/Documents/Reports/Recidivism%202022%20Report.pdf">In Pennsylvania</a>, that figure is closer to 70%. The implications for correctional systems are profound.</p>
<h2>Norway and the US</h2>
<p>There are, of course, other fundamental differences between the Scandinavian countries and the U.S. </p>
<p>Norway, like the other countries in the region, is <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.POP.TOTL?locations=NO">much smaller</a> than the U.S., in both population and geography. <a href="https://www.ssb.no/en/sosiale-forhold-og-kriminalitet/kriminalitet-og-rettsvesen/statistikk/anmeldte-lovbrudd-og-ofre">Crime rates are lower</a> there than in the U.S., and <a href="https://www.norden.org/en/information/social-policy-and-welfare">social support systems</a> are more robust. <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/670978/number-of-people-killed-by-firearms/">Gun violence</a> is also almost unheard of. </p>
<p>In Norway, the longest prison sentence in most cases is 21 years – with most people serving less than a year. In Pennsylvania, life sentences are not uncommon, and many crimes – including nonviolent ones – can results in <a href="https://pcs.la.psu.edu/guidelines-statutes/sentencing/">decades of imprisonment</a>. </p>
<p>Despite this, the two systems may not be completely incompatible, at least not when the goal is to reform the prison environment. </p>
<h2>The Scandinavian Prison Project</h2>
<p>In State Correctional Institution Chester, known as <a href="https://www.cor.pa.gov/Facilities/StatePrisons/Pages/Chester.aspx">SCI Chester,</a> a medium-security prison located just outside of Philadelphia, a correctional officer-guided team has worked <a href="https://whyy.org/articles/one-of-pas-prison-units-is-about-to-go-scandinavian/">since 2018</a> to incorporate Scandinavian penal <a href="https://www.inquirer.com/philly/news/crime/coming-from-norway-pennsylvanias-prisons-appear-cruel-and-unusual-20171004.html">principles into its</a> own institution. Based on their direct experiences, the correctional officers and facility leaders sought to reconsider what incarceration could look like at SCI Chester. This initiative has uniquely focused on developing a single housing unit within the prison.</p>
<p><a href="https://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/amcrimlr58&div=53&g_sent=1&casa_token=q9LQVEVhZqYAAAAA:OC0KyDCTBh3-NC6SUX3cMlDnRy5hsWwa3Fx6kJ3uO4TCIfTzINZatb9vvkRfTFcN23zeotr4&collection=journals">In 2019</a>, the group, which also included outside researchers and correctional leaders, spent weeks visiting a range of facilities across Scandinavia, and the officers worked in Norwegian prisons alongside peer mentors. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.norwegianamerican.com/little-scandinavia/">March 2020</a>, six men in SCI Chester – each sentenced to life in prison – were selected to participate in the project as mentors. They then moved on to the new housing unit, which had come to be known as “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTC1KI0STIY">Little Scandinavia</a>.” </p>
<p>In early 2022, the researchers and correctional leaders returned for a follow-up visit to several prisons in Sweden. Though delayed by the pandemic, 29 more residents of SCI Chester were selected from the prison’s general population to join the Scandinavian-inspired housing unit that May. </p>
<p>With single cells, a communal kitchen, Nordic-like furnishings and a landscaped, outdoor green space, <a href="https://www.audacy.com/kywnewsradio/news/local/little-scandinavia-chester-reform-prison-unit">Little Scandinavia looks unlike any other</a> U.S. prison. Plants grow throughout the common areas. A large fish tank, maintained by staff and residents, is the centerpiece of an area designed to encourage people to gather.</p>
<p>A grocery program allows all of the residents to purchase fresh foods – a rarity in prison – and work directly with staff to send orders to a <a href="https://www.shoprite.com/sm/pickup/rsid/3000/about-shoprite">local store</a>. </p>
<p>Each day, residents are expected to go to work, treatment or school, all within the prison. </p>
<p>Importantly, the correctional officers overseeing Little Scandinavia have received <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/forensic-files/202201/how-psychology-reduces-recidivism-0">a range of training</a> to facilitate communication with their assigned residents. </p>
<p>Drawing from <a href="https://www.kriminalomsorgen.no/informasjon-paa-engelsk.536003.no.html">Norway’s model</a>, there is also a uniquely low ratio of trained staff to incarcerated men – one officer for eight residents, compared with the typical average of one staff member for 128 residents. </p>
<p>Although the community is still evolving, there have been no acts of violence, as some speculated would happen – even with access to kitchen equipment. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/488135/original/file-20221004-24-h34h1h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An overhead shot shows an open looking common room with some people in green prison uniforms sitting and standing." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/488135/original/file-20221004-24-h34h1h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/488135/original/file-20221004-24-h34h1h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/488135/original/file-20221004-24-h34h1h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/488135/original/file-20221004-24-h34h1h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/488135/original/file-20221004-24-h34h1h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/488135/original/file-20221004-24-h34h1h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/488135/original/file-20221004-24-h34h1h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Little Scandinavia has other features, like couches and a shared kitchen, that are designed to give prisoners a sense of autonomy over their space.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://filesource.wostreaming.net/commonwealthofpa/mp4_podcast/20680_DOC_LilScandSCIChester_AG_17.jpg">Creative Commonwealth Media</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Learning from Little Scandinavia</h2>
<p>As part of our research, we are examining correctional staff’s first-hand experiences with this international project.</p>
<p>Some analyses have shown that a Scandinavian approach, focused on normality and reintegration, can be potentially good <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/1478601X.2021.2001231">for correctional officers</a>, boosting their morale, independence and well-being.</p>
<p>Incarcerated people have also reported feeling safer and having more positive relationships with staff and other people living in the prisons. They also indicated greater satisfaction with their access to food and the reintegration support available to them. </p>
<p>SCI Chester shows that it is, in fact, possible to adapt Scandinavian-style penal philosophies and incorporate them into a Pennsylvania prison. This effort is a pilot, however, with significant costs, foundational support from <a href="https://mynorthwest.com/152920/this-secretary-of-corrections-takes-his-job-quite-literally/">committed leaders</a>, and in partnership with many <a href="https://www.media.pa.gov/pages/Corrections_details.aspx?newsid=541">outside experts.</a> </p>
<p>It remains to be seen how these efforts will play out in the long term. Data from this project, and rigorous research on <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/articles/2019-02-22/inspired-by-norways-approach-north-dakota-reforms-its-prisons">other efforts</a>, can inform conversations about what the future of prison reform in the U.S. could look like. </p>
<p>After all, as they say in Norway, a prison is responsible for enabling the people who are incarcerated to return to society as <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-48885846">good neighbors</a> – a fact that, in most cases, is as true in Philadelphia as it is in Stockholm or Oslo.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/187834/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jordan M. Hyatt and Synøve N. Andersen have received funding from Arnold Ventures, The Scandinavian-American Foundation, and the Nordic Research Council for Criminology (NsFK).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Synøve Nygaard Andersen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A pilot project at a Pennsylvania prison is trying out lessons from Scandinavia that could offer some ideas for reforming US prisons.Jordan Hyatt, Associate Professor of Criminology and Justice Studies, Drexel UniversitySynøve Nygaard Andersen, Postdoctoral Fellow in Sociology, University of OsloLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1882722022-08-18T12:40:17Z2022-08-18T12:40:17ZConditions in prisons during heat waves pose deadly threats to incarcerated people and prison staff<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479463/original/file-20220816-22-1bjelf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5607%2C3732&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Prisons in more than a dozen U.S. states are not fully air-conditioned. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/barbed-wire-fence-in-jail-royalty-free-image/168859873">Leo Patrizi/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Extreme heat is <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/24/weather/us-extreme-heat-sunday/index.html">taking an increasing toll</a> across the U.S. in summertime. People who are incarcerated are <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/02/10/prisoners-are-among-most-vulnerable-people-us/">among society’s most vulnerable groups</a> and have been especially affected. During Texas’s June 2023 heat wave, <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2023/06/28/texas-prisons-heat-deaths/">at least nine inmates died in prisons lacking air conditioning</a> of heart attacks or unknown causes.</p>
<p>More than a <a href="https://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2019/06/18/air-conditioning/">dozen states</a> do not have air conditioning in all of their prison units, including Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. In Texas, where I work, only <a href="https://www.kens5.com/article/news/local/texas/most-texas-prisons-are-not-fully-air-conditioned-a-house-bill-aims-to-change-that/273-4566a308-4757-4cdb-8958-9ffb2abdbff1">about 30% of prisons are fully air-conditioned</a>. Many of these states also face some of the <a href="https://firststreet.org/research-lab/published-research/article-highlights-from-hazardous-heat/">highest heat risks in the U.S.</a>, according to recent studies.</p>
<p>Prisons concentrate hundreds or thousands of people in buildings that were designed <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/27/us/two-lawsuits-challenge-the-lack-of-air-conditioning-in-texas-prisons.html">without planning for extreme heat and heat waves</a>. Prison building materials and designs can <a href="https://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2019/06/18/air-conditioning/">increase exposure to heat</a> for people inside.</p>
<p>Some states require prisons to <a href="https://law.utexas.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2015/05/2014-HRC-USA-DeadlyHeat-Report.pdf">maintain indoor temperatures within certain ranges</a>. Texas does not regulate temperatures in prisons, but county and private municipal jails overseen by the <a href="https://www.tcjs.state.tx.us/">Texas Commission on Jail Standards</a> must be kept between 65 and 85 F (18-30 C). There are no comparable federal standards.</p>
<p>I study how hazards and disasters <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/J-Purdum">affect people who are incarcerated</a>. In a <a href="https://tamucoa-juiceboxinteract.netdna-ssl.com/app/uploads/2022/07/22-01R.pdf">recently published report</a>, my colleague <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=JMTzw-QAAAAJ&hl=en">Benika Dixon</a> and I partnered with <a href="https://www.tpcadvocates.org/about-us">Texas Prisons Community Advocates</a>, a nonprofit that works to improve conditions in Texas prisons, to find out how incarcerated people in the state experience heat without air conditioning. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479468/original/file-20220816-8398-ypmo8j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Chart showing heat-related health risks from various temperature and humidity combinations." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479468/original/file-20220816-8398-ypmo8j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479468/original/file-20220816-8398-ypmo8j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=351&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479468/original/file-20220816-8398-ypmo8j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=351&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479468/original/file-20220816-8398-ypmo8j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=351&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479468/original/file-20220816-8398-ypmo8j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479468/original/file-20220816-8398-ypmo8j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479468/original/file-20220816-8398-ypmo8j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This heat index chart shows the likelihood of heat disorders based on combined temperature and humidity.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.weather.gov/safety/heat-index">National Weather Service</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Surveys that we collected between late 2018 and 2020 from over 300 people in state prisons in Texas showed that many of them grapple with the health impacts of heat, and that prisons are struggling to prevent heat-related illnesses and deaths among prisoners. Prison staff are also exposed to extreme heat.</p>
<h2>Minimal resources for cooling</h2>
<p>High temperatures are particularly dangerous in prisons because incarcerated people tend to be more vulnerable to heat. People in prison have high rates of <a href="https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/chronicpunishment.html">chronic illness, mental health conditions and disabilities</a>, and a large share are <a href="https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2016/03/17/elderly-inmates-burden-state-prisons">over the age of 50</a>. </p>
<p>In Texas, at least 23 incarcerated people have <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2019/02/19/texas-prison-heat-death/">died from heat illness since 1998</a>. Heat exacerbates other underlying physical and mental health conditions, so the actual number of heat-related deaths in Texas prisons is likely much higher.</p>
<p>In prisons without air conditioning, staff can’t prevent incarcerated people from being exposed to heat. Fans and blowers do little to actually lower temperatures inside units. </p>
<p>Instead, staff provide water, ice, additional showers and access to limited zones that have air conditioning. These so-called “respite areas” often are prison education buildings, chapels and infirmaries. Prison staff also perform wellness checks on prisoners who they have identified as particularly vulnerable to heat.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479470/original/file-20220816-10934-y3ajie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A large vertical fan blows air toward incarcerated people on bunk beds" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479470/original/file-20220816-10934-y3ajie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479470/original/file-20220816-10934-y3ajie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479470/original/file-20220816-10934-y3ajie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479470/original/file-20220816-10934-y3ajie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479470/original/file-20220816-10934-y3ajie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479470/original/file-20220816-10934-y3ajie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479470/original/file-20220816-10934-y3ajie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A cooling fan at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Holliday Unit near Huntsville, Texas, June 20, 2014.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/TexasPrisonsHeat/776133c6f300470696221bdd4767fe30/photo">AP Photo/Michael Graczyk</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Not enough water or cool spaces</h2>
<p>Many responses to our surveys described facilities with too many people and not enough resources. Examples included not being able to get water because coolers in common areas were constantly running out, or not being able to get into cooled areas of prisons because these zones were already full. </p>
<p>One incarcerated man wrote, “They refill coolers every 2 or 3 hours. But with over 100 inmates drinking they never stay full more than 20 minutes.” An incarcerated woman reported, “It’s very difficult to get access to respite – only 10 spots available.” Nearly half of the incarcerated people we surveyed reported having been denied access to cooled respite areas. </p>
<p>Personnel shortages make it hard for prison staff to keep water coolers full and provide extra showers and time in respite areas. As one respondent commented, “Staff, not enough staff, or they’re too busy or out of time. They only set aside a certain time period [for time in respite areas] because it will interfere with their duties.” </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1559276947657687040"}"></div></p>
<h2>Prison staff suffer too</h2>
<p>In Texas, prison staff levels are at a historic low. In 2021, the turnover rate for correctional officers in Texas prisons was <a href="https://www.kxan.com/investigations/staff-turnover-in-texas-prisons-has-increased-heres-how-thats-impacting-corrections-officers/">over 40%</a>. </p>
<p>In a hearing before the Texas House Appropriations Committee on Aug. 4, 2022, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rLkY0Pn3wI&t=1s">former correctional officer Clifton Buchanan stated</a>, “Temperatures at units can reach well above 110 degrees during the summer, and staff must endure this heat while wearing safety equipment, such as stab-proof vests.” Because of staffing shortages, Buchanan said, officers are “constantly conducting rounds with no break.” He told the committee that he had shifted to working at a federal prison solely because it was air-conditioned.</p>
<p>In our survey, incarcerated people described frequent conflicts with prison staff over access to water, showers and cooling areas. One wrote, “Majority of the time we have to argue with guards to no avail about getting ice or even water.” </p>
<p>Another wrote, “The guard will refuse us if it’s too crowded. Our respite area only holds 20 people. We have 2,014 people who have to share it.” </p>
<p>Our report describes frequent tense exchanges between incarcerated people and prison staff. In his testimony before the Texas Legislature, Buchanan warned that such confrontations could lead to violence. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_rLkY0Pn3wI?wmode=transparent&start=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Clifton Buchanan, deputy director of AFSCME Texas Correction Employees Council 907 and a former Texas state prison corrections office, describes working during heat waves in prisons that aren’t air-conditioned, Aug. 4, 2022.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Nowhere to go</h2>
<p>Prison agencies often assert that their heat mitigation policies are adequate for keeping incarcerated people safe. For example, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Corrections recently commented, “Much like those Texans who do not have access to air conditioning in their homes, the department uses an array of measures to keep inmates safe. … Everyone has access to ice and water. Fans are strategically placed in facilities to move the air. Inmates have access to a fan and they can <a href="https://wacotrib.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/marlin-gatesville-prisons-without-complete-air-conditioning-pose-danger-to-inmates-staff/article_92e00fc8-12a9-11ed-97b0-3b11dae5988c.html">access air conditioned respite areas when needed</a>.” </p>
<p>But people who are incarcerated can’t go to local cooling centers for hours at a time, as private citizens can, or stay temporarily with friends or rent hotel rooms during heat waves. They are completely reliant on prison staff to ensure that they have access to those resources. </p>
<p>In my view, without investments in cooling, preventing heat illnesses and deaths in prisons will become increasingly challenging as exposure to extreme temperatures <a href="https://theconversation.com/extreme-heat-waves-in-a-warming-world-dont-just-break-records-they-shatter-them-164919">becomes more common with climate change</a>. Heat waves threaten everyone, but as long as prison temperatures remain unregulated and prisons lack enough cooling resources, incarcerated people will be at extreme risk.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188272/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>J. Carlee Purdum does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A survey conducted in Texas state prisons finds that many lack basic resources like cold water, ice and air conditioning to help incarcerated people and staff keep cool during heat waves.J. Carlee Purdum, Research Assistant Professor, Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center, Texas A&M UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1797152022-03-21T18:42:46Z2022-03-21T18:42:46ZSupreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson faces confirmation hearings: 7 questions answered<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/453402/original/file-20220321-13-7606k4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=48%2C590%2C5406%2C2986&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A seat on the highest court in the land awaits.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/judge-ketanji-brown-jackson-arrives-for-her-nomination-news-photo/1239393550?adppopup=true">Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Confirmation hearings for Ketanji Brown Jackson, nominated to be the first Black female justice on the Supreme Court, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/03/21/us/ketanji-brown-jackson-supreme-court">began on March 21, 2022</a>. The dayslong process will see President Joe Biden’s pick for the bench grilled by members of the Senate Judiciary Committee.</em></p>
<p><em>Jackson is currently a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, where she was one of President Biden’s first judicial nominees. The Conversation asked <a href="https://law.rutgers.edu/directory/view/ak1444">Alexis Karteron</a>, associate professor and director of the Constitutional Rights Clinic at Rutgers University Law School and a former senior attorney at the New York Civil Liberties Union, to discuss the prospect of Jackson’s serving on the highest court in the U.S.</em></p>
<h2>What are your impressions of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson and what would she could bring to the Supreme Court?</h2>
<p>There are not that many Black women lawyers in the United States. We’re <a href="https://hbr.org/2019/08/why-women-and-people-of-color-in-law-still-hear-you-dont-look-like-a-lawyer">only about 2% of our profession</a>. Having been in that position of being in a very small club of Black women who attend law school and become lawyers, I’m pretty excited to see one of us ascend to the very top of the profession and be nominated to join the Supreme Court.</p>
<p>Beyond that, I’m excited to see her nominated because I think she <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/2022/02/profile-of-a-potential-nominee-ketanji-brown-jackson/">has a wealth of experience</a> and a unique background professionally that I believe could only benefit the court’s decision-making. She’s the first person to be nominated to the court who has been a criminal defense attorney <a href="https://19thnews.org/2022/02/ketanji-brown-jackson-first-black-woman-nominated-supreme-court/">since Justice Thurgood Marshall</a> was on the court, and he’s been off the court over 30 years now. </p>
<p>She is supremely qualified. She has not just an elite education – she went to Harvard for both college and law school – she clerked for the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/02/25/ketanji-brown-jackson-supreme-court/">retiring justice whose place she will take, Stephen Breyer</a>. Beyond that, she has been in private practice, she’s <a href="https://www.cadc.uscourts.gov/internet/home.nsf/content/VL+-+Judges+-+KBJ">been on the U.S. Sentencing Commission</a> and she’s been <a href="https://www.cadc.uscourts.gov/internet/home.nsf/content/VL+-+Judges+-+KBJ">both a trial court and appellate judge</a>. So she’s seen the profession from a variety of perspectives that will inform her decisions.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/448615/original/file-20220225-32700-19h6f3v.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A black-and-white photo shows a tall Black man standing in Supreme Court robes with a formally dressed woman and children." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/448615/original/file-20220225-32700-19h6f3v.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/448615/original/file-20220225-32700-19h6f3v.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/448615/original/file-20220225-32700-19h6f3v.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/448615/original/file-20220225-32700-19h6f3v.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/448615/original/file-20220225-32700-19h6f3v.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/448615/original/file-20220225-32700-19h6f3v.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/448615/original/file-20220225-32700-19h6f3v.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Thurgood Marshall, the first Black justice on the Supreme Court and the great-grandson of a slave, stands with his family on the day he took his seat at the court, Oct. 2, 1967.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/SupremeCourtVacancyTheFirst/35ac9407b72040fab0e6dd5e38c80913/photo?Query=Thurgood%20Marshall%20supreme%20court&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=146&currentItemNo=3">AP Photo/Henry Griffin</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What would it mean to have a <a href="https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a39225738/ketanji-brown-jackson-supreme-court-public-defender/">former public defender</a> on the court?</h2>
<p>I imagine it will help her understand the very real human toll of our criminal justice system. The U.S. is <a href="https://luskin.ucla.edu/how-america-became-the-worlds-largest-jailer">far and away the world’s largest jailer</a>, with around <a href="https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2020.html">2 million people incarcerated in jails and prisons and 4 million more</a> under criminal justice supervision like probation or parole. The criminal justice system takes an enormous toll on both people in the system and their loved ones. I believe having a Supreme Court justice who is familiar with that is incredibly valuable. </p>
<p>In addition, having represented people facing accusations from the government, she knows that the government does not always get things right. That may mean that she has a healthy skepticism of the government’s version of things, which is important for ensuring fairness in our judicial system.</p>
<h2>She would join a court where she would be in the minority, philosophically, as is Justice Breyer. What does that mean for the court?</h2>
<p>Her presence on the court will not necessarily swing the outcome of high-profile cases. But she’s also not Justice Breyer’s clone. I think having her voice on the court will certainly still be valuable, and again, she brings different life experiences to the bench that will inform her decision-making.</p>
<h2>What notable rulings has Judge Jackson made?</h2>
<p>There was one case during the Trump administration involving <a href="https://int.nyt.com/data/documenthelper/6516-jackson-ruling-in-mcgahn-subpo/92d4672db63b5cac498d/optimized/full.pdf#page=1">whether the White House counsel could be required to testify</a> in the House of Representatives. One of the notable things that she said in that opinion was that “<a href="https://www.law.com/nationallawjournal/2019/11/26/presidents-are-not-kings-judge-jacksons-most-memorable-lines-in-her-donald-mcgahn-opinion/?slreturn=20220125121022">presidents are not kings</a>.” She ruled that in our constitutional government, people have to abide by the rules, and the White House counsel could not be excused from complying with the House subpoena simply because the president didn’t want him to.</p>
<p>I’m teaching constitutional law right now, and this is a classic clash between Congress and the executive branch – a fight for control and how much Congress should be able to inquire into the president’s activities.
