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October 03, 2006
"We Incarcerate to Set Free"
October 3, 2006
To the Editor
Daily Hampshire Gazette, Northampton, MA
We live in Orwellian times. We are asked to believe that the peacekeeper missile delivers peace, declaring war on a nation will bring democracy and now jailers ask us to accept that “we incarcerate to set free.”
Despite the beliefs of jailers, when the public is polled*, they say incarceration cannot solve the deep social and economic problems that drive crime nor is criminalizing addiction more viable than treating it as an illness. We do not need the new jail. What we need is drug treatment, prevention of childhood sexual abuse, quality education and good jobs. These are long-term solutions; however, right now, we can alleviate the need for new bigger jails though bail reform and pre-trial diversion programs.
Approximately 1/2 of women being held at the Hampden County jail are there because they are too poor to make $200-$500 bail. Often their inability to make bail means that they and their children will become homeless and remain homeless further destabilizing their life and the life of their children. Successful pre-trial and bail reform programs are taking place throughout the country with positive results.
If new programs sound expensive, just the opposite is true. It costs more than $3,600 for one woman to stay in jail for one month. Almost 85% of women at the Hampden County Jail---pre-trial and sentenced ---are addicted to drugs and/or alcohol. A May 2006 NIH study found “that society earns $7 in benefits for every $1 spent on addiction treatment.”
Researchers found that the average stay in treatment cost $1,600. For each person included in a nine-month period, treatment yielded $11,500 in benefits including $7,500 in savings on crime and incarceration related costs and $3,400 in increased earnings.
When will we have enough of jail and start moving to humane and effective solutions?
Lois Ahrens
*“Changing Public Attitudes Toward the Criminal Justice System”, February 2002
Posted by lois at October 3, 2006 11:03 AM