The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

Nationally, we imprison 2.3 million of our sons, daughters, fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters. That's more per capita than any other country in the world, including Russia and China - hardly something to be proud of. Prison-building is one of America's fastest-growing industries. And in both state and federal prisons, up to 80 percent of those incarcerated are nonviolent offenders, primarily addicts who used an illegal drug. Many of them started the path that led them to prison as alcoholics and drunken drivers, mostly hurting only themselves and those who love them.

Most politicians who are supposed to represent our wishes in powerful seats of government have run on platforms of being "tough on drugs." They've voted for mandatory minimum sentences for illegal drug use, imposing long sentences for those whose main crime is that they're addicted and ill.

As the mother and father of a son now in federal prison, we and other relatives of drug offenders nationwide watched in horror as their lives plummeted downward in an ever-speeding spiral of despair and defeat. We begged for long-term treatment instead of prison.

Addicts need training in behavior modification, life skills and marketable career skills so they can work in jobs away from industries where a beer after work is "just the thing we do." But our begging has fallen on deaf ears.

In the mid-1980s, Congress removed parole from the federal prison system. According to then-Rep. Berkley Bedell of Iowa, the provision was tucked in a large bill, and many members of Congress didn't even know what they were approving. The result is that federal prisoners must serve 85 percent of their sentences. In the case of someone convicted of drug charges, the mandatory minimum sentence is often far longer than the sentence for a pedophile.

We've heard from an inmate at the federal penitentiary in Leavenworth who's serving a life sentence for using an illegal drug. Not dealing, using.

These long terms of imprisonment come at incalculable cost to families and to taxpayers. Keeping a prisoner in a state prison in Iowa costs about $26,000 a year. The cost for federal prisoners is about $40,000. Multiply that by 2.3 million prisoners (more than $60 billion), and ask yourselves about other uses: How many children could we give the best education in the world? How much health care could we provide to the 46 million without insurance? How many bridges, roads, parks and playgrounds could we build?

If not for compassion, then at least for cost-effectiveness, we must demand a change. As candidates ask for our votes, we must remind them that we're their constituents, we have loved ones in prison, we care about how our tax dollars are spent, and we vote.

In this election cycle, call or write candidates and your elected representatives and demand that their first act in office be to restore parole in the federal prison system; institute treatment instead of incarceration (costs are about 10 percent of prison costs); and treat and train prisoners for life and jobs, rather than warehousing them. Return those we love who have served too long already to our homes and arms.

We write not just for our family but for all families across Iowa and the nation who scrape together the money as often as they can to trek to far-flung prisons to see their loved ones. We've watched small children run to their daddy's arms, then weep when they're pulled away for the long drive home. Those prisoners could be working, supporting their families and raising their children.

This election, insist that candidates pledge to stop this insanity.
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20081004/OPINION01/810040316/-1/NEWS04