This is not a radical opinion that marks a major departure from precedent or other recent decisions.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/448621/original/file-20220225-32480-1dl2hec.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="The U.S. Capitol is seen through columns on the outside of the Supreme Court." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/448621/original/file-20220225-32480-1dl2hec.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/448621/original/file-20220225-32480-1dl2hec.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/448621/original/file-20220225-32480-1dl2hec.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/448621/original/file-20220225-32480-1dl2hec.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/448621/original/file-20220225-32480-1dl2hec.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/448621/original/file-20220225-32480-1dl2hec.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/448621/original/file-20220225-32480-1dl2hec.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Judge Jackson will need to be confirmed to the Supreme Court by the U.S. Senate.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/SupremeCourt/368c0c7131704e0f8f6bfc4c5b75ed88/photo?Query=US%20Supreme%20Court&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=6872&currentItemNo=23">AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib</a></span>
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<h2>If confirmed, Jackson would become the first Black woman on the Supreme Court. What might that mean for her jurisprudence?</h2>
<p>I don’t think her being a Black woman necessarily tells us anything about how she’ll rule on a particular case. But we all know that judges bring their lived experiences to the bench. She has experienced the world in a way that is different from everyone else on the Supreme Court – even though she has plenty in common with other members on the court.</p>
<p>Research from the business world <a href="https://hbr.org/2016/11/why-diverse-teams-are-smarter">suggests that diverse groups make better decisions</a>, in part because people challenge each other. They don’t necessarily have the same blind spots or see things the same way. I’m wondering how that will carry over to the Supreme Court.</p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?nl=weekly&source=inline-weeklybest">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>.]</p>
<h2>Jackson would be one of the two youngest people on the court. Is that important?</h2>
<p>I’ve heard justices say before that any time a new member joins the court, it’s a new court, that the dynamic shifts. From a generational perspective, there may be things that are important to her that are different than they were for Justice Breyer. I think having some youthful energy on the court can be useful – if it counts as youthful energy to have a 51-year-old added to the Supreme Court.</p>
<p>Maybe she has a more detailed or nuanced understanding of, say, social media, and how it operates. Maybe she has younger people in her life, who can inform her about those things and provide a different perspective than the members of the court who are a little bit older.</p>
<h2>What are you going to say to your students about this appointment?</h2>
<p>A new justice means there’s a new court, even if the ideological balance doesn’t necessarily shift. This is a really interesting time to watch the Supreme Court, because the majority on the court right now is willing to question things that seemed like they were settled for a long time. For example, although <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/1971/70-18">Roe v. Wade</a> seemed to be settled law, we’re going to find out soon whether a majority of the court agrees. </p>
<p>Similarly, earlier this year, when the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/13/us/politics/supreme-court-biden-vaccine-mandate.html">court barred implementation of OSHA’s COVID vaccine mandate for large businesses</a>, it resurrected a doctrine that had been moribund for decades. </p>
<p>So I’m excited to see how her addition to the court will change things, both with the high profile blockbuster cases, and the ones that tend to fly under the radar.</p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of an article <a href="https://theconversation.com/biden-nominates-ketanji-brown-jackson-to-the-supreme-court-7-questions-answered-177973">originally published</a> on Feb. 25, 2022.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/179715/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alexis Karteron does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A constitutional law professor provides insight on what Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman nominated to the Supreme Court, could mean for how that court works.Alexis Karteron, Associate Professor of Law, Rutgers University - NewarkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1781382022-03-09T13:16:24Z2022-03-09T13:16:24ZCriminal justice researcher examines the needs of marginalized groups that often go ignored<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450794/original/file-20220308-19-1a5wkfe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=47%2C0%2C4569%2C3255&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Is all forgiven after someone has served their time behind bars?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/inside-wire-the-first-statewide-prison-radio-station-launch-news-photo/1375265869?adppopup=true">RJ Sangosti/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>As part of a new video series in which we ask an expert three questions about their work, The Conversation U.S. recently interviewed <a href="https://cj.msu.edu/directory/cobbina-jennifer.html">Jennifer Cobbina-Dungy</a>, associate professor in the School of Criminal Justice at Michigan State University, about her research on the impact of the criminal justice system on marginalized groups. Her work emphasizes the needs of defendants in the criminal justice system, who she refers to as justice-involved people. Below are some highlights from the interview. Answers have been edited for brevity and clarity.</em></p>
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<p><strong>What do you study?</strong> </p>
<p><strong>Jennifer Cobbina-Dungy:</strong> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0011128721999333">My research typically focuses</a> on the needs of marginalized groups. This includes Black and brown people and justice-involved individuals whose needs are often dismissed, ignored and overlooked. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/15377938.2021.1973638">I’ve examined protesters’ attempts</a> to disrupt systemic racism through social movements.</p>
<p>Over the past few years, I’ve been particularly interested in how the <a href="https://nyupress.org/9781479874415/hands-up-dont-shoot/">Black Lives Matter movement has mobilized</a> [people] to stand up against state-sanctioned violence and systemic racism. I also look at <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0887403417723425">women’s involvement in the correctional system</a> and the reentry process, particularly trying to better understand the aftermath of women’s convictions, their incarceration and release back to the community.</p>
<p><strong>What sparked your interest in this work?</strong></p>
<p><strong>Jennifer Cobbina-Dungy:</strong> I remember being a graduate student and learning about the various systemic barriers that people who are justice-involved face, even after they’ve paid their debt to society. And I just remember thinking, “There’s got to be a better way,” particularly once people have served their time. I was flabbergasted by the number of structural barriers in place post-release. Basically, we as a society say that all is still not forgiven even after one has served their time behind bars.</p>
<p><strong>What motivates you to continue the research in your field?</strong></p>
<p><strong>Jennifer Cobbina-Dungy:</strong> Trying to bring about awareness to how the system can make things quite difficult for marginalized individuals.</p>
<p>We often fail to think about the ways in which the system makes it challenging for <a href="https://www.themarshallproject.org/records/6-re-entry">people to go on with their lives</a> [once they have a felony criminal record], even after having served their time.</p>
<p>We often fail to consider the fact that <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/policing/2018/08/09/violence-crime-punishment-policing-usa/930249002/">many people who have caused harm have themselves also been harmed</a> [over the course of their lifetime]. And often these harms, these traumas, are unaddressed. If it’s unaddressed, <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/da.20751">individuals are more likely to resort to various substances</a> and deviant ways to kind of cope. And ultimately, it creates this vicious cycle in and out of this system because their trauma has not been addressed. </p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?nl=weekly&source=inline">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/178138/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jennifer Cobbina-Dungy does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>People who have had interactions with the criminal justice system as defendants continue to face barriers, even after paying their debt to society.Jennifer Cobbina-Dungy, Associate Professor of Criminal Justice, Michigan State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1779732022-02-25T21:26:36Z2022-02-25T21:26:36ZBiden nominates Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court: 7 questions answered<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/448613/original/file-20220225-32314-lojmxg.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=23%2C7%2C5266%2C3513&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ketanji Brown Jackson at her Senate Judiciary Committee hearing as a nominee to be a U.S. Circuit Judge for the District of Columbia Circuit, on April 28, 2021.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/ketanji-brown-jackson-nominee-to-be-u-s-circuit-judge-for-news-photo/1232576995?adppopup=true">Tom Williams-Pool/Getty Images)</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>President Joe Biden made good on his promise to nominate the first Black female justice to the Supreme Court <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/kbj/">when he announced that Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson</a> was his choice on Feb. 25, 2022. Jackson is currently a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, where she was one of President Biden’s first judicial nominees. We asked <a href="https://law.rutgers.edu/directory/view/ak1444">Alexis Karteron</a>, director of the Constitutional Rights Clinic at Rutgers University Law School and a former senior attorney at the New York Civil Liberties Union, to give us her impressions of the nomination.</em></p>
<h2>What were your first thoughts when you saw that President Biden had chosen Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson for nomination to the Supreme Court?</h2>
<p>There are not that many Black women lawyers in the United States. We’re <a href="https://hbr.org/2019/08/why-women-and-people-of-color-in-law-still-hear-you-dont-look-like-a-lawyer">only about 2% of our profession</a>. Having been in that position of being in a very small club of Black women who attend law school and become lawyers, I’m pretty excited to see one of us ascend to the very top of the profession and be nominated to join the Supreme Court.</p>
<p>Beyond that, I’m excited to see her nominated because I think she <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/2022/02/profile-of-a-potential-nominee-ketanji-brown-jackson/">has a wealth of experience</a> and a unique background professionally that I believe could only benefit the court’s decision-making. She’s the first person to be nominated to the court who has been a criminal defense attorney <a href="https://19thnews.org/2022/02/ketanji-brown-jackson-first-black-woman-nominated-supreme-court/">since Justice Thurgood Marshall</a> was on the court, and he’s been off the court over 30 years now. </p>
<p>She is supremely qualified. She has not just an elite education – she went to Harvard for both college and law school – she clerked for the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/02/25/ketanji-brown-jackson-supreme-court/">retiring justice whose place she will take, Stephen Breyer</a>. Beyond that, she has been in private practice, she’s <a href="https://www.cadc.uscourts.gov/internet/home.nsf/content/VL+-+Judges+-+KBJ">been on the U.S. Sentencing Commission</a> and she’s been <a href="https://www.cadc.uscourts.gov/internet/home.nsf/content/VL+-+Judges+-+KBJ">both a trial court and appellate judge</a>. So she’s seen the profession from a variety of perspectives that will inform her decisions.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/448615/original/file-20220225-32700-19h6f3v.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A black-and-white photo depicts a tall Black man standing in Supreme Court robes with a formally dressed woman and children." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/448615/original/file-20220225-32700-19h6f3v.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/448615/original/file-20220225-32700-19h6f3v.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/448615/original/file-20220225-32700-19h6f3v.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/448615/original/file-20220225-32700-19h6f3v.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/448615/original/file-20220225-32700-19h6f3v.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/448615/original/file-20220225-32700-19h6f3v.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/448615/original/file-20220225-32700-19h6f3v.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Thurgood Marshall, the first Black justice on the Supreme Court and the great-grandson of a slave, stands with his family on the day he took his seat at the court, Oct. 2, 1967.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/SupremeCourtVacancyTheFirst/35ac9407b72040fab0e6dd5e38c80913/photo?Query=Thurgood%20Marshall%20supreme%20court&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=146&currentItemNo=3">AP Photo/Henry Griffin</a></span>
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<h2>What would it mean to have a <a href="https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a39225738/ketanji-brown-jackson-supreme-court-public-defender/">former public defender</a> on the court?</h2>
<p>I imagine it will help her understand the very real human toll of our criminal justice system. The U.S. is <a href="https://luskin.ucla.edu/how-america-became-the-worlds-largest-jailer">far and away the world’s largest jailer</a>, with around <a href="https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2020.html">2 million people incarcerated in jails and prisons and 4 million more</a> under criminal justice supervision like probation or parole. The criminal justice system takes an enormous toll on both people in the system and their loved ones. I believe having a Supreme Court justice who is familiar with that is incredibly valuable. </p>
<p>In addition, having represented people facing accusations from the government, she knows that the government does not always get things right. That may mean that she has a healthy skepticism of the government’s version of things, which is important for ensuring fairness in our judicial system.</p>
<h2>She would join a court where she would be in the minority, philosophically, as is Justice Breyer. What does that mean for the court?</h2>
<p>Her presence on the court will not necessarily swing the outcome of high-profile cases. But she’s also not Justice Breyer’s clone. I think having her voice on the court will certainly still be valuable, and again, she brings different life experiences to the bench that will inform her decision-making.</p>
<h2>What notable rulings has Judge Jackson made?</h2>
<p>There was one case during the Trump administration involving <a href="https://int.nyt.com/data/documenthelper/6516-jackson-ruling-in-mcgahn-subpo/92d4672db63b5cac498d/optimized/full.pdf#page=1">whether the White House counsel could be required to testify</a> in the House of Representatives. One of the notable things that she said in that opinion was that “<a href="https://www.law.com/nationallawjournal/2019/11/26/presidents-are-not-kings-judge-jacksons-most-memorable-lines-in-her-donald-mcgahn-opinion/?slreturn=20220125121022">presidents are not kings</a>.” She ruled that in our constitutional government, people have to abide by the rules, and the White House counsel could not be excused from complying with the House subpoena simply because the president didn’t want him to.</p>
<p>I’m teaching constitutional law right now, and this is a classic clash between Congress and the executive branch – a fight for control and how much Congress should be able to inquire into the president’s activities.
