« Center for Uban Pedagogy Launches Making Policy Public | Main | Second Chance Bill Passes Senate »
March 12, 2008
MA: State needs to explore alternatives to jail, prison
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Daily Hampshire Gazette (Northampton, MA)
State needs to explore alternatives to jail, prison
To the editor:
Despite the unconscionable wreckage to lives and ever-increasing financial cost, Massachusetts, like the rest of the country, continues its jail and prison building boom. Gov. Deval Patrick's bond bill filed in January includes funding for 56 additional cells for women at the Chicopee jail. The new jail cost $26 million to build but that is only the tip of the iceberg since caging a woman in one of the current 210 cells for a year costs more than $43,200.
Approximately half the women are incarcerated at the jail because they are too poor to make bail of $200 to $500. They can easily be held pretrial for months. Most of the time, they will be homeless and without income upon release, further destabilizing their lives and placing the well-being of their children in serious jeopardy.
The Massachusetts prison and jail budget did not suddenly grow to 98 percent parity with the state's funding for education. It happened over a period of 20 years, driven not by a sustained rise in crime but by long mandatory sentencing, imprisonment of people convicted of non-violent drug convictions, and a reliance on incarceration as the primary response to substance abuse and mental illness. Almost 85 percent of all women at the Hampden County Correctional Center, pretrial and sentenced, are addicted to drugs and/or alcohol.
If it is to stop, Governor Patrick and our elected officials need to hear from taxpayers that they want humane, cost-effective alternatives to our prison state and nation.
Lois Ahrens
Northampton
http://www.dailyhampshiregazette.com/storytmp.cfm?id_no=84275&CSAuthResp=1205341736777312%3APIr2ZBL6q02t2A%3D%3D%3ACSUserId%7CCSGroupId%3Asuccess%3A4lQ2iqJwnMqxBIz96UqJ2Q%3D%3D&CSUserId=8254&CSGroupId=5
Posted by lois at March 12, 2008 01:04 PM