This is not a radical opinion that marks a major departure from precedent or other recent decisions.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/448621/original/file-20220225-32480-1dl2hec.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="The U.S. Capitol is seen through columns on the outside of the Supreme Court." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/448621/original/file-20220225-32480-1dl2hec.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/448621/original/file-20220225-32480-1dl2hec.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/448621/original/file-20220225-32480-1dl2hec.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/448621/original/file-20220225-32480-1dl2hec.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/448621/original/file-20220225-32480-1dl2hec.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/448621/original/file-20220225-32480-1dl2hec.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/448621/original/file-20220225-32480-1dl2hec.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Judge Jackson will need to be confirmed to the Supreme Court by the U.S. Senate.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/SupremeCourt/368c0c7131704e0f8f6bfc4c5b75ed88/photo?Query=US%20Supreme%20Court&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=6872&currentItemNo=23">AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib</a></span>
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<h2>She’s the first Black woman nominated to the Supreme Court. What might that mean for her jurisprudence?</h2>
<p>I don’t think her being a Black woman necessarily tells us anything about how she’ll rule on a particular case. But we all know that judges bring their lived experiences to the bench. She has experienced the world in a way that is different from everyone else on the Supreme Court – even though she has plenty in common with other members on the court.</p>
<p>Research from the business world <a href="https://hbr.org/2016/11/why-diverse-teams-are-smarter">suggests that diverse groups make better decisions</a>, in part because people challenge each other. They don’t necessarily have the same blind spots or see things the same way. I’m wondering how that will carry over to the Supreme Court.</p>
<h2>Jackson would be one of the two youngest people on the court. Is that important?</h2>
<p>I’ve heard justices say before that any time a new member joins the court, it’s a new court, that the dynamic shifts. From a generational perspective, there may be things that are important to her that are different than they were for Justice Breyer. I think having some youthful energy on the court can be useful – if it counts as youthful energy to have a 51-year-old added to the Supreme Court.</p>
<p>Maybe she has a more detailed or nuanced understanding of, say, social media, and how it operates. Maybe she has younger people in her life, who can inform her about those things and provide a different perspective than the members of the court who are a little bit older.</p>
<h2>What are you going to say to your students about this appointment?</h2>
<p>A new justice means there’s a new court, even if the ideological balance doesn’t necessarily shift. This is a really interesting time to watch the Supreme Court, because the majority on the court right now is willing to question things that seemed like they were settled for a long time. For example, although <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/1971/70-18">Roe v. Wade</a> seemed to be settled law, we’re going to find out soon whether a majority of the court agrees. </p>
<p>Similarly, earlier this year, when the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/13/us/politics/supreme-court-biden-vaccine-mandate.html">court barred implementation of OSHA’s COVID vaccine mandate for large businesses</a>, it resurrected a doctrine that had been moribund for decades. </p>
<p>So I’m excited to see how her addition to the court will change things, both with the high profile blockbuster cases, and the ones that tend to fly under the radar.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/177973/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alexis Karteron does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A constitutional law professor provides insight on what Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman nominated to the Supreme Court, could mean for how that court works.Alexis Karteron, Associate Professor of Law, Rutgers University - NewarkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1675912021-09-08T20:03:56Z2021-09-08T20:03:56ZOn 50th anniversary of Attica uprising, 4 essential reads on prisoners’ rights today<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/420095/original/file-20210908-26-nvlelu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=26%2C58%2C2965%2C1992&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Some of the demands by prisoners in 1971's Attica rebellion still resonate today.</span> </figcaption></figure><p>On Sept. 9, 1971, nearly 1,300 incarcerated men at Attica Correctional Facility in New York state <a href="https://www.wbfo.org/heritage-moments/2018-09-10/heritage-moments-the-attica-prison-uprising-43-dead-and-a-four-decade-cover-up">took control of the facility</a>, prompting a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1996/09/10/nyregion/the-lessons-of-attica-25-years-later.html">multiday standoff</a> with authorities that ended in a massacre.</p>
<p>The incident resulted in the deaths of 43 people, many of them inmates, and marked an important moment in the <a href="https://www.aclu.org/blog/prisoners-rights/attica-every-prison-and-every-prison-attica">prisoners’ rights movement</a> in the United States. The men behind what has variously been described as a “riot,” “rebellion” and “uprising” at Attica <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0306396811414338">were demanding improvements</a> to medical and food supplies behind bars, greater visitation rights and an end to insanitary conditions and guard brutality.</p>
<p>The uprising took place before the <a href="https://www.upi.com/Archives/1991/05/16/US-prison-population-exploded-in-1980s/4744674366400/#:%7E:text=But%20during%20the%201980s%2C%20the,at%20the%20end%20of%201990.">huge increase in America’s prison population</a> in the 1980s and 1990s. But as The Conversation’s authors have explained in recent months, many of the grievances raised by the Attica prisoners – health care, visitation rights, brutality and neglect – remain a concern for today’s incarcerated men and women. Here are four essential reads:</p>
<h2>Behind bars and suffering from dementia</h2>
<p>America’s prisons are facing a growing aging population. Research shows that by 2030, almost <a href="https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/30aa/ac3ae03558fe6b9d92598de4cafe85fafdf9.pdf">one-third of all incarcerated people</a> will be over the age of 55. Rachel Lopez, <a href="https://drexel.edu/law/faculty/fulltime_fac/Rachel%20Lopez/#:%7E:text=Rachel%20L%C3%B3pez%20is%20an%20Associate,at%20the%20Harvard%20Kennedy%20School.">a law professor at Drexel University</a> and former commissioner on Pennsylvania’s Sentencing Commission, explains how the aging population will <a href="https://theconversation.com/prisoners-in-us-suffering-dementia-may-hit-200000-within-the-next-decade-many-wont-even-know-why-they-are-behind-bars-138236">place an additional burden on authorities</a>: Research has shown that by the end of this decade, up to <a href="https://www.ncchc.org/filebin/images/Website_PDFs/24-2.pdf">210,000 elderly prisoners</a> will have dementia. The cost of their medical upkeep will fall on taxpayers.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A prisoner sips water as he stands in a room at the hospice wing of California Medical Facility." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/420097/original/file-20210908-27-c7wk4g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/420097/original/file-20210908-27-c7wk4g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420097/original/file-20210908-27-c7wk4g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420097/original/file-20210908-27-c7wk4g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420097/original/file-20210908-27-c7wk4g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420097/original/file-20210908-27-c7wk4g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420097/original/file-20210908-27-c7wk4g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A prisoner on the hospice wing of California Medical Facility.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/john-gillis-age-73-a-hospice-care-patient-diagnosed-with-news-photo/457461857?adppopup=true">Andrew Burton/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Moreover, keeping someone with dementia behind bars is, Lopez argues, an affront to human dignity and may even violate the United States Constitution’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.</p>
<p>“Forcing those who cannot understand their punishment to live the remainder of their days behind bars appears to be exactly the type of excessive and cruel punishment that the Eighth Amendment was meant to protect against,” Lopez writes.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/prisoners-in-us-suffering-dementia-may-hit-200-000-within-the-next-decade-many-wont-even-know-why-they-are-behind-bars-138236">Prisoners in US suffering dementia may hit 200,000 within the next decade – many won't even know why they are behind bars</a>
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<h2>Prisoners with intellectual disabilities</h2>
<p>The elderly are not the only vulnerable population being kept behind bars. In March 2021, the Bureau of Justice Statistics <a href="https://bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pdf/drpspi16st.pdf">revealed that around a quarter</a> of the 24,848 incarcerated people it surveyed across 364 prisons had an intellectual, developmental or cognitive disability. Across the entire prison and jail network, that would equate to some 550,000 people. Jennifer Sarrett <a href="http://catalog.college.emory.edu/department-program/faculty.php?YToxOntzOjI6ImlkIjtzOjM6Ijc5MyI7fQ==">of Emory University</a> conducted in-depth interviews with several adults within the criminal justice system who have intellectual and developmental disabilities.</p>
<p><iframe id="aZQHB" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/aZQHB/3/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>“Prisoners with these disabilities are at greater risk of serving longer, harder sentences,” <a href="https://theconversation.com/us-prisons-hold-more-than-550-000-people-with-intellectual-disabilities-they-face-exploitation-harsh-treatment-158407">Sarrett notes</a>.</p>
<p>They also run the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14789949.2015.1062994">risk of exploitation and abuse</a> – both from other incarcerated people and from prison staff. As one man explained to Sarrett, officers look to see who only watches TV and never reads, marking them out for exploitation: “Some of the corrections officers … they’ll slide up onto the disability boy and use him, you know, making him feel like ‘This is my dog. This is my boy right here. Come and do this for me.’”</p>
<p>Meanwhile, needing extra time to process instructions – particularly in high-stress situations – can be interpreted as obstinacy by prison officers. In turn this can lead to prisoners with intellectual disabilities being written up for disciplinary issues, which can result in time added to a person’s sentence, removal of certain privileges or solitary confinement. A 2018 study found that over 4,000 people with serious mental health concerns were <a href="https://www.nyaprs.org/e-news-bulletins/2018/11/30/study-over-4-000-prisoners-w-serious-mental-illness-are-held-in-solitary-confinement">being held in solitary confinement</a> in the U.S.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/us-prisons-hold-more-than-550-000-people-with-intellectual-disabilities-they-face-exploitation-harsh-treatment-158407">US prisons hold more than 550,000 people with intellectual disabilities – they face exploitation, harsh treatment</a>
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<h2>Guard brutality still an issue</h2>
<p>Between 2012 and 2016, <a href="https://bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pdf/msfp0116st.pdf">128 state and federal prisoners died as a result of homicide or accident</a>, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Those were the most recent figures available to Heather Schoenfeld of Boston University when she <a href="https://theconversation.com/people-are-dying-in-us-prisons-and-not-just-from-covid-19-141358">wrote an article for The Conversation</a> in July 2020 looking at violence by corrections officers. Another problem with the data other than it not being up to date: The agency does not distinguish in the figures between incidents involving prison staff and prisoner-on-prisoner violence.</p>
<p>“In the absence of detailed and reliable data, what we do have are accounts of sadistic and retaliatory violence by prison guards against people in prison,” Schoenfeld writes.</p>
<p>She describes an “ongoing humanitarian crisis” in U.S. prisons of excessive force by corrections officers that has only been made worse by understaffing and overcrowding. “Studies show that officers who <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139649681">work in chaotic and hostile work environments</a> are more likely to adopt an ‘us vs. them’ mentality and resort to retaliatory violence,” she writes.</p>
<p>She adds: “Similar to excessive police force, brutality by prison officers is part of systemic state violence against people of color, and Black people specifically.”</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/people-are-dying-in-us-prisons-and-not-just-from-covid-19-141358">People are dying in US prisons, and not just from COVID-19</a>
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<h2>COVID-19 and visitation rights</h2>
<p>Brutality and neglect are not the only things killing America’s incarcerated population. Prisoners have been particularly vulnerable during the coronavirus pandemic. Incarcerated men and women living in cramped indoor conditions with only basic sanitation and poor ventilation are at <a href="https://eji.org/news/covid-19s-impact-on-people-in-prison/">higher risk of infection and death</a> from the virus.</p>
<p>They have also face being isolated from their families for extended periods as a result of lockdown measures. <a href="https://hcap.utsa.edu/directory/alexander-testa-ph-d/">Alexander Testa</a> and <a href="https://hcap.utsa.edu/directory/chantal-fahmy-ph-d/">Chantal Fahmy</a> at The University of Texas at San Antonio <a href="https://theconversation.com/no-visits-and-barely-any-calls-pandemic-makes-separation-even-scarier-for-people-with-a-family-member-in-prison-158592">looked at the effect this has had</a> on the prisoners’ families.</p>
<p>The two scholars surveyed 500 people with a loved one serving time behind bars in Texas during the summer of 2020. What they found was a high level of concern.</p>
<p>“My son has been locked in a cell with temperatures over 100 degrees for up to 23-plus hours a day for weeks on end now due to COVID,” one 74-year-old woman told Testa and Fahmy. “I fear he will either perish from the conditions or somehow take his own life.”</p>
<p>The concern was not only of the risk of infection but also the sudden removal of visitation rights.</p>
<p>During the pandemic Texas prisons <a href="https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/coronavirus-texas/269-38e0b2c8-3cdc-4afd-acfb-5ab12ca39566">severely limited all types of contact</a> with the outside world – including video and phone calls. Visitation was barred completely on March 13, 2020, and only resumed a year later.</p>
<p>Reflecting on the this, alongside other grievances including “deplorable” living conditions “and lack of medical and dental care,” one mother of an incarcerated person commented: “We don’t incarcerate, we torture.”</p>
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<em>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/no-visits-and-barely-any-calls-pandemic-makes-separation-even-scarier-for-people-with-a-family-member-in-prison-158592">No visits and barely any calls – pandemic makes separation even scarier for people with a family member in prison</a>
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<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklybest">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/167591/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
The Attica uprising marked a milestone in the prisoners’ rights movement. Many of the grievances aired in 1971 are still relevant to today’s incarcerated population.Matt Williams, Senior International EditorLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1647412021-08-18T12:12:25Z2021-08-18T12:12:25ZCorrectional officers are driving the pandemic in prisons<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415045/original/file-20210806-90838-180utg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2995%2C1994&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">While prison may isolate people from the larger community, it does not isolate them from COVID-19.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/people-wearing-protective-masks-leave-the-cook-county-jail-news-photo/1217875901">Scott Olson/Staff/Getty Images News</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Prisons and jails have hosted some of the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/us/covid-cases.html">largest COVID-19 outbreaks in the U.S.</a>, with <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/us/covid-cases.html">some facilities approaching 4,000 cases</a>. In the U.S., which has some of the highest COVID-19 infection rates in the world, 9 in 100 people have had the virus; in U.S. prisons, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/04/10/us/covid-prison-outbreak.html">the rate is 34 out of 100</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=l3emkpsAAAAJ">I study public health issues around prisons</a>. My colleagues and I set out to <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18136873">understand why COVID-19 infection rates were so high</a> among incarcerated individuals. </p>
<p>Using data from the Federal Bureau of Prisons, we discovered the infection rate among correctional officers drove the infection rate among incarcerated individuals. We also found a three-way relationship between the infection rate of officers, incarcerated individuals and the communities around prisons.</p>
<h2>No stranger to outbreaks</h2>
<p>Prisons, jails and other correctional facilities routinely deal with infectious diseases. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/521910">Hepatitis B</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.idc.2018.02.014">and C</a> as well as <a href="https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2016.303423">tuberculosis</a> are all incredibly common in prison populations.</p>
<p>Because of that, prisons have established policies and procedures for handling infectious diseases. Many of those policies are the same as those for preventing the spread of COVID-19 – such as medical isolation of individuals with active infections, increased cleaning and surveillance of the disease. </p>
<p>Public health experts have <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/521910">encouraged prisons to think about the role of correctional officers in infection spread</a> for years and more recently have warned that <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm6919e1">correctional officers are a weak link for COVID-19</a> infections in prisons.</p>
<p>Even though prisons have policies for disease control, many of which include guidelines for correctional officers, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/521910">prisons are at a disadvantage</a> in stopping the spread of COVID-19. Current prison conditions – including <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2021.01.018">poor ventilation</a>, <a href="https://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2020/12/21/overcrowding/">overcrowding</a> and a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-020-05968-y">lack of space for social distancing and isolation</a> – make respiratory diseases like COVID-19 very difficult to control. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415054/original/file-20210806-17-19y86fs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Prisoners populate a yard surrounded by razor wire." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415054/original/file-20210806-17-19y86fs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415054/original/file-20210806-17-19y86fs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415054/original/file-20210806-17-19y86fs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415054/original/file-20210806-17-19y86fs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415054/original/file-20210806-17-19y86fs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415054/original/file-20210806-17-19y86fs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415054/original/file-20210806-17-19y86fs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Nebraska Department of Correctional Services was forced to declare an overcrowding emergency on July 1, 2020. Capacity in the state’s 10 prisons was at 151%, exceeding the 2015 mandated 140% threshold.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/PrisonCrowdingNebraska/581139315b654cf786085fa5d02693bb">AP Photo/Nati Harnik</a></span>
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<p>For instance, before the start of the pandemic, the Federal Bureau of Prisons, along with nine state prison systems, has been <a href="https://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2020/12/21/overcrowding/">operating at over 100% capacity</a>. During the pandemic, even with massive early release and home confinement programs, <a href="https://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2020/12/21/overcrowding/">many states remain at 100% prisoner capacity – or more</a>. </p>
<p>Additionally, U.S. <a href="https://nij.ojp.gov/topics/articles/workforce-issues-corrections">prisons have been facing chronic staffing shortages</a>. In the federal system, the issue is so severe that staff not trained as prison guards – including nurses – <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/federal-prisons-forced-use-cooks-nurses-guard-inmates-due-staff-n1268138">are being reassigned to guard the prison population</a>. Short staffing makes the daily business of running a prison difficult during the best of times, not to mention during a pandemic. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.bop.gov/coronavirus/overview.jsp#bop_emergency_response">As early as March 2020</a>, many prisons attempted to mitigate these conditions by granting early release and home confinement. Some also blocked all visitors and outside contractors. While <a href="https://madison.com/ct/news/local/govt-and-politics/early-research-shows-fewer-inmates-flattened-covid-19-curve-at-dane-county-jail/article_7fd4ebb9-59fa-56c2-8952-3668f5d61ad2.html">helpful in some cases</a>, ultimately these actions did little to stop outbreaks. </p>
<h2>Responding to COVID-19</h2>
<p>Initially, public health organizations such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention <a href="https://www.latimes.com/science/story/2021-07-27/timeline-cdc-mask-guidance-during-covid-19-pandemic">went back and forth on the need for masks</a>. Then mask mandates became a partisan issue. By midsummer 2020, <a href="https://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2020/08/14/masks-in-prisons/">30 states mandated masking for correctional officers, prisoners or both</a>. The Bureau of Prisons <a href="https://www.bop.gov/foia/docs//Mandatory_Use_Face_Coverings_for_Staff_08242020.pdf">adopted a masking policy in late August</a>, requiring correctional officers to mask when social distancing was not possible.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415894/original/file-20210812-20-1ixq4w5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Wearing a protective mask and gloves, a correctional officer sanitizes an inmate transport van." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415894/original/file-20210812-20-1ixq4w5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415894/original/file-20210812-20-1ixq4w5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415894/original/file-20210812-20-1ixq4w5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415894/original/file-20210812-20-1ixq4w5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415894/original/file-20210812-20-1ixq4w5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415894/original/file-20210812-20-1ixq4w5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415894/original/file-20210812-20-1ixq4w5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Masking seems to slow the spread in prisons but not halt it.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/wearing-a-protective-mask-and-gloves-elijah-johnson-a-news-photo/1209294310">David L. Ryan/The Boston Globe via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As the second and third waves of COVID-19 swept through the nation and the federal prison system, the <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18136873">mask mandate made only a small dent</a> in slowing the uptick of infections among prisoners. </p>
<p>Additionally, <a href="https://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2021/04/22/vaccinerefusal/">vaccine adoption rates among correctional officers</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/22/us/covid-prison-vaccine.html">incarcerated people</a> are low, weakening this line of defense. Across all states, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0253208">incarcerated people have not been prioritized for the vaccine</a>. Even when the vaccines are available, many incarcerated people are <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/22/us/covid-prison-vaccine.html">skeptical about receiving them due to mistrust</a> of prison officials. </p>
<h2>Two-way vectors</h2>
<p>We found the relationship between COVID-19 infections among correctional staff and incarcerated individuals is also shaped by the <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18136873">incidence of COVID-19 in the community</a> surrounding the prison. Because correctional officers move between the prison and the community at the beginning and end of each shift, they can carry COVID-19 between these two spaces. </p>
<p>Even when correctional officers test negative for COVID-19, they can still drive COVID-19 rates both inside and outside the prison via asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic spread. <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18136873">Our data shows</a> that when COVID-19 rates in the outside community get worse, so too do rates among the incarcerated population.</p>
<p>Prison policies aimed at stopping the spread of COVID-19 should be designed with an eye toward controlling the disease in the prison population, among correctional officers and in the community around the prison. </p>
<p>For example, prison systems should be just as concerned with vaccination rates in the communities around prisons as they are with vaccination rates among correctional officers. Both rates will have an impact on the spread of COVID-19 within a prison.</p>
<p>[<em>Over 110,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletter to understand the world.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=100Ksignup">Sign up today</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/164741/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Danielle Wallace received funding from the National Science Foundation, surrounding this work, specifically, Award #2032747, “Estimating the Reciprocal Relationship between COVID-19 Infections of Prisoners and Staff and Infections in the Surrounding Communities.”</span></em></p>New research shows correctional officers are vectors of infection, driving COVID-19 rates both inside prisons and in their communities.Danielle Wallace, Associate Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Arizona State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1560842021-08-05T12:48:12Z2021-08-05T12:48:12ZTracking anniversaries of Black deaths isn’t memorializing victims – it’s objectifying them<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/407057/original/file-20210617-23-axhj05.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=245%2C122%2C5095%2C3202&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A mural depicting Breonna Taylor is seen being painted at Chambers Park on July 5, 2020 in Annapolis, Maryland. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/in-an-aerial-view-from-a-drone-a-large-scale-ground-mural-news-photo/1254442984?adppopup=true">Patrick Smith/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>National <a href="https://nationaldaycalendar.com/march-13-2020-national-good-samaritan-day-national-blame-someone-else-day-national-k9-veterans-day-national-jewel-day-national-open-an-umbrella-indoors-day/">Good Samaritan Day</a> fell on March 13 and commemorates those who have helped a person in need. This year, March 13 also marked one year since <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/article/breonna-taylor-police.html">Louisville police officers killed Breonna Taylor</a> during a botched raid on her apartment. </p>
<p>And in 2020 former Minneapolis police officer <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/trial-over-killing-of-george-floyd/2021/04/20/987777911/court-says-jury-has-reached-verdict-in-derek-chauvins-murder-trial">Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd</a> on Memorial Day, when we honor Americans who died while serving in the U.S. military. </p>
<p>As an aspiring opinion writer, I’ve been taught to track such anniversaries because they are news pegs, an event that can be used as a reason to do a story that capitalizes on public attention. </p>
<p>But as a <a href="https://www.geneseo.edu/communication/lee-pierce">scholar of rhetoric and race</a>, I have a competing perspective. </p>
<p>If the way people write and speak about the world creates a sense of good and bad, right and wrong, then the concept of tracking these tragedies is already complicit with what <a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/dark-matters">the writer and educator Simone Brown calls</a> “the surveillance of Blackness” – the disproportionate monitoring and punishing of Black Americans. </p>
<p>Those stories routinize systemic violence through their repetition. It’s what the political philosopher Hannah Arendt <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1963/02/16/eichmann-in-jerusalem-i">called</a> “the banality of evil.”</p>
<h2>Systemic violence made ordinary</h2>
<p>If someone is writing about the best gifts for Mother’s Day, I see no problem with tracking news pegs.</p>
<p>But if they’re writing about the deaths of people at the hands of police, perhaps a different approach is needed.</p>
<p>The pressure is understandable for writers to capitalize on the public attention that swells on the anniversaries of the deaths of Taylor, Floyd and hundreds of others. </p>
<p>One alternative to the news hook approach is just to take the word “new” more seriously. Instead of news hooks, writers could aim for what rapper Kid Cudi calls “dat new new,” something fresh and unanticipated. In the wake of Taylor’s killing, for example, a pro-gun control opinion piece might be reinvented as the idea that <a href="https://www.essence.com/op-ed/black-women-bearing-arms/">gun reform is a double-edged sword for Black America</a>.</p>
<h2>‘Find a dock’</h2>
<p>I admit to perpetuating the news hook, not only in my own attempts at public writing but in my teaching as well. </p>
<p>I was just following the advice that I had received. </p>
<p>“Your story is a ship,” I’ve been told, “and news pegs are potential ports for that ship. Keep sailing your ship until you find a dock.” Translation: Keep pegging your story to an anniversary until you get published. </p>
<p>The ship metaphor operates on the assumption that an idea precedes the occasion that it describes and, therefore, that ideas exist apart from the concrete events that they are supposed to explain.</p>
<p>By that logic, the idea of police reform as a story focus exists before and outside of Taylor’s death. Taylor is the hook, just another example of why police reform is important.</p>
<p>When the specific “hook” that is Taylor’s death doesn’t have a chance to prompt a story on its own, Taylor is objectified on the anniversary of her death just as she was on the day of her death. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/407061/original/file-20210617-14-1i2z3gm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Marchers walk by a mural of George Floyd." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/407061/original/file-20210617-14-1i2z3gm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/407061/original/file-20210617-14-1i2z3gm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407061/original/file-20210617-14-1i2z3gm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407061/original/file-20210617-14-1i2z3gm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407061/original/file-20210617-14-1i2z3gm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407061/original/file-20210617-14-1i2z3gm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407061/original/file-20210617-14-1i2z3gm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Marchers walk past a mural of George Floyd painted on a wall along Colfax Avenue on June 7, 2020, in Denver, Colorado.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/marchers-walk-by-a-mural-of-george-floyd-painted-on-a-wall-news-photo/1248065134?adppopup=true">Helen H. Richardson/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Imagining otherwise</h2>
<p>The language of ships also calls to mind the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Middle-Passage-slave-trade">Middle Passage</a>, the leg of the Atlantic voyage through which ships trafficked stolen Africans for <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/black-history-american-democracy.html">enslavement</a> in America. During the trip, countless slaves were thrown overboard into the ship’s wake or chose to jump to escape torture. </p>
<p>In “<a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/in-the-wake">In the Wake: On Blackness and Being</a>,” literary scholar Christina Sharpe uses the slave ship as a metaphor for the present-day condition that is being Black in America. </p>
<p>Sharpe describes that condition as “wake work.” Wake work means looking backward to keep vigil for the death lying in the wake and looking forward to the ship’s destination with hope and despair. Hope because the ship might be headed somewhere better, and despair because it almost certainly is not. </p>
<p>Wake work, Sharpe writes, is not only about the hard emotional, physical and mental work of vigilantly tracking and defending the dead. It is also about the equally exhausting work of imagining “otherwise from what we know now in the wake of slavery.” </p>
<p>Imagining otherwise is that new new. It’s a different interpretation about what tragedy means. </p>
<p>So what does imagining otherwise look like in the journalistic context? </p>
<p>There are stories that refused to use a news peg – that produced a new idea about the tragedies befalling Black Americans.</p>
<p>Consider a <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2015/5/14/1384734/-If-Trayvon-Martin-had-lived-Meet-Monroe-Bird-Shot-paralyzed-by-his-own-neighborhood-security">2015 story about Monroe Bird</a>, a Black man shot in Oklahoma by a white security guard, Ricky Stone, while sitting in a car with a white woman. </p>
<p>To justify the shooting, Stone claimed that Bird had a gun and was having sex in public, and that Bird tried to run him over with his car. No evidence was found to support those claims.</p>
<p>Bird did not become a news peg because he did not die during the incident. But life as Bird knew it did end. <a href="https://www.readfrontier.org/stories/monroe-bird-was-shot-by-a-security-guard-then-he-died-in-silence/">He was paralyzed from the waist down</a> and racked with <a href="https://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/07/20/illegal-activity-fine-print-leaves-some-insured-but-uncovered/">medical debt</a> that health insurance didn’t cover. </p>
<p>A few months later, <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2015/7/8/1400310/-The-devastating-death-of-Monroe-Bird-is-an-indictment-on-all-of-America">Bird died</a> from a blood clot because he was not being moved frequently enough, a simple preventative measure for paralyzed patients that Bird didn’t have access to.</p>
<p>The title of a news report on Bird? “<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2015/5/14/1384734/-If-Trayvon-Martin-had-lived-Meet-Monroe-Bird-Shot-paralyzed-by-his-own-neighborhood-security">If Trayvon Martin had lived: Meet Monroe Bird</a>.”</p>
<p>The story is one way to imagine otherwise. </p>
<p>The story took the familiar idea of Black Americans who have survived anti-Black violence and turned it on its head. The story shows that to not die is not to live. Then that idea morphs into a different idea: health care inequality.</p>
<p>Another version of imagining otherwise appeared in a self-published <a href="https://www.mninjustice.org/op-ed">op-ed column</a> written by an anonymous Minneapolis public defender. In the piece, the writer considers what would have happened to George Floyd if he had lived. </p>
<p>The answer is an imagined litany of underfunded and failed legal battles, the continued authorization of excessive force in police training manuals and another rotation of the cycle of violence in the American criminal justice system. </p>
<p>Tracking anniversaries is not wake work, it is not keeping vigilant watch, unless every time the next anniversary arrives it becomes an occasion to not only comment on the past but attempt to imagine otherwise, even if that otherwise is still without a happy ending.</p>
<p>[<em>Understand key political developments, each week.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/politics-weekly-74/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=politics-understand">Subscribe to The Conversation’s politics newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/156084/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lee M. Pierce is a volunteer for various liberal and leftist organizations and political candidates.</span></em></p>When there is nothing new to say, pegging news stories to the anniversaries of the deaths of Black Americans objectifies the victims and helps make violence ordinary.Lee M. Pierce, Assistant Professor Rhetoric and Communication, State University of New York, College at GeneseoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1654212021-08-03T12:35:12Z2021-08-03T12:35:12ZExpansion of Second Chance Pell Grants will let more people in prison pursue degrees<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413998/original/file-20210730-25-9h8l2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4001%2C3024&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Research shows providing a college education to inmates increases their chances of finding work upon release. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/deron-mcdonald-left-in-a-class-on-chronic-disease-self-news-photo/695690896?adppopup=true">Tara Bahrampour/The Washington Post via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When the Obama administration <a href="https://www.nasfaa.org/news-item/8999/Roughly_12_000_Incarcerated_Students_Will_Be_Pell_Eligible_Under_ED_s_Second_Chance_Pilot_Program">launched the Second Chance Pell program in 2016</a>, the idea was to provide incarcerated people the chance to get a college education despite a <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/12/20/congress-pell-grant-prisoners-449364">longstanding congressional ban</a> on Pell Grants for people serving time. </p>
<p>Pell Grants are federal grants for college students of limited financial means. The awards will be worth up to <a href="https://studentaid.gov/understand-aid/types/grants/pell">US$6,495 for the 2021–22 school year</a>.</p>
<p>Even though <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2021/01/27/pell-grants-restored-people-prison-eyes-turn-assuring-quality">Congress ended the federal ban in 2020</a>, the lifting of the ban doesn’t fully take effect until July 2023.</p>
<p>That’s one reason why, on July 30, 2021, the U.S. Department of Education <a href="https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/us-department-education-announces-it-will-expand-second-chance-pell-experiment-2022-2023-award-year">announced that it would be expanding</a> the Second Chance Pell Experimental Sites Initiative. Higher education institutions can apply to be considered for the 2022-23 academic year.</p>
<p>Specifically, the number of colleges and universities providing higher education under Second Chance Pell will <a href="https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/us-department-education-announces-it-will-expand-second-chance-pell-experiment-2022-2023-award-year">reach 200</a>. That’s significantly more than the <a href="https://www.vera.org/newsroom/department-of-education-announces-expansion-of-second-chance-pell-experimental-sites-initiative-selecting-67-new-postsecondary-education-in-prison-sites">130 sites</a> operating in 42 states and the District of Columbia as of 2020.</p>
<p>As someone who studies <a href="https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=lang_en&id=HXJ9DwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR5&dq=Andrea+Cantora&ots=rHCXN6gKkM&sig=OKJlNcZn2eo8rt5_wE_u6PyMtM8#v=onepage&q=Andrea%20Cantora&f=false">correctional education</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/1478601X.2014.947032">prisoner reentry</a>, I see this expanded access to higher education in prison as something that will bring many benefits to not only the incarcerated individuals who get an education but to society as well.</p>
<h2>Less crime</h2>
<p>Even before Second Chance Pell, prison education had already been proved as an effective way to prevent crime. </p>
<p>A commonly cited 2013 <a href="https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR266.html">RAND Corporation study</a> found that those who participate in prison education were 43% less likely to re-offend when released. In 2018, the RAND Corporation <a href="https://www.rand.org/pubs/external_publications/EP67650.html">expanded their research</a> and found that the impact was even greater – with prison education participants 48% less likely to re-offend.</p>
<p>If re-offense rates remain low as Second Chance Pell expands, states would likely begin to spend less taxpayer money on prison costs. A <a href="https://www.vera.org/downloads/publications/investing-in-futures.pdf">2019 cost savings analysis</a> by Georgetown University projected that states would save over US$300 million a year because of lower re-offense rates among Second Chance Pell participants. </p>
<h2>Better employment</h2>
<p>People who participate in education programs in prison are 13% <a href="https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR266.html">more likely to get jobs</a> upon release than those who do not participate. The <a href="https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2021/unemployment-rate-3-7-percent-for-college-grads-6-7-percent-for-high-school-grads-in-march-2021.htm">unemployment rate</a> for someone with a bachelor’s degree is 3.7% compared with 6.7% for someone with a high school diploma or equivalent.</p>
<p>And the annual earnings are nearly 70% higher at roughly <a href="https://www.northeastern.edu/bachelors-completion/news/average-salary-by-education-level/">$64,900 for someone with a bachelor’s degree versus about $38,800 for someone with only a high school diploma</a>.</p>
<p>This suggests that the higher the level of education a person gets while incarcerated, the more likely they are to find work and pay taxes upon release. </p>
<p>There has been no large-scale study to test whether Second Chance Pell participation reduces re-offending and improves employment outcomes. However, a 2021 report shows that the first four years of the Second Chance Pell experiment yielded participation from <a href="https://www.vera.org/downloads/publications/second-chance-pell-four-years-of-expanding-access-to-education-in-prison.pdf">22,000 students, with 7,000 credentials awarded</a>, including 3,499 certificates, 3,035 associate degrees and 540 bachelor degrees.</p>
<h2>Anticipated actions</h2>
<p>With declining <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeltnietzel/2021/06/10/updated-numbers-show-largest-college-enrollment-decline-in-a-decade/?sh=50d20fdf1a70">college enrollments</a> across the country and the need to <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2021/01/08/why-allowing-prison-inmates-receive-pell-grants-good-america-column/6578586002/">increase revenue</a>, colleges may be more willing than ever to serve incarcerated students. </p>
<p>This willingness is likely to increase once the federal ban on Pell Grants to incarcerated students is fully lifted in 2023. These developments also come at a time when <a href="https://californiacompetes.org/blog/how-higher-education-can-change-the-future-for-incarcerated-californians">states are investing in opportunities</a> to provide more higher education to people in prison as a way to improve their social and economic mobility when released.</p>
<p>[<em>Like what you’ve read? Want more?</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=likethis">Sign up for The Conversation’s daily newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/165421/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The University of Baltimore, where Andrea Cantora works, is a Second Chance Pell Site and receives funding from the U.S. Department of Education. </span></em></p>An experimental program to provide a college education in prison is about to increase its reach. Is there evidence that it will pay off?Andrea Cantora, Associate Professor of Criminal Justice, University of BaltimoreLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1563382021-05-27T17:53:25Z2021-05-27T17:53:25ZEx-prisoners are going hungry amid barriers, bans to benefits on the outside<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402977/original/file-20210526-15-nwhcrv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=93%2C309%2C3683%2C2282&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Stripped of benefits, some former prisoners are forced to rely on charity.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/mother-of-three-children-avis-alexander-55-takes-free-food-news-photo/1228197771?adppopup=true">Chandan KhannaA/AFP via Getty Images)</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Around <a href="https://aspe.hhs.gov/incarceration-reentry">600,000 people are released</a> annually from the U.S.’s sprawling prisons network.</p>
<p>Many face considerable barriers as a result of their convictions when it comes to essentials in life, like <a href="https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/outofwork.html">getting a job</a> <a href="https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/housing.html">or a home</a>. It can even be harder to feed themselves.</p>
<p>Formerly incarcerated people <a href="https://www.prisonpolicy.org/graphs/foodinsecurity350x370.html">are twice as likely</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0093854819856920">to suffer food insecurity</a> as the general population, with 1 in 5 ex-prisoners finding it difficult to obtain regular, nutritious meals. A 2013 <a href="http://doi.org/10.1521/aeap.2013.25.2.112">survey of recently released prisoners</a> came up with an even more stark finding: More than 90% were food insecure. Of the more than 100 formerly incarcerated people included in that study, 37% reported that they did not eat anything for a whole day at one point in the previous month.</p>
<h2>Lifelong ban on benefits</h2>
<p>Compounding the problem is that some formerly incarcerated persons are denied access to parts of the U.S.’s life-sustaining social safety. Twenty-five years ago, Congress passed a bill that <a href="https://www.clasp.org/publications/report/brief/no-more-double-punishments">imposed lifetime bans on convicted drug felons’</a> receiving Temporary Aid to Needy Families (TANF) and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) – two federal programs aimed at alleviating the effects of poverty and food insecurity among Americans.</p>
<p>A number of states have since opted out of the ban. But <a href="https://thecounter.org/snap-eligibility-for-formerly-incarcerated-people-bidens-american-families-plan/">27 still have modified versions</a>, often requiring that people with a drug conviction submit to drug testing or meet other eligibility criteria before they can receive SNAP payments. One state, <a href="https://www.cbpp.org/blog/restore-snap-for-people-with-drug-related-convictions">South Carolina</a>, still has the full ban in place.</p>
<p>The Biden administration recently announced its intention to change this. Included in the US$1.8 trillion American Families Plan <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/04/28/fact-sheet-the-american-families-plan/">is a provision</a> to “facilitate re-entry for formerly incarcerated individuals through SNAP eligibility.”</p>
<p>As <a href="https://www.bc.edu/bc-web/schools/ssw/faculty-research/faculty-directory/margaret-lombe.html">scholars who research</a> <a href="https://www.baylor.edu/social_work/index.php?id=943386">food security</a> <a href="https://brownschool.wustl.edu/Faculty-and-Research/Pages/Von-Nebbitt.aspx">among marginalized populations</a>, we believe the current federal policy is inconsistent with the need to support reentry for formerly incarcerated people. As the proposed American Families plan notes, the ban on convicted drug felons’ receiving SNAP disproportionately affects Black Americans. It also is a major barrier to rehabilitation and <a href="https://www.networkforphl.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Issue-Brief-Snap-Felon-Ban-Updated-1.pdf">increases the chances of recidivism</a> among recently released prisoners.</p>
<h2>Victims in the war on drugs</h2>
<p>The idea of banning drug felons from public assistance started during the push to reform welfare in the 1990s. </p>
<p>It followed years of media reports and conservative politicians demonizing people who received food and cash benefits in addition to low-rent housing. Recipients were characterized as lazy and unwilling to work, giving rise to stories of “<a href="https://www.newamerica.org/weekly/rise-and-reign-welfare-queen/">welfare queens</a>” living off handouts in low-income public housing.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, “war on drugs” policies popularized during the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2016/3/29/11325750/nixon-war-on-drugs">Nixon and Reagan administrations</a> conditioned an American public to more punitive conditions for those convicted of drug offenses. Such “tough on crime” policies culminated in the signing of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act in 1994. That legislation, drafted by then-Sen. Joe Biden, resulted in a <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2020/08/28/did-the-1994-crime-bill-cause-mass-incarceration/">swelling of the U.S. prison network</a>. It imposed longer sentences on violent and drug offenses and brought in the the “three strikes” rule that saw mandatory life imprisonment for a third violent offense conviction.</p>
<p>The ban on SNAP payments for those found guilty of drug offenses came two years later in the innocuous-sounding <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/104th-congress/house-bill/3734/text">Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act</a> of 1996. The provision, inserted in the bill by Texas Republican Sen. Phil Gramm, asserted that any individual convicted of a drug felony would not be eligible for “benefits under the food stamp program” or cash through TANF.</p>
<p>Arguing his point in Congress, <a href="https://www.sentencingproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/A-Lifetime-of-Punishment.pdf">Gramm explained</a>: “If we are serious about our drug laws, we ought not to give people welfare benefits who are violating the nation’s drug laws.”</p>
<p>The ban likely affected the lives of a huge number of people in the U.S. Around <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/03/books/review-halfway-home-mass-incarceration-reuben-jonathan-miller.html">20 million people</a> have a felony conviction in the U.S. In 2020, around 20% of the 2.3 million incarcerated people <a href="https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2020.html">had been convicted for a drug charge</a>. This includes <a href="https://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2020/11/10/women-drug-enforcement/">an increasing number of women</a>.</p>
<p>Studies have shown that SNAP <a href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/pub-details/?pubid=84335#:%7E:text=The%20results%20suggest%20that%20receiving,food%20insecure%20by%2020%20percent.">reduces the likelihood of being food insecure</a> by 30%. It is also associated with <a href="https://www.cbpp.org/research/food-assistance/snap-is-linked-with-improved-nutritional-outcomes-and-lower-health-care">improved health and reduced health care costs</a>.</p>
<p>And for formerly incarcerated people, there are also other benefits. If the aim of the 1996 ban was to reduce the chances of re-offending, then evidence suggests the opposite is true. A <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2845435">2016 study</a> of the effects of a modified version of the ban in Florida found that it increased recidivism. “The increase is driven by financially motivated crimes, suggesting that the cut in benefits causes ex-offenders to return to crime to make up for the lost transfer income,” the author concluded.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, a 2013 study of <a href="https://guilfordjournals.com/doi/10.1521/aeap.2013.25.2.112">formerly incarcerated people and HIV risk behaviors</a> found that those who reported going a whole day without eating at one point in the previous month were more likely to also report using heroin or cocaine before sex, or exchanging sex for money.</p>
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<h2>Supporting ex-prisoners, and their families</h2>
<p>The burden of the ban on convicted drug felons’ receiving SNAP disproportionately fell on Black Americans. For years, Black drug offenders have been the principal targets in the “war on drugs.” <a href="https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/p19.pdf">Black Americans are more than five times as likely to be incarcerated as white Americans</a>.</p>
<p>This is not because Black Americans use more drugs than their white counterparts. Recent data indicates that drug consumption among Black Americans is <a href="https://www.samhsa.gov/data/sites/default/files/cbhsq-reports/NSDUHDetailedTabs2018R2/NSDUHDetailedTabs2018.pdf">similar to or sometimes less than that of their white counterparts</a>.</p>
<p>This racial gap in incarceration rates for drugs offenses will likely mean Black Americans have been affected by lifelong bans on SNAP payments at a greater rate.</p>
<p>And it adds an additional burden on not only formerly incarcerated people, but also their families. As the Biden administration noted in calling for the ban to be revoked: “SNAP is a critical safety net for many individuals as they search for employment to support themselves and their families.”</p>
<p>The unfairness of the ban has increasingly been acknowledged by individual states that have opted out from imposing it – <a href="https://thecounter.org/snap-eligibility-for-formerly-incarcerated-people-bidens-american-families-plan/">22 states and D.C. to date</a>. But barriers remain, with some states requiring drug treatment, drug testing and parole compliance to enable eligibility.</p>
<p>Even if the lifelong ban on formerly incarcerated people’s receiving benefits is revoked at a federal level, food insecurity in the U.S. will no doubt remain a problem – and one that continues to <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-pandemic-recession-has-pushed-a-further-9-8-million-americans-into-food-insecurity-157016">disproportionately affect Black Americans</a>. But doing so will remove at least one barrier to the successful reintegration into society of members of America’s vast prison network.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/156338/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Formerly incarcerated Americans face food insecurity rates double that of the general population. A 1996 law that prohibits drug felons from getting crucial benefits may be partially to blame.Margaret Lombe, Associate Professor of Social Work, Boston CollegeVon Nebbitt, Associate Professor of Social Work, Washington University in St. LouisLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1584072021-05-07T12:44:05Z2021-05-07T12:44:05ZUS prisons hold more than 550,000 people with intellectual disabilities – they face exploitation, harsh treatment<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399053/original/file-20210505-15-1fhl6wk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=18%2C9%2C6211%2C4138&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The rate of intellectual disabilities is disproportionately high among incarcerated populations.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/prisoner-at-the-bolivar-county-correctional-facility-waits-news-photo/1315034536?adppopup=true">Spencer Platt/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Prison life in the U.S. is tough. But when you have an <a href="https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/intellectual-disability/what-is-intellectual-disability">intellectual, developmental or cognitive disability</a> – as hundreds of thousands of Americans behind bars do – it can make you especially vulnerable.</p>
<p>In March, the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the federal agency tasked with gathering data on crime and the criminal justice system, <a href="https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/drpspi16st.pdf">published a report</a> that found roughly two in five – 38% – of the 24,848 incarcerated people they surveyed across 364 prisons reported a disability of some sort. Across the entire incarcerated population, that translates to some 760,000 people with disabilities living behind bars.</p>
<p>Around a quarter of those surveyed reported having a cognitive disability, such as difficulty remembering or making decisions. A similar proportion reported at some point being told they had attention deficit disorder, and 14% were told they had a learning disability.</p>
<p><iframe id="aZQHB" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/aZQHB/2/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>As a <a href="http://catalog.college.emory.edu/department-program/faculty.php?YToxOntzOjI6ImlkIjtzOjM6Ijc5MyI7fQ==">scholar who has researched disability</a> in prison and conducted in-depth interviews with several adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities in the criminal justice system, I’m all too aware of the problems that incarcerated people with disabilities face. Prisoners with these disabilities are at greater risk of serving <a href="https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/An-Estimate-of-the-Prevalence-of-Autism-Spectrum-in-Fazio-Pietz/c9423ebfa2f6fbff89b1370b4d7f7b0f26ff831b">longer</a>, <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0032855597077004002">harder sentences</a> and being exploited and <a href="https://law.asu.edu/sites/default/files/pdf/academy_for_justice/Reforming-Criminal-Justice_Vol_3.pdf">abused</a> by prison staff or other incarcerated people. </p>
<h2>Stigma and crimes of survival</h2>
<p>The rate of both physical and intellectual disability among the prison population is disproportionately high. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/disabilityandhealth/infographic-disability-impacts-all.html">26% of Americans</a> report any kind of disability. Of those, 10.8% reported a cognitive disability.</p>
<p>This is less than half of the proportion of those in prisons. And rates appear to be on the rise – in 2011-2012, <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/disabilityandhealth/infographic-disability-impacts-all.html">32% of people incarcerated in prisons reported a disability</a>, with 19% stating a cognitive disability.</p>
<p>High as they are, these rates are likely to be an underestimate. They are based on self-reports, and research has shown <a href="https://doi.org/10.1352/2009.47:13-23">many people fail to report a disability</a> – particularly an intellectual or cognitive disability – to avoid stigma or because they simply don’t know they have one. </p>
<p>The Bureau of Justice Statistics has also found that people with cognitive, intellectual and developmental <a href="https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/dpji1112.pdf">disabilities are more prevalent in jails</a> – where people are sent immediately after arrest, to await trial or to serve a sentence of one year or less – than prisons. Jails tend to be associated with what have been called “<a href="http://humantollofjail.vera.org/legal-perils-of-homelessness/">crimes of survival</a>,” such as shoplifting and loitering. These offenses are linked to unemployed people and people experiencing homelessness – communities in which <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2788.2010.01366.x">rates of disabilities are higher</a>.</p>
<p>As a result, a <a href="https://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2017/08/23/disability/">disproportionate amount of people with disabilities</a> enter America’s criminal justice system. I see this in my research on intellectual and developmental disabilities – diagnoses like autism, fetal alcohol syndrome, ADD/ADHD, Down syndrome, and general cognitive impairment are common in our criminal justice system.</p>
<h2>In jail, no one listens</h2>
<p>Between 2018 and 2019, I <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssaho.2021.100122">interviewed 27 people with these disabilities</a> about their interaction with the criminal justice system. Eighteen reported having been arrested and/or incarcerated.</p>
<p>Many spoke of the harm and difficulties they face throughout the criminal justice system, from courts to being behind bars.</p>
<p>One man I interviewed who had various learning and attention-related disabilities and was in special education as a child told me: “I was in jail one time [because] when I didn’t understand the questions the judge was asking me, and she sentence me to three months in [county jail] because I didn’t understand.” Officially, this was for disorderly conduct. </p>
<p>Confusion in prison and jail can lead to <a href="https://www.themarshallproject.org/2020/11/02/prison-is-even-worse-when-you-have-a-disability-like-autism">violence or danger</a>. Needing time to process instructions, particularly in high-stress situations, can be interpreted as obstinacy by staff and officers in charge. One middle-aged man who experienced incarceration on a few occasions told me that if you can’t process instructions, sometimes you are physically forced to comply. He provided the example of seeing someone with mental health needs not going to the shower when requested: “In jail, they don’t have time for that. They’ll just throw you in the shower. They’re not supposed to, but I’ve seen that before.” </p>
<p>Further, being seen as obstinate can lead to disciplinary reports in prison or jail, which could result in added time to someone’s sentence or the removal of certain privileges. It could also <a href="http://jaapl.org/content/38/1/104">result in solitary confinement</a> – something known to exacerbate and create <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/696041">mental health concerns</a> and which has been labeled as torture by the <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2011/10/392012-solitary-confinement-should-be-banned-most-cases-un-expert-says">United Nations</a> and <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2012/06/18/us-look-critically-widespread-use-solitary-confinement#">human rights groups</a>. One <a href="https://www.nyaprs.org/e-news-bulletins/2018/11/30/study-over-4-000-prisoners-w-serious-mental-illness-are-held-in-solitary-confinement">study from 2018 found</a> that over 4,000 people with serious mental health concerns were being held in solitary confinement in the U.S. Again, this is likely to be an underestimate.</p>
<p>Incarcerated people with intellectual, developmental and cognitive disabilities <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14789949.2015.1062994">risk being exploited</a> by both officers and fellow inmates. One person I interviewed who had experienced incarceration said officers look for those who have a disability by noting who only watches TV and never reads, marking them for exploitation. He went on to say that “some of the corrections officers, they be doing things they ain’t got no business doing. So they’ll slide up onto the disability boy and use him, you know, because he’d making him feel like ‘This is my dog. This is my boy right here. Come and do this for me.’ And they’ll run and do it. So I think people with disabilities are used more by deceptive corrections guards than people that read.”</p>
<p>Rates of these disabilities are even higher among incarcerated women, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics report. This might be related to the fact that women have much <a href="http://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17051725">higher histories of abuse and trauma</a>, or because they are <a href="https://ramh.org/guide/gender-differences-in-mental-health">more willing to report these disabilities</a>.</p>
<p>One woman with cerebral palsy and unidentified intellectual disabilities I spoke with said that in most jails she’d report her disability, but no one would listen to her.</p>
<h2>Hidden behind bars</h2>
<p>The disproportionate rates of cognitive, intellectual and developmental disability in U.S. prisons and jails have rarely formed part of the conversation on reforming our police and prison system. When discussing mental health in prison, often the <a href="https://www.treatmentadvocacycenter.org/evidence-and-research/learn-more-about/3695">focus is on psychiatric disabilities</a>, like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. There is good reason for this – people with these kinds of disabilities are also at <a href="https://www.treatmentadvocacycenter.org/evidence-and-research/learn-more-about/3695">high risk for incarceration</a>.</p>
<p>But, I believe, it has meant that the needs of incarcerated people with intellectual and developmental disabilities have been neglected. At present, there is <a href="http://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2017.12.036">little support for people with these disabilities</a> in incarcerated settings. Prisons and jails could ensure staff are better trained to interact with people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.</p>
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<p>We could also explore strategies to divert people with intellectual, learning and cognitive disabilities away from the criminal justice system. Cities are increasingly exploring alternatives to police for responding to mental health crises, like the <a href="https://whitebirdclinic.org/cahoots/">CAHOOTS model in Oregon</a> in which a medic and mental health expert are deployed as first responders. Additionally, there could be more attention to these disabilities in <a href="https://bja.ojp.gov/sites/g/files/xyckuh186/files/Publications/CSG_MHC_Research.pdf">mental health courts</a>, which combine court supervision with community-based services. They have been shown to be <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2010.11.003">somewhat effective at reducing recidivism</a>, but which <a href="http://doi.org/10.1007/s10979-010-9250-4">seem to focus on people</a> with schizophrenia, bipolar, major depression or PTSD.</p>
<p>But before that, awareness about the presence of disability in incarcerated settings needs to be higher. The plight of incarcerated prisoners with intellectual disabilities has long been an issue lost amid America’s sprawling prison network.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/158407/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jennifer Sarrett does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A quarter of prisoners report a cognitive, intellectual or developmental disability. But the true figure could be even higher.Jennifer Sarrett, Lecturer, Center for Study of Human Health, Emory UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1518222021-01-22T13:30:08Z2021-01-22T13:30:08ZHuge numbers of the formerly incarcerated are unemployed, but there are some promising solutions<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378406/original/file-20210112-23-pvs6rv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2865%2C1827&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Formerly incarcerated entrepreneur Coss Marte speaks at a conference in 2015.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/coss-marte-founder-ceo-conbody-speaks-onstage-at-the-wired-news-photo/473076754">Brad Barket/Getty Images for WIRED</a></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="align-center zoomable">
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<p>People who have been incarcerated face major challenges finding work after their release. About <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/research/work-and-opportunity-before-and-after-incarceration/">45% of formerly incarcerated Americans were unemployed</a> one year after leaving prison, according to a multiyear study the Brookings Institution released in 2018. </p>
<p>This is far higher than U.S. joblessness levels, even during the coronavirus pandemic. The overall U.S. rate spiked to <a href="https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R46554.pdf">14.7% in April 2020</a>, <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf">receding to 6.7% by December</a> – nearly twice where it stood at the <a href="https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2020/unemployment-rates-in-15-states-were-lower-than-the-3-point-5-percent-u-s-rate-in-december-2019.htm">end of 2019</a>.</p>
<p>Three factors essential to a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/07418825.2010.535553">successful transition from prison</a> are employment, housing and transportation, and no one can afford stable housing or reliable transportation without employment. I’m <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=4_1lJzAAAAAJ&hl=en">researching two innovative ways</a> to combat unemployment among the formerly incarcerated. </p>
<p>One approach relies on <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/social-enterprise.asp">social enterprises</a>, organizations that pursue a social mission while seeking to earn money. These organizations <a href="https://doi.org/10.1515/npf-2016-0009">employ formerly incarcerated people</a> for short periods of time. Some examples include <a href="https://homeboyindustries.org/">Homeboy Industries</a>, the world’s largest gang rehabilitation and reentry program, and <a href="https://ceoworks.org/">Center for Employment Opportunities</a>, the largest reentry employment provider in the country. </p>
<p>The other method, exemplified by the <a href="https://www.pep.org/about-us/">Prison Entrepreneurship Program</a>, is to have business professionals teach people who are incarcerated how to become entrepreneurs so they can launch their own businesses once they leave prison. These programs provide the skills, knowledge and connections needed to succeed as entrepreneurs.</p>
<p>Formerly incarcerated entrepreneurs include <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/annefield/2020/07/17/second-chance-studios-turning-ex-offenders-into-podcasting-prosand-helping-them-stay-out-of-prison/">Coss Marte</a>, who runs a fitness company; <a href="http://www.mission-launch.org/">Teresa Hodge</a>, who founded a Baltimore-based nonprofit focused on financial literacy, inclusive entrepreneurship and community engagement; and <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/gykav9/these-formerly-incarcerated-entrepreneurs-are-trying-to-keep-people-out-of-prison">Marcus Bullock</a>, who created an app that turns photos into postcards that get delivered to individuals who are incarcerated.</p>
<p>People who participate in social enterprises and prison entrepreneurship programs tend to <a href="https://www.mdrc.org/publication/more-job">earn more money</a> and are <a href="https://www.pep.org/icic-report/">less likely to return to prison</a> than their peers.</p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/151822/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>This research was supported by CTSA award number UL1TR000445 from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS). Its contents are solely the responsibilities of the author and do not necessarily represent official views of NCATS or the National Institutes of Health.</span></em></p>Nearly half of formerly incarcerated Americans remain jobless for at least a year. But there are some creative solutions to this problem.Kymberly Byrd, Ph.D. Candidate, Community Research and Action, Vanderbilt UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1455132020-09-15T11:54:04Z2020-09-15T11:54:04ZDisaster work is often carried out by prisoners – who get paid as little as 14 cents an hour despite dangers<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/357746/original/file-20200912-24-1oc0vvk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3494%2C2326&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Prisoners clearing vegetation to prevent the spread of a wildfire in Yucaipa, California</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/inmate-firefighters-from-oak-glen-conservation-camp-clear-news-photo/860663322?adppopup=true">David McNew/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Efforts to beat back wildfires <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/09/12/912304025/wildfires-latest-helpful-weather-oregon-official-warns-of-mass-fatality-incident">ravaging Western states in the U.S.</a> have been hampered this year by depleted numbers of “<a href="https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2015/09/28/firefighting-inmates-in-california-fill-a-void-gain-a-lot/">orange angels</a>” – incarcerated workers deployed as firefighters.</p>
<p>Their lower numbers coincide with the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/22/us/california-wildfires-prisoners.html">early release for eligible prisoners</a> and the quarantining of others to combat the spread of COVID-19.</p>
<p>The potential impact that having fewer prisoners to draw upon highlights the crucial role that incarcerated workers play in disaster response. While many people are aware that prisoners work to <a href="http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/11/25/fire-and-punishmentinmatefirefightersonthefrontlines.html">help contain wildfires in California and elsewhere</a>, less well known is the role incarcerated workers play as a labor source across a variety of disasters throughout the country.</p>
<p>As a social scientist, I study the impact of disasters on incarcerated populations. I recently <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/rhc3.12191">co-authored a study</a> on the role of incarcerated workers in state emergency operations plans – the primary emergency planning documents for state governments. We found that 30 out of the 47 states analyzed, including California, Texas and Florida, had explicit instructions to use prisoners for emergencies and disasters. Furthermore, we identified at least 34 disaster-related tasks that states assign to incarcerated workers. Delaware, New Jersey and Tennessee were not included in our analysis as their plans were not publicly available.</p>
<p>These include work that requires minimal training such as making sandbags, clearing debris, handling supplies and caring for pets for evacuees. But it also includes roles that require specialized training like fighting fires, collecting and disposing contaminated animal carcasses and cleaning up hazardous materials.</p>
<p>Some of these tasks put incarcerated workers at risk of injury or ill health.</p>
<h2>14 cents an hour</h2>
<p>Prison systems have long championed the work of incarcerated persons in emergencies and disasters as a demonstration of the value of prisons to local communities and the state. </p>
<p>State prison systems often have internal policies that guide the use of incarcerated persons to assist with disaster operations. For example, the Alabama Department of Corrections’ <a href="http://www.doc.alabama.gov/docs/AdminRegs/AR010.pdf">administrative regulations</a> dictate that in the event of a disaster, “the major support of the [department] will be manpower” including the use of “inmate labor.”</p>
<p>In addition, state laws across the U.S. often specifically state that incarcerated workers may be assigned to work in disaster conditions. </p>
<p>For example, Georgia allows for incarcerated workers to be <a href="http://rules.sos.state.ga.us/GAC/125-3-5-.04?urlRedirected=yes&data=admin&lookingfor=125-3-5-.04">required to work in conditions that may jeopardize their health</a> if an emergency threatens the lives of others or of public property. Meanwhile Colorado passed legislation in 1998 that created the <a href="https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/cdoc/news/canon-city-swift-responds-wyoming-fire">Inmate Disaster Relief Program</a> under which the state can “form a labor pool” to “fight forest fires, help with flood relief, and assist in the prevention of or clean up after other natural or man-made disasters.”</p>
<p>As with wildfire programs, incarcerated workers are looked to in times of disaster primarily because they are a low-cost substitution for civilian workers. Incarcerated workers are <a href="https://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2017/04/10/wages/">paid very low wages</a> averaging between US$0.14 and $0.63 an hour. And some states, including Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia and Texas, don’t pay incarcerated workers at all. </p>
<p>The cost of inmate labor is offset through federal subsidies. FEMA’s <a href="https://www.fema.gov/sites/default/files/2020-06/fema_public-assistance-program-and-policy-guide_v4_6-1-2020.pdf">public assistance program</a> provides states with “funding for prisoner transportation to the worksite and extraordinary costs of security guards, food and lodging.” This provides a significant financial incentive to use incarcerated workers for disaster labor. After Hurricane Michael in 2018, FEMA awarded the Florida Department of Corrections $311,305 for <a href="https://www.fema.gov/news-release/20200220/fema-awards-more-2m-public-assistance-grants">debris removal</a>.</p>
<h2>Forced labor</h2>
<p>Not all disaster work is voluntary for incarcerated persons. The <a href="https://www.history.com/news/13th-amendment-slavery-loophole-jim-crow-prisons">13th Amendment</a> to the U.S. Constitution allows for incarcerated persons to be compelled to participate in labor without their consent as part of their punishment. That applies to disaster work too.</p>
<p>The Constitution’s <a href="https://constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution/amendment/amendment-viii">Eighth Amendment</a> “forbids knowingly compelling an inmate to perform labor that is beyond the inmate’s strength, dangerous to his or her life or health, or unduly painful.” However, in the context of disasters, it is challenging to know whether or not the situation or the environment is truly safe. And little is known about the training prisoners receive.</p>
<p>If incarcerated persons refuse to participate, they <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/09/prison-labor-in-america/406177/#:%7E:text=With%20few%20exceptions%2C%20inmates%20are,hour%2C%20if%20anything%20at%20all.">may face serious consequences</a>, such as being sent to solitary confinement, the loss of earned time off their sentences or the loss of family visitation. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.nfpa.org/%2F-%2Fmedia/Files/News-and-Research/Fire-statistics-and-reports/Emergency-responders/osFFF.pdf">Deaths of incarcerated firefighters are reported</a> alongside those of civilian firefighters, and there is no way to accurately track the number of prisoners who have died or been injured during disaster-related work. However, there are known examples of fatalities. In 2003, the South Dakota Department of Corrections <a href="https://doc.sd.gov/adult/work/emergency.aspx">“Emergency Response Inmate Work Program”</a> was scrutinized after a 22-year-old man, Neil Ambrose, was <a href="https://rapidcityjournal.com/news/state-and-regional/family-of-electrocuted-inmate-sues/article_823fa55d-68a5-56ce-b3fa-4cbf9288b245.html">electrocuted</a> by a downed power line while cleaning up debris after a storm.</p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>Ambrose <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/rhc3.12191">reportedly expressed prior concerns</a> about the hazardous work but was told he would be charged with “disrupting a work zone” and would be sent to solitary confinement if he did not participate. Later, the correctional officer in charge of Ambrose and those on the work crew was <a href="https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-8th-circuit/1035052.html">found responsible</a> for his death in that he knew the downed power line was a safety threat. It was also later shown that the only training Ambrose had received was a short video on safely operating chainsaws.</p>
<h2>Exploitation and harm</h2>
<p>Some advocates for prisoners’ rights have begun drawing attention to the vulnerability of incarcerated workers in disasters. After Hurricane Harvey in 2017, the NAACP Environmental and Climate Justice program published a guidebook called <a href="https://naacp.org/climate-justice-resources/in-the-eye-of-the-storm/">“In the Eye of the Storm”</a> to help communities make disaster response and recovery processes more equitable. The guidebook includes suggestions for how to advocate specifically for worker protections for incarcerated persons. Community members are encouraged to ask about whether the incarcerated workers have received relevant training and adequate protective equipment and if their participation in the work is voluntary.</p>
<p>Incarcerated workers are deeply embedded throughout emergency management in the United States. Yet so much attention remains focused on the most visible and well-known programs, their role – and the potential for exploitation and harm – in many other disasters remains overlooked.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/145513/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>J. Carlee Purdum does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Relying on incarcerated workers in emergencies such as the wildfires ravaging parts of the US is a cheap alternative for states. But what protections are there for prisoners?J. Carlee Purdum, Research Assistant Professor, Texas A&M UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1451412020-08-28T11:00:24Z2020-08-28T11:00:24ZHurricane Katrina gave former prisoners a fresh start in new cities – how to give more people this route out of crime<p>Hurricane Laura’s landfall on the coasts of Louisiana and Texas came just as New Orleans prepared to mark the 15th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, and with the region already reeling from the coronavirus pandemic. For many, the wounds of the COVID-19 disaster and now Hurricane Laura are all too reminiscent of the way the US handled the devastation of Katrina. </p>
<p>Just as we are now, in 2005 we reimagined the future of society. As my <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/home-free-9780190841232?cc=gb&lang=en&">15-year study</a> of post-Katrina New Orleans shows, Katrina offered lessons about how to design a more just and effective criminal justice system. We would be wise to finally heed them. </p>
<p>Because of the focus on investing in police and prisons to address the problem of crime in the US, to the neglect of housing, job training, and mental health and addiction treatment, the country has largely set former prisoners up to fail. Unsurprisingly, for decades, roughly 50% of formerly incarcerated individuals have been sent back to prison within just three years of release and almost <a href="https://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=4986">70% are rearrested</a>. Prisons are overflowing not so much with first-time offenders, but with people who return again and again.</p>
<p>At the point of release, because of limited housing options and restrictive parole policies, the formerly incarcerated tend to funnel right back to their old neighbourhoods. Returning home often means returning to the same environment with the same criminal opportunities and criminal peers that proved so detrimental prior to incarceration. </p>
<p>This was the story of numerous people I interviewed as part of my study, including one man from New Orleans named Vernon. He’d go to prison and eventually exit with a sincere intention to change. After the third of his four imprisonments, he found God, devoted himself to religion, attended drug treatment, and made a legitimate commitment to change. But just like the times before, he fell victim to the temptations of his old environment, relapsed into active addiction, and ended up back in prison. He followed a similar pattern after his fourth incarceration.</p>
<p>Hurricane Katrina then struck, and Vernon was forced to leave New Orleans behind. He has avoided crime and drugs ever since. </p>
<h2>A fresh start</h2>
<p>One prominent strand of thought in criminology is that crime is <a href="https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/full/10.1146/annurev-criminol-032317-092421">situational</a>: certain situations and social contexts are more likely to breed it. Change someone’s situation, and the outcome may be different.</p>
<p>To test this idea and to make sense of why Vernon’s life changed, I compared reincarceration rates of every prisoner originally from the New Orleans metropolitan area who was released in the first six months after Hurricane Katrina to every New Orleans prisoner released a few years prior to Katrina. Because the tragedy of Katrina forced many people to move to new cities who otherwise would not have moved, we got a glimpse into the alternate reality of their lives – a natural experiment for social scientists.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/355163/original/file-20200827-20-1o2rino.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Map of severe damage caused by Hurricane Katrina to New Orleans." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/355163/original/file-20200827-20-1o2rino.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/355163/original/file-20200827-20-1o2rino.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355163/original/file-20200827-20-1o2rino.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355163/original/file-20200827-20-1o2rino.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355163/original/file-20200827-20-1o2rino.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355163/original/file-20200827-20-1o2rino.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355163/original/file-20200827-20-1o2rino.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Map of severe damage caused by Hurricane Katrina to New Orleans.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">US Department of Housing and Urban Development</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It turns out that those people who were forced to move elsewhere because of the hurricane were much less likely to be subsequently reincarcerated than their pre-Katrina counterparts who went back home. In the first eight years after their release, an estimated 46% of the people who moved to a different parish were reincarcerated at some point, still a high percentage but much less than the staggering 59% reincarcerated among those who returned home. </p>
<p>Distance was key in order to provide a true change in circumstances. Moving a short distance to the next neighbourhood over did not reduce reoffending nearly as effectively as moving to an entirely different city or parish. </p>
<p>In a later study, I sought to replicate the results of my Katrina study, without a hurricane. I ran an experimental pilot housing programme in the Maryland prison system called MOVE <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11292-017-9317-z">(Maryland Opportunities through Vouchers Experiment)</a>. </p>
<p>We provided six months of free housing, privately funded through a research grant, to people who had been newly-released from prison, with the housing located in a different county from their former home. They were free to live alone or with family members, and we increased the value of support for people living with dependent children in order to offset the cost of a larger dwelling. </p>
<p>The combination of free and stable housing and a new environment had a substantial effect. Only 25% of our participants were rearrested within one year of their release from prison, compared to 57% in a control group who returned to their former counties without any kind of housing assistance.</p>
<h2>How to pay for rehousing</h2>
<p>But how could we pay for housing programmes for former prisoners? Even before the current financial crisis, only <a href="https://www.cbpp.org/research/housing/chart-book-federal-housing-spending-is-poorly-matched-to-need">about a quarter</a> of all families eligible for federal rental assistance, such as housing vouchers or public housing, actually received it. </p>
<p>One answer is a long-discussed criminal justice strategy: <a href="https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev-criminol-011419-041407">justice reinvestment</a>. The idea is simple – redirect a portion of the savings from the reduced use of incarceration to pay for housing for newly released prisoners. </p>
<p>It turns out that it is much cheaper to house someone on the outside than it is on the inside. It costs well over <a href="https://www.vera.org/publications/price-of-prisons-2015-state-spending-trends">US$100 a day</a> in many states to incarcerate someone. In contrast, according to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, the fair market rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Baltimore, the site of my MOVE programme, is <a href="https://www.huduser.gov/portal/datasets/fmr/fmrs/FY2020_code/select_Geography.odn">US$1,105 per month</a>. At around US$37 per day that’s about a third of the cost of prison. The savings could also pay for support services such as drug treatment, cognitive behavioural therapy and job counselling.</p>
<p>As the movement to defund the police <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2020/08/13/austin-city-council-cut-police-budget-defund/">progresses</a> and alternative strategies to address public safety are being considered besides the police and prisons, investment in housing should be a key priority. At a time when cost-beneficial public spending is essential for the recovery from the pandemic, over-reliance on costly and, in many cases, unjust criminal justice practices is not sound policy.</p>
<p><em>* Names have been changed in this article to protect the anonymity of the research participants.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/145141/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Kirk received funding from the US National Institutes of Health for the purposes of this research. Findings and conclusions expressed are solely the author's. </span></em></p>Research shows supporting newly released prisoners to move to a new area can slash reincarceration rates.David Kirk, Professor of Sociology, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1413582020-07-22T11:59:40Z2020-07-22T11:59:40ZPeople are dying in US prisons, and not just from COVID-19<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347358/original/file-20200714-26-1wtui4s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Dade Correctional Institution where mentally ill prisoner Darren Rainey was locked in a shower stall and died in June 2012. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Florida-Prisoner-Shower/c2e2025ac7164e29ac6df2b701340444/1/0">AP Photo/Lynne Sladky</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Randall <a href="https://www.miamiherald.com/news/special-reports/florida-prisons/article188085574.html">Jordan-Aparo</a>, <a href="https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article149026764.html">Darren Rainey</a> and <a href="https://www.miamiherald.com/news/special-reports/florida-prisons/article49158995.html">Latandra Ellington</a> are not household names. But like <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/08/13/us/ferguson-missouri-town-under-siege-after-police-shooting.html">Michael Brown</a>, <a href="https://apnews.com/a55d2662f200ead0da4fed9e923b60a7">George Floyd</a> and <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/07/13/890328388/no-arrests-or-charges-so-far-in-breonna-taylors-shooting-death">Breonna Taylor</a>, they were killed by law enforcement officers. </p>
<p>Not police officers, but corrections officers.</p>
<p>No dataset tracks the number of people in prison who die at the hands of those hired to keep them safe. The Bureau of Justice Statistics reports that between 2012 and 2016 – the most recent data available – approximately <a href="https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/msfp0116st.pdf">128 state and federal prisoners died from homicide or accidents per year</a>. The agency does not separately report incidents involving prison staff versus prisoner-on-prisoner violence. This is also likely to be an undercount since many investigations of suspicious deaths in prison are done internally by corrections departments.</p>
<p>In the absence of detailed and reliable data, what we do have are accounts of sadistic and retaliatory violence by prison guards against people in prison. According to investigations by the Miami Herald, corrections officers <a href="https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/article1985286.html">gassed Randall Jordan-Aparo as he begged for help</a>, likely <a href="https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/national/article50159030.html">killed Latandra Ellington</a> for speaking out about sexual abuse and <a href="https://www.miamiherald.com/news/special-reports/florida-prisons/article196797554.html">scalded Darren Rainey to death</a> in the shower.</p>
<p>Just as insidious are <a href="https://heinonline.org/HOL/P?h=hein.journals/wajlp22&i=151">routine “use of force” incidents that are clearly excessive</a>. In June, for example, Florida corrections officers <a href="https://www.miamiherald.com/news/special-reports/florida-prisons/article243711077.html?__twitter_impression=true">beat Christopher Howell to death</a> while removing him from his cell after he reportedly “refused a command.”</p>
<h2>State neglect of prisoners</h2>
<p>Although it doesn’t receive the same national media attention as police brutality, there is an <a href="https://www.jacksonfreepress.com/news/2020/jan/03/mississippi-prison-deaths-follow-warnings-meager-f/">ongoing humanitarian crisis in U.S. prisons</a>. As a sociologist, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=sPjFndgAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">I have researched and written extensively</a> on the history of state prisons – which hold two-thirds of people incarcerated in the U.S. – and the causes of mass incarceration. </p>
<p>Similar to excessive police force, brutality by prison officers is part of systemic state violence against people of color, and Black people specifically. As I explain in my book, <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/B/bo27527318.html">“Building the Prison State: Race and the Politics of Mass Incarceration,”</a> racist ideas about irredeemable “criminals” helped convince state legislators to spend <a href="https://www.gao.gov/assets/160/151231.pdf">approximately US$70 billion</a> to <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/soc4.12357">build 1,000 prisons</a> in the 1980s and 1990s. By 2007, operating expenses for state corrections departments had <a href="https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/jee8207st.pdf">increased 250% to $56 billion a year</a>. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348741/original/file-20200722-35-17jq7hb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two middle-age white men wave flags against a blue sky" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348741/original/file-20200722-35-17jq7hb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348741/original/file-20200722-35-17jq7hb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348741/original/file-20200722-35-17jq7hb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348741/original/file-20200722-35-17jq7hb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348741/original/file-20200722-35-17jq7hb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348741/original/file-20200722-35-17jq7hb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348741/original/file-20200722-35-17jq7hb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">A 2010 tea party protest in 2010.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Tea-Party-Protest/70667386dbaa4a3381275e7546984a11/13/0">AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin</a></span>
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<p>After the election of President Barack Obama, a wave of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S153759271000407X">white racial resentment galvanized by the Tea Party movement</a> swept business-backed fiscal conservatives into state houses across the country. As promised, governors and state legislatures began to defund a variety of state agencies and programs. Where politicians had once protected already underresourced departments of corrections from spending cuts, they now began to <a href="https://sanquentinnews.com/twelve-cdcr-prisons-are-in-dire-need-of-repair/">delay maintenance on prison facilities</a> and <a href="https://thesocietypages.org/specials/the-return-of-rehabilitation-educational-programs-for-prisoners-remain-inadequate">strip state prisons of educational programs</a> down to what one Florida state legislator called <a href="https://www.tampabay.com/archive/2011/08/25/fla-prisons-chief-abruptly-resigns/">“bare and naked incarceration.”</a></p>
<p>As a result, state prisons today are severely underfunded, understaffed, overcrowded and deteriorating. </p>
<h2>‘A callous disregard’</h2>
<p>In Florida, the state I have researched most extensively, fiscal austerity hit the Department of Corrections early, under the leadership of Gov. Jeb Bush, and continued long after he left office in 2007. The <a href="https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article237756419.html">Miami Herald chronicled the decline</a>. In 2012, after five years without a raise, the state cut thousands of corrections officer positions by moving from an eight- to a 12-hour shift. By 2017, the Herald reported, the state could not fill 2,500 corrections officer positions left open because of high turnover and low pay. And, in 2019, the new Florida Department of Corrections Secretary warned that years of budget cuts and legislative indifference have created a system at the brink of a “death spiral.” </p>
<p>The consequences of understaffing are compounded by prison overcrowding. According to an <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/the-prison-was-built-to-hold-1500-inmates-it-had-over-2000-coronavirus-cases">analysis by ProPublica</a> of federal data, between 2011 and 2018, 32 states closed one or more prisons, without corresponding reductions to the state’s overall prison population. This year, as coronavirus hit, at least 16 state prison systems – in every region except the Northeast – had seriously overcrowded prisons, according to local news reports. </p>
<p>Most departments of corrections <a href="https://reason.org/commentary/criminal-justice-privatization-2014/">contract with private companies</a> to provide health care in state prisons. The rising cost of medical care and reduced state budgets squeezed these companies’ profit margins. As a result, the existing barely adequate <a href="https://www.governing.com/topics/public-justice-safety/gov-prison-health-care.html">health care in prisons deteriorated</a>. At Ely State Prison in Nevada, for example, there was no full time physician on staff for 1,000 male prisoners. According to one medical expert, the medical neglect he saw amounted to a <a href="https://www.clearinghouse.net/chDocs/public/PC-NV-0015-0002.pdf">“callous disregard for human life and human suffering</a>.” Since 2010, courts have ordered at least <a href="https://www.clearinghouse.net/results.php?saveRef=pl&search=source%7Cgeneral%3BcaseCat%7CPC%3BclosingYearAfter%7C2009%3BclassActionSought%7C2%3BsearchIssues%7C126%2C127%2C128%2C129%2C165%2C125%2C131%2C136%2C265%2C132%2C148%2C134%2C454%2C137%2C147%2C138%2C146%2C139%2C140%2C141%3Borderby%7CfilingYear%3B">10 state departments of corrections to fix</a> substandard health care in the states’ prisons. In 2018, a U.S. District Court fined the Arizona Department of Corrections for <a href="https://www.aclu.org/legal-document/parsons-v-ryan-contempt">“not taking its obligation seriously”</a> as people in prison continued to die from medical neglect.</p>
<p>Prison overcrowding, inadequate prison health care and a <a href="https://lebtown.com/2020/05/05/column-what-weve-learned-about-covid-19-in-prisons/">lack of infrastructure to manage the outbreak of disease</a> has led to an alarming number of COVID-19 cases in state prisons. In San Quentin State Prison, just outside of San Francisco, <a href="https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/newsletter/2020-07-07/californias-prison-outbreak-coronavirus-newsletter-todays-headlines">more than one-third of prisoners</a> have tested positive for COVID-19. According to The New York Times, in mid-June <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/16/us/coronavirus-inmates-prisons-jails.html?campaign_id=9&emc=edit_nn_20200616&instance_id=19429&nl=the-morning&regi_id=125644529&segment_id=31015&te=1&user_id=2623dcc32304891d08a0744e62529997">the five largest known clusters of the virus</a> were inside correctional institutions. </p>
<p>Since the first week of May when prisons recorded a high of 87 prisoner deaths, as of mid-July <a href="https://www.themarshallproject.org/2020/05/01/a-state-by-state-look-at-coronavirus-in-prisons">every week on average 42 people die in prison of COVID-19</a>. </p>
<h2>No accountability</h2>
<p>When prisons are understaffed, offer no programming and provide inadequate mental health care, <a href="https://mynbc15.com/news/local/prison-system-seeks-money-to-hire-more-officers">maintaining order becomes more difficult</a>. The use of solitary confinement increases. Resentment builds. Studies show that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139649681">officers who work in chaotic and hostile work environments are more likely to adopt an “us vs. them” mentality</a> and resort to retaliatory violence.</p>
<p>Prison officers’ acts of violence are often not reported. The <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15614260290011309">blue code of silence</a> that people associate with police applies equally to corrections officers. Prison staff that come forward <a href="https://www.miamiherald.com/news/special-reports/florida-prisons/article13200422.html">are threatened and harassed</a>. And, even more than police departments, <a href="https://theconversation.com/whats-hidden-behind-the-walls-of-americas-prisons-77282">prisons are not transparent</a>. It is often only through local news media investigations that we hear these stories. </p>
<p>Corrections officers are rarely held accountable through <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0032885514524731">civil lawsuits</a> or <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0734016808326220">criminal prosecution</a> for their acts. The Miami-Dade County prosecutor Katherine Fernandez Rundle, who faces a real challenger in the upcoming primary for the first time since she was elected in 1993, <a href="https://theappeal.org/inmates-death-continues-to-haunt-miami-prosecutor-cf9d91a666eb/">declined to prosecute</a> the prison officers who locked Darren Rainey in a scalding hot shower and left him there to die. The family of Rainey, a middle-age Black man with a diagnosed mental illness, later <a href="http://www.miamiherald.com/news/special-reports/florida-prisons/article196797554.html">settled a civil rights lawsuit</a> against the Florida Department of Corrections for $4.5 million.</p>
<p>Governors and state legislators have little political incentive to improve prison conditions. Sadistic, violent and other unconscionable acts by corrections officers against people in prison don’t provoke the same public outrage as police murders of people in their homes and communities. Under the system of mass incarceration, those we have marked as “criminals” <a href="https://newjimcrow.com/">are denied not only their civil rights</a> but their humanity.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/141358/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Heather Schoenfeld does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Violence in the criminal-justice system isn’t limited to police. It’s time to pay more attention to violent deaths within state prisons.Heather Schoenfeld, Associate Professor, Boston UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1387012020-05-27T12:23:08Z2020-05-27T12:23:08ZMore people are dying in American prisons – here’s how they face the end of their lives<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/337366/original/file-20200525-106823-1c0gwyn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C6%2C4493%2C2984&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An inmate inside the nursing unit at Louisiana State Penitentiary.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/alton-batiste-in-the-nursing-unit-of-the-louisiana-state-news-photo/932223198?adppopup=true">Annie Flanagan for The Washington Post via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Outbreaks of coronavirus have hit prison populations particularly hard – but for many inmates in the U.S., illness and the prospect of dying behind bars already existed.</p>
<p>Advocacy groups have flagged concerns about <a href="https://www.prisonpolicy.org/virus/virusresponse.html">disease transmission</a>, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-usa-jails-specailr/special-report-death-sentence-the-hidden-coronavirus-toll-in-u-s-jails-and-prisons-idUSKBN22U1V2">lack of medical care</a> and <a href="https://www.themarshallproject.org/2020/05/01/a-state-by-state-look-at-coronavirus-in-prisons">deaths in custody</a> as a result of COVID-19. But deaths in custody are not a new phenomena and the process of dying with dignity while incarcerated is complicated.</p>
<p>I have spent a significant amount of time <a href="https://udayton.edu/directory/artssciences/criminaljustice/hurley-martha-henderson.php">examining correctional health care</a> practices and believe the process of dying in prison is one in which human dignity can be lost. </p>
<p>Prisoners <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5816733/">grow old faster</a> and become sick earlier. By 2030 some experts believe that one in three prisoners will be over the age of 55, increasing the likely population of prisoners diagnosed with <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5982810/">conditions</a> such as cancer, heart disease, liver and kidney disease, high blood pressure and diabetes. </p>
<p>A recent <a href="https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/msfp0116st.pdf">Bureau of Justice Statistics report</a> revealed a startling increase in state prisoner mortality. Between 2006 and 2016, the last year for which the study provided data, there were more than 53,000 deaths in custody. More than half of the 3,739 deaths in custody in 2016 resulted from just two illnesses – cancer (30%) and heart disease (28%). </p>
<p>The proportion of prisoners requiring end-of-life care is <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5758925/">twice as high</a> as the general population. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/337368/original/file-20200525-106832-1w5b6oo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/337368/original/file-20200525-106832-1w5b6oo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/337368/original/file-20200525-106832-1w5b6oo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/337368/original/file-20200525-106832-1w5b6oo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/337368/original/file-20200525-106832-1w5b6oo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/337368/original/file-20200525-106832-1w5b6oo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/337368/original/file-20200525-106832-1w5b6oo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/337368/original/file-20200525-106832-1w5b6oo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">An inmate with cancer in Colorado Territorial Correctional Facility’s hospice program.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/fellow-prisoner-wayne-rose-left-assisted-inmate-robert-news-photo/168253675?adppopup=true">RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Outside prison walls, a diagnosis of a terminal illness often means gathering friends and family to repair and restore relationships and thinking about end-of-life options. The coronavirus has, of course, affected who can be present in someone’s last moments, but the terminally ill still have options over their medical care, pain management, who to tell and how, and getting affairs in order. For prisoners, such choices are constrained by state regulation. Prisons are not well-equipped to provide human dignity at the end of life. Terminally ill prisoners have two options: compassionate release or end-of-life care behind bars.</p>
<h2>Showing compassion</h2>
<p>Offering early release or parole to prisoners diagnosed with debilitating, serious and often terminal illnesses is considered compassionate release. Many in the medical profession consider compassionate release a <a href="https://journalofethics.ama-assn.org/article/compassionate-release-policy-reform-physicians-advocates-human-dignity/2017-09">constitutionally protected right</a> as incarceration of prisoners with debilitating illness undermines medical care and human dignity. Others see compassionate release as a way to reduce correctional health care costs for a population posing little risk to the public. <a href="https://famm.org/new-state-by-state-report-reveals-compassionate-release-programs-are-rarely-used/">Iowa</a> is the only state without a compassionate release law.</p>
<p>The process of qualifying for compassionate release is complex and <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/12/compassionate-release-lets-prisoners-die-free/603988/">statistics on how many succeed are hard to obtain</a>, although we know the numbers are small. Prisoners’ medical conditions, age and time served determine eligibility. But <a href="https://www.prisonpolicy.org/scans/vera/Using-Compassionate-Release-to-Address-the-Growth-of-Aging-and-Infirm-Prison-Populations-Full-Report.pdf">exclusion criteria</a> are extensive. For example, prisoners committing the most serious crimes are excluded. Most states allow stakeholders such as victims, police and court professionals an opportunity to say no. </p>
<p>For the terminally ill, release is often dependent on one’s “<a href="https://famm.org/wp-content/uploads/Exec-Summary-Report.pdf">death clock</a>” – how many months a medical professional certifies that you likely have before dying. In some states like Kansas and Louisiana, death must be imminent – within 30 to 60 days. In others like Massachusetts and Rhode Island, prisoners with as long as 18 months to live may be released. Applying for compassionate release can be daunting for someone with only months to live. Sadly, some <a href="https://www.themarshallproject.org/2018/03/07/old-sick-and-dying-in-shackles">die before they can complete the process</a>. </p>
<p>Even if an inmate does get out, their family may be ill-equipped to deal with the challenges of caring for a dying loved one. In these cases, release may result in transition from one restrictive, isolated, institutional setting to another with care provided by unfamiliar medical professionals. </p>
<h2>End-of-life sentence</h2>
<p>States must provide <a href="https://publisher.abc-clio.com/9781440855511/">medical care</a> to prisoners even though they are being punished for a crime. But the <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27462955/">quality of such care</a> is often inadequate. The prisoner does not get to select medical options; care is determined by the state. Death could mean dying alone in a prison cell, in an infirmary with only periodic check-ins from a nurse and prison volunteers or in a hospice unit managed by the state.</p>
<p>Pain management may be restricted by correctional policy and by staff who are reluctant to administer narcotics, such as morphine, to ease suffering out of concern that it could be sold or used illicitly. A recent report in the <a href="https://www.ascopost.com/issues/november-10-2018/cancer-care-in-the-us-prison-system/">American Society of Clinical Oncology Post</a> discussed how inadequate care caused unnecessary pain and suffering in prison and concluded: “No one in a wealthy and socially advanced country like the United States should suffer from untreated pain, especially at the end of life.”</p>
<p>While families are allowed to visit terminally ill prisoners, notification of the illness rests with the prisoner – a daunting task if the prisoner has lost touch with relatives over years incarcerated. State prisoners are often <a href="https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/prisonvisits.html">confined far from home</a>, so even family members who would like to visit may be hampered by distance and cost. Another challenge for families is the bureaucratic process of prison admission. It is correctional staff at the gates rather than medical professionals determining who gets to visit on any given day.</p>
<p>Access to a mainstream faith leaders and last rites are provided when available. But it is not uncommon to find spiritual practices for the dying prisoner carried out by <a href="https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/news/2019/may/2/humane-treatment-terminally-ill-prisoners/">fellow prisoners</a>.</p>
<p>For terminally ill prisoners “getting one’s affairs in order” includes trying to identify someone in the community willing to take responsibility for their body after death and ownership of personal effects gathered during incarceration. Even if the prisoner identifies a relative willing to take responsibility, there are no guarantees. A relative may be disqualified from handling prisoner affairs. In <a href="https://drc.ohio.gov/Portals/0/Policies/DRC%20Policies/66-ILL-02%20(Dec%202017).pdf?ver=2017-12-12-091821-103">Ohio</a>, for example, if the prisoner’s loved one is unable to accept the body within two days after notification, the relative may be disqualified.</p>
<p>If no one comes forward, then the prisoner will be buried in an indigent grave and prison officials will dispose of the prisoner’s belongings and monies remaining on prisoner accounts.</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Martha Hurley does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In the 10 years leading up to 2016, the rate of prisoner mortality rose by 15%. End-of-life options can be limited for inmates.Martha Hurley, Professor and Director of Criminal Justice Studies, University of DaytonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1325732020-04-03T12:42:45Z2020-04-03T12:42:45ZWe spoke to hundreds of prison gang members – here’s what they said about life behind bars<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/324319/original/file-20200331-65522-1nkursm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=11%2C28%2C3743%2C2367&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A ministry program student at a Texas prison. Some inmates cite religion to avoid gang recruitment.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/male-inmate-students-of-a-christian-ministry-program-inside-news-photo/539557464?adppopup=true">Robert Daemmrich Photography Inc/Corbis via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The United States <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/28/us/mass-incarceration-five-key-facts/index.html">incarcerates a larger proportion of its citizens</a> than any other developed country in the world, with around <a href="https://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=6546">1.5 million people</a> serving time in prison. But to anyone who doesn’t work or live in a facility, life behind bars largely remains a <a href="https://theconversation.com/whats-hidden-behind-the-walls-of-americas-prisons-77282">mystery</a>. The public gets a glimpse of life on the inside only when there are <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/09/us/mississippi-prisons.html">riots</a>, <a href="https://time.com/5722795/rodney-reed-innocent-execution-protests/">executions</a> or <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/13/nyregion/jeffrey-epstein-jail-officers.html">scandals</a>.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://www.colorado.edu/sociology/david-pyrooz">criminologists</a>, <a href="https://publicservice.asu.edu/content/scott-decker">we</a> spent nine months interviewing over 800 prisoners in Texas in 2016. They told us about their lives before and during prison, as well as their impending return to the community, a journey shared by <a href="https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/p17.pdf">over 600,000 people each year</a>.</p>
<p>We also learned about a significant reality in prisons: gangs. </p>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Competing-Control-Gangs-Social-Prisons-ebook/dp/B07WNJR435">book</a>, published in 2020, pulls back the curtain on how gangs compete for control and structure prison life. Gangs wield power behind bars, but they are more fractured and have less control than people believe. </p>
<h2>Getting in, getting out</h2>
<p>Despite fairly extensive research on street gangs, there is little research on gangs in prison.</p>
<p>Conducting research in prisons is rare because it is hard to gain access. Prison officials tend to be risk-averse and loathe to let outsiders inside the walls. Even if researchers get inside, there’s the possibility that prisoners will not participate in interviews. When the topic is gangs, these issues are even bigger.</p>
<p>That was not our experience. About half of the people we interviewed were affiliated with gangs. Gang and nongang prisoners told us, “I’d rather talk to you than sit in my cell.” They saw the interview as cathartic; they were able to “get things off their chest” to a neutral party.</p>
<h2>The ‘war years’</h2>
<p>Prison gangs exploded across the U.S. with the rise of <a href="https://www.nap.edu/catalog/18613/the-growth-of-incarceration-in-the-united-states-exploring-causes">mass incarceration</a> in the 1980s. Texas prisons were mostly gang-free until bloody battles broke out in 1984-85 between the Mexican Mafia and Texas Syndicate as well as the Aryan Brotherhood and Mandingo Warriors. Fifty-two prisoners were murdered in a 21-month period that became known as the “<a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/003288559107100205?journalCode=tpjd">war years</a>.”</p>
<p>Over 50 different gangs were represented in our study. Most of these gangs were active in prison and on the street. All of the 12 “security threat groups,” or STGs as they are termed by prison officials, fit the classic view of prison gangs: organized, conspiratorial and violent. The remaining gangs are called “cliques.” If security threat groups are like criminal organizations, cliques are like a band of criminals without clear leadership, direction or structure.</p>
<p>Race and ethnicity mattered to all gangs. <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=shmK3PaaT_UC&printsec=frontcover&dq=life+in+the+gang&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj69PLKocboAhUCOs0KHTdPDdEQ6AEwAHoECAEQAg#v=onepage&q=life%20in%20the%20gang&f=false">Geographic proximity</a> is the great social sorter for street gangs; it is race and ethnicity for prison gangs. Nearly all of the prison gangs were composed of a single race or ethnicity.</p>
<p>The people we spoke with made it clear that prison gangs in Texas are not what they used to be. Prison gangs were described as “watered down,” no longer having the teeth to enforce rules, especially the security threat groups. Few prisoners, including gang members, believed that gangs brought order to prisons or made prisons safer, a <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/10/how-gangs-took-over-prisons/379330/">claim often made about prison gangs</a>. The perception of power is stronger than its reality.</p>
<h2>Wielding power</h2>
<p>While gangs may not have iron-fisted control over prison life, it would be wrong to think they lack influence. If gang members compose only a minority of prisoners, around 20% in Texas according to our research, how do they wield power?</p>
<p>Violence.</p>
<p>Gangs use violence to resolve disputes, discipline members and protect their interests. Stories of violence are passed down across generations to ensure the memory lives on. The “war years” occurred more than 30 years ago, yet still loom large in the minds of the people we interviewed.</p>
<p>Gangs bring a different flavor to prison violence. There is a multiplier effect. A violent incident involving a gang member expands the pool of future victims and offenders because of the collective gang identity. Being in a gang means assuming these liabilities.</p>
<h2>Joining the gang</h2>
<p>For the uninitiated, <a href="https://www.themarshallproject.org/2019/10/24/being-a-prisoner-is-like-being-a-ghost">prison is scary</a>. People are stripped of their identity, roles and status from the outside. About half of the prison population is convicted of a <a href="https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2019.html">violent offense</a>. Joining a gang would seem like a pretty good decision. </p>
<p>Our research reveals that about 10% of inmates in Texas joined a gang for the first time in prison, while another 10% imported their gang affiliation from the street. Status and protection were common reasons for joining a gang in prison, much like on the street. But ideology was also important, such as race supremacy or vigilantism, which we rarely observe in <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Confronting-Gangs-Community-David-Curry/dp/0199891915">street gangs</a>.</p>
<p>Still, most prisoners don’t end up in gangs. That’s true even though avoiding gangs is harder in prison than on the street. Nongang members get their affiliations “checked” and are often recruited when they step onto a prison unit. Those that want to avoid gangs cite their religion, homosexuality or even status as sex offenders – most gangs ban inmates convicted of sex crimes – as reasons to not to join.</p>
<h2>Blood in, blood out</h2>
<p>It was once believed that once you join a gang <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Social-Order-Underworld-Prison-American/dp/0199328501">you could never leave</a>. Criminologists have <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318857376_A_Signaling_Perspective_on_Disengagement_from_Gangs">dispelled this myth</a> among street gangs; young people leave gangs regularly, and usually without repercussions like violence. We also found this to be the case in prison, even for the security threat groups. </p>
<p>Disillusionment is the leading reason for leaving. Gang members eventually realize they are sold a bill of goods on gangs. Snitching, victimization, solitary confinement and delayed parole crystallize discontent with gang life.</p>
<p>Leaving a gang is more difficult in prison. Walking away is not a credible option. Gang members sought permission or “gave notice” of intentions to leave, or enrolled in the prison system’s two-year exit program. </p>
<h2>Block the on-ramps, open the off-ramps</h2>
<p>Despite decades of effort, breaking the grip of gangs on prison has been unsuccessful. The “silver bullet” simply doesn’t exist. </p>
<p>Placing gang members in <a href="https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/251797.pdf">solitary confinement</a> is thought to be a solution, but that’s a management approach. It applies a Band-Aid to a bullet wound that could hurt more than help. And one-size-fits-all approaches to rehabilitation ignore the baggage of gang affiliation.
[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.] </p>
<p>To compete for control, gangs need numbers, which is why focusing on points of entry and exit offers hope for reducing the power of gangs in attracting new members and encouraging current members to leave. </p>
<p>Doing nothing only allows the problem to fester and grow. Prisoners today will eventually become the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Homeward-Life-Year-After-Prison/dp/0871549557">neighbors, religious congregants and employees</a> of tomorrow. We want people to leave prison in a condition better than they arrived. That means effective responses to gangs.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/132573/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Pyrooz has received research grant funding in last five years from the City of Denver's Department of Public Safety, the National Institute of Justice (US Department of Justice), the Charles Koch Foundation, and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Scott H Decker has received funding from the National Institute of Justice and the Arizona State University Foundation. </span></em></p>Gangs are still a significant reality in US prisons. But most inmates say that their power has been watered down, and they no longer rule facilities with an iron fist.David Pyrooz, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Colorado BoulderScott H. Decker, Foundation Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Arizona State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1276762019-12-27T14:22:28Z2019-12-27T14:22:28ZHigher education in America’s prisons: 4 essential reads<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303246/original/file-20191123-74562-1th8hmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">There is growing political interest in providing higher education to those behind bars.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/prison-cells-california-536263294?src=b82fe263-bd78-4bfe-8c2b-a1d641ddf0a0-1-98">AdrianoK/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 2020, I’m going to take you to prison. At least that’s my plan as education editor, since there’s a <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2019/06/03/report-state-postsecondary-education-prisons">growing interest</a> among lawmakers and others in education behind bars.</p>
<p>As a former crime reporter, I have a keen interest in this topic. That’s because back when I was covering crime in my native Milwaukee in the 1990s and 2000s, I wrote quite a few articles about <a href="http://www.wagc.com/wi-tavern-owner-guns-down-armed-robber-06-23-02/">young men who turned to street crime</a> – and <a href="https://minds.wisconsin.edu/bitstream/handle/1793/47387/on_violence.htm?sequence=1&isAllowed=y">lost their lives</a> as a result. A common theme in their lives is that they <a href="https://minds.wisconsin.edu/bitstream/handle/1793/47387/on_violence.htm?sequence=1&isAllowed=y">didn’t do well in school</a>.</p>
<p>Research shows that providing education to such young men – and young women – when they become incarcerated makes them less likely to return to prison. A number of scholars, including several who have written for the education section of The Conversation in 2019, have witnessed this firsthand.</p>
<h2>1. The merits of second chances</h2>
<p>Criminal justice professor <a href="https://www.ubalt.edu/cpa/faculty/alphabetical-directory/andrea-cantora.cfm">Andrea Cantora</a> explains how her experience teaching behind bars has led her to <a href="https://theconversation.com/teaching-in-americas-prisons-has-taught-me-to-believe-in-second-chances-112583">believe in second chances</a>.</p>
<p>“I know education can transform lives because I see it constantly in the incarcerated – and formerly incarcerated – people I’ve met,” Cantora writes.</p>
<h2>2. Restoring student grants for those in prison</h2>
<p>Cantora also makes a compelling case for why <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-federal-student-aid-should-be-restored-for-people-in-prison-115215">federal student aid should be restored for people in prison</a>. Among other things, she says doing so will lead to better employment prospects for those who are serving time, thus saving taxpayers money and making communities safer.</p>
<p>“People who participate in academic or vocational programs while in prison are more likely to find work when released,” Cantora writes. “They are also more likely to earn more.”</p>
<p>“I know education can transform lives because I see it constantly in the incarcerated – and formerly incarcerated – people I’ve met,” Cantora writes.</p>
<h2>3. Need seen for state student aid</h2>
<p>The federal government isn’t the only one restricting student financial aid for those who are serving time. As <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=RqGQZOkAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Bradley Custer</a>, a a recent graduate of the higher, adult, and lifelong education PhD program at Michigan State University, discovered in his groundbreaking research, <a href="https://theconversation.com/states-not-just-congress-should-unlock-student-financial-aid-for-people-in-prison-117068">many states also hold back student financial aid</a> from those who are incarcerated.</p>
<p>While Congress continues to debate whether to restore federal student aid to prisoners, Custer suggests states lead the way and “unlock financial aid for people in prison.”</p>
<h2>4. Taking a closer look</h2>
<p>Finally, if you want an up-close look at prison education in action, be sure to check out <a href="https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/college-behind-bars">“College Behind Bars,”</a> a documentary Emerson College political science professor <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=R00JOgwAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Mneesha Gellman</a>, who launched a prison education initiative herself, <a href="https://theconversation.com/documentary-provides-rare-look-at-higher-education-in-prison-125697">reviewed for The Conversation</a>.</p>
<p>“In my experience – and based on what the research shows – correctional facilities are more effective when they provide education,” Gellman writes. “But it can’t be just any kind of education,” she continues in a piece that shows how students in her program are held to high standards just like they would be in college.</p>
<p><em>Editor’s note: This story is a roundup of articles from The Conversation’s archives.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/127676/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Education for those behind bars is gaining more attention. In these four articles, scholars take an up-close look at efforts to provide – and restrict – higher education in prison.Jamaal Abdul-Alim, Education Editor, The ConversationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1256972019-11-22T13:39:52Z2019-11-22T13:39:52ZDocumentary provides rare look at higher education in prison<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/302952/original/file-20191121-547-v1ivsd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=187%2C146%2C895%2C543&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Students in an advanced bachelor's degree seminar in the Bard Prison Initiative at Eastern New York Correctional Facility.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Skiff Mountain Films</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>What is prison for? Should it include a college education?</p>
<p>Those two questions are at the heart of “<a href="https://bpi.bard.edu/national-broadcast-premiere/">College Behind Bars</a>,” a new documentary that <a href="https://www.pbs.org/show/college-behind-bars/">airs Nov. 25 and 26 on PBS</a>. The documentary – by <a href="http://kenburns.com/staff/lynn-novick/">Lynn Novick</a> and produced by <a href="http://kenburns.com/staff/sarah-botstein/">Sarah Botstein</a> and Ken Burns – offers a rare, up-close look at how offering higher education in a correctional facility can change lives.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://bpi.bard.edu/">Bard Prison Initiative</a>, a college-in-prison program in New York state, is the focal point of the documentary.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=R00JOgwAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">political science scholar</a> who has taught behind bars – and as one of the first student volunteers for the Bard Prison Initiative – I’ve seen firsthand the <a href="https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR266.html">transformative power</a> that prison education programs can have.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Six-minute trailer for ‘College Behind Bars’</span></figcaption>
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<p>My first experience with the Initiative came in the early 2000s when I was an an undergraduate at Bard College. Back then, I volunteered at Eastern Correctional Facility, where I tutored a social science class; and at Beacon Correctional Facility, a women’s minimum security prison, where I helped lead a writing workshop. Both prisons are located in New York state. It was powerful to see how students acquired new skills for analysis and self-expression – and how it allowed them to engage differently with their worlds.</p>
<p>In 2017, after becoming a <a href="https://www.emerson.edu/faculty-staff-directory/mneesha-gellman">political science professor</a> at Emerson College, I used my experience and the Bard Prison Initiative as a model to launch the <a href="http://epi.emerson.edu/2017/10/16/emerson-launches-college-in-prison-program/">Emerson Prison Initiative</a>. The idea behind the Initiative is to expand access to higher education to incarcerated people in Massachusetts. </p>
<h2>Dollars and sense</h2>
<p>Even if you don’t view education for the incarcerated as a worthy social justice issue, it is – at a minimum – a matter of saving taxpayer money.</p>
<p>Massachusetts taxpayers, for instance, pay an average of <a href="https://www.mass.gov/doc/doc-annual-report-2017/download">US$45,000-$70,000</a> per year to incarcerate someone in state prison. This is about the same amount that it would <a href="https://www2.emerson.edu/billing/costs-billing-schedules/undergraduate?_ga=2.139009201.325116690.1574200966-475191967.1573839839">cost to attend Emerson</a>. </p>
<p>Whereas the vast majority of formerly incarcerated people – <a href="https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/18upr9yfup0514.pdf">five out of six</a> – end up getting arrested again within nine years, among graduates of the Bard Prison Initiative, <a href="https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR266.html">97%</a> never go back to prison.</p>
<h2>What prison should do</h2>
<p>The new “College Behind Bars” documentary goes deeper than dollars and sense, though. It pushes viewers to consider the purpose of prison and who has access to education.</p>
<p>These questions are all the more important given the fact that <a href="https://www.fwd.us/criminal-justice/">one in two adults</a>, according to the advocacy group fwd.us, has had a family member in jail or prison at some point. Of the <a href="http://bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/cpus16.pdf">6.6 million</a> adults incarcerated or under supervision – that is, in jail, prison, on probation or parole – nearly <a href="https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2019.html">2.2 million</a> are actually behind bars at any given time.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://law.ubalt.edu/faculty/8-12.2-Gottschalk-Final.pdf">theory</a>, incarceration is supposed to deter people from committing further crimes. But recidivism – or reverting to crime after being released from prison – can be as high as <a href="https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/18upr9yfup0514.pdf">83%</a>.</p>
<p>This raises questions about whether correctional facilities are, in fact, correctional in nature. In my experience – and based on what the research shows – correctional facilities are more effective when they provide education. For instance, a 2014 Rand Corporation study showed that educational programming of any type <a href="https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR266.html">reduces recidivism</a> by 43%. The same study found that <a href="https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR266.html">educational access</a>, rather than particular characteristics of students, is what breaks recidivism.</p>
<h2>College standards</h2>
<p>But it can’t be just any kind of education. The Bard Prison Initiative, for instance, rigorously applies the same high standards used at Bard College to its <a href="https://bpi.bard.edu/our-work/the-college/">college in prison</a>. The same is true for the Emerson Prison Initiative that I founded. To get into the program, which is offered at Massachusetts Correctional Institution at Concord, students are vetted in an admissions process that includes a timed essay, scored by a panel of five faculty and administrators, and a second round in-person interview. Applicants are not asked to say why they are in prison, but rather to demonstrate what they want to do with their minds.</p>
<p>Students in the Emerson Prison Initiative are working on an interdisciplinary bachelor’s degree in <a href="https://today.emerson.edu/2019/04/17/emerson-offers-incarcerated-students-pathway-to-ba/">media, literature and culture</a>. Faculty teach courses in <a href="http://epi.emerson.edu/who-we-are/">topics that range</a> from world theater to business mathematics. The bachelor of arts at Concord follows the same requirements as a degree from Emerson College. Assignments are also graded the same they are at Emerson College. Graduation for this first group of students is planned for summer 2022.</p>
<p>The vast majority of students in the program will ultimately be released back into society. This brings to mind a question raised by one of the women featured in the “College Behind Bars” documentary. To paraphrase, she said: Who do you want to be your neighbor? The person who gets released, moves next door and is going to plot on your house, or the one who got educated inside, gets a job when they come out and now you have barbecues together?</p>
<h2>Impact of education</h2>
<p>The other day, students in the Emerson Prison Initiative had a chance to screen “College Behind Bars.” The documentary prompted them to reflect on what it means to have access to college education in prison.</p>
<p>One student, Maurice, stated: “Before, I had nothing. No visits. No understanding of my situation. No purpose or guidance. I was on a path for destruction. An opportunity was presented and my life has changed dramatically since being enrolled in the Emerson Prison Initiative. It is my life.”</p>
<p>Another student, Kevin, stated that the Emerson Prison Initiative has given him a new sense of purpose.</p>
<p>“For the first time in my life, I know what I want,” Kevin said. “What’s the point of being physically free if not mentally? It’s through education that I’ll be liberated. And that’s what I want.”</p>
<p>After seeing Bard Prison Initiative students in the film discuss how they apply skills from college, Mac, who prepares his course work on a typewriter, says “The limits of my degree are only set by my own thinking.”</p>
<p>People released from prison with college degrees are much more likely to find <a href="https://bpi.bard.edu/our-work/reentry-alumni-affairs/">gainful employment</a>, <a href="https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/brucewestern/files/racial_inequality_in_employment_and_earnings_after_incarceration.pdf">support themselves financially</a>, <a href="https://nypost.com/2017/03/11/heres-the-most-cost-effective-way-to-solve-our-prison-crisis/">pay taxes and contribute to their communities</a>. This shows that educational access behind bars <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2014/06/21/315235978/a-former-drug-dealer-gives-a-great-defense-of-the-liberal-arts">creates opportunities</a> that contribute to the <a href="https://sr.ithaka.org/publications/landscape-review-postsecondary-education-in-prison/">public good</a>, save taxpayer dollars and makes society safer and more prosperous.</p>
<p>Expanding access to higher education through programs like <a href="http://epi.emerson.edu/">Emerson Prison Initiative</a> and Bard Prison Initiative requires rethinking what prison is for, and what responsibility colleges and universities have to expand access to higher education.</p>
<p>[ <em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/125697/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mneesha Gellman is the founder and Director of the Emerson Prison Initiative. The Emerson Prison Initiative receives funding from Emerson College, the Gardiner Howland Shaw Foundation, and private donors. </span></em></p>A scholar who has taught in prison weighs in on ‘College Behind Bars,’ which airs Nov. 25 and 26 on PBS. The documentary prompts viewers to consider the importance of higher education in prison.Mneesha Gellman, Associate Professor of Political Science, Emerson CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1118092019-03-07T11:21:27Z2019-03-07T11:21:27ZA prison program in Connecticut seeks to find out what happens when prisoners are treated as victims<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262545/original/file-20190306-100778-ah7ws3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Former Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy speaks with inmates.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Prison-Reform/a95a5bf742c24985a4b65a4cc07a6c3b/1/0">AP Photo/Pat Eaton-Robb</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Prisons are full of people who were once victims of violence and abuse.</p>
<p>As many as <a href="http://www.justice.gov/defendingchildhood/cev-rpt-full.pdf">75 percent of people</a> who are in prison have experienced violence or childhood neglect, according to data from the Department of Justice.</p>
<p>Prisoners report past abuse at rates up to <a href="http://community.nicic.gov/blogs/mentalhealth/archive/2012/10/05/addressing-trauma-among-incarcerated-people.aspx">twice that</a> of the general population. Youth who get caught up in the criminal justice system have experienced <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2794718">chronic trauma</a> at rates triple those of youth in the general population.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/brucewestern/files/lifetimes_of_violence_in_a_sample_of_released_prisoners.pdf">study of people who spent time in prison</a>, conducted by sociologist Bruce Western, found that 42 percent had witnessed a violent death as children.</p>
<p>Advocates of criminal justice reform are beginning to catch up with what social scientists have shown for years: The correlation between being the victim of a crime and committing crime cannot be ignored in serious conversations about sending fewer people to prison.</p>
<p>However, the U.S. justice system focuses almost exclusively on punishing people who commit crimes. What if our justice systems treated victims of violence who harm others as also deserving of healing? </p>
<p>A pilot prison program in Connecticut entering its third year is beginning to answer that question. Connecticut <a href="https://www.vera.org/blog/reimagining-american-prisons-isnt-a-pipedream-after-the-holocaust-germany-reimagined-theirs">modeled the program on a German prison</a> for young people. I visited that German prison and two others last summer as part of research funded by Yale Law School.</p>
<h2>Connecticut’s experiment with rehabilitation</h2>
<p>In May 2018, I toured a prison in Cheshire, a suburb outside of New Haven, Connecticut. That’s where the Connecticut Department of Corrections is running a pilot program called T.R.U.E., which operates on the idea that acknowledging and healing trauma is essential to a successful post-prison life.</p>
<p>T.R.U.E. stands for truthfulness to oneself and others, respectfulness toward the community, understanding ourselves and what brought us here and elevating into success. </p>
<p>During my visit, I met several of the 21 “lifers,” prisoners who are serving decadeslong or life sentences and mentoring 52 younger prisoners. The younger prisoners are between the ages of 18 to 25, and have been convicted of serious crimes such as armed robbery and homicide. Mentors try to equip them with practical, social and emotional skills to earn a living and live law-abiding, productive lives when they are released.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262546/original/file-20190306-100793-gh14ix.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262546/original/file-20190306-100793-gh14ix.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262546/original/file-20190306-100793-gh14ix.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262546/original/file-20190306-100793-gh14ix.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262546/original/file-20190306-100793-gh14ix.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262546/original/file-20190306-100793-gh14ix.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=589&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262546/original/file-20190306-100793-gh14ix.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=589&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262546/original/file-20190306-100793-gh14ix.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=589&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Inmates Festim Shyuqeriu, left, and Isschar Howard, middle, tour former Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy around a unit of the Cheshire Correctional Institution in Cheshire, Conn., on May 30, 2018.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Prison-Reform/7f0b29fe0e574b58ac6a04f8349b2b8e/2/0">AP Photo/Pat Eaton-Robb</a></span>
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<p>I spoke in-depth with five participants to learn about their work.</p>
<p>Mentors counsel their mentees on confronting their pasts, including how their own histories of being victims of violence relate to their incarceration and how to consider the world from their victims’ perspectives. </p>
<p>Mentors have single cells with doors they can leave open, to encourage the young men they are counseling to drop by for conversations. The private cells are meant to provide the mentors with space for honest, one-on-one talks with the younger men. </p>
<p>T.R.U.E. participants told me that for the first time in their lives, they felt sufficiently safe to let their guard down enough to reflect and learn practical life skills like how to prepare a resume. </p>
<p>T.R.U.E. mentors and correctional officers who sign up to work in the unit <a href="http://www.milpacollective.org/">receive training</a> in how to talk with and counsel people who have survived violence, as many of the mentors themselves have. Mentors then design and teach a curriculum focused on rehabilitation and life skills, ranging from how to do laundry and manage a bank account to how to navigate conflict productively. </p>
<p>Through a simulated banking system the mentors developed, the mentees save mock currency and pay “rent” and “taxes.” They also study in philosophy, economics and English classes led by mentors or local college professors. </p>
<p>When conflicts among T.R.U.E. participants arise, they engage in conflict-resolution circles, where the disputing prisoners sit with other T.R.U.E. residents and engage in guided, structured conversation to de-escalate disagreement. </p>
<h2>The German model</h2>
<p>T.R.U.E. was founded in 2017 after Connecticut’s then-Department of Corrections Commissioner Scott Semple and then-Governor Dannel Malloy toured European prisons on a trip led by the nonprofit research organization, the <a href="https://www.vera.org/blog/dispatches-from-t-r-u-e">Vera Institute of Justice</a>. The Vera Institute’s mission is to improve justice systems to ensure fairness and promote safety.</p>
<p>Semple and Malloy were inspired to establish a prison unit that would focus on young adults, the population <a href="https://ctmirror.org/2017/01/23/a-prison-experiments-with-the-young-reckless-and-neuroscience">most likely</a> to commit crimes and to be victims of crime. </p>
<p>T.R.U.E. is modeled on one of the German prisons the Connecticut delegation visited, in a town called Neustrelitz. I also visited this facility in July 2018.</p>
<p>At Neustrelitz, 19- to 25-year-olds convicted of serious and often violent crimes are provided with comprehensive therapy and vocational and life-skills training. </p>
<p>On my visit, the German correctional professionals I spoke with said the first thing they do when a prisoner enters is conduct a weekslong assessment of their social history, including any history of being a victim of violence or abuse. They then offer treatment and rehabilitation programs based on this detailed information.</p>
<p>My German hosts were puzzled when I asked whether they measure the success of their work by reduction in the number of prisoners who return to prison after their release. </p>
<p>They explained that their work arises out of an inherent <a href="https://thecrimereport.org/2018/04/10/in-germany-its-hard-to-find-a-young-adult-in-prison/">duty to heal</a>, train and teach every prisoner in their care, regardless of the severity of their convictions. They measure their success by delivering therapeutic, educational and vocational programs. The German correctional model is built on the principle that prisons owe training, education and therapy to the people in their custody.</p>
<p>This may seem counterintuitive in the U.S., where the success of justice programs is often measured by whether participants in the programs are re-arrested or return to prison. Can a <a href="https://www.themarshallproject.org/2015/09/25/prison-without-punishment">new way of thinking</a> about justice, such as what is embodied in the T.R.U.E. approach, work in the U.S. system?</p>
<p>Too few T.R.U.E. participants have been released to measure success by whether they will return to prison. However, data show that among a cohort of more than 3,200 Connecticut prisoners, those who participated in programs designed to reduce their risk of being re-arrested were 10 to 12 percent less likely to commit another crime than counterparts who had not participated, six and 12 months after their release. This is according to a report shared with me by the Connecticut Office of Policy and Management.</p>
<p>They also report that T.R.U.E. has had no violent incidents while the participants are in prison. This is remarkable when <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2811042/">data show</a> that 21 percent of prisoners are assaulted within a six-month period. </p>
<p>These data suggest that prison programs that provide a combination of counseling and educational and work opportunities reduce violence and the risk of returning to prison. The Department of Corrections is committed to the model indefinitely and has started a unit like T.R.U.E. in the <a href="https://www.vera.org/blog/dispatches-from-worth/how-young-women-are-building-promise-in-a-connecticut-prison">state’s prison for women</a>.</p>
<p>Building prison programs that heal all victims, including those who have injured others, is consistent with the recognition that people who commit crimes are often survivors of crime themselves.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/111809/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Miriam Gohara receives funding from the Oscar M. Ruebhausen Fund at Yale Law School.</span></em></p>In a pilot program, older prisoners sentenced to life mentor younger prisoners who have a chance to lead productive, lawful lives when they get out. The focus is on healing trauma.Miriam Gohara, Clinical Associate Professor of Law, Yale UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.