There is a long history of people taking trips to visit prisons. In the early 20th century, visiting prisons was one of the biggest forms of entertainment for the middle classes. Stephen Cox’s new book "The Big House: Image and Reality of the American Prison" briefly speaks to this reality.

I started thinking about the issue of prison tourism again when I read a piece listing the Top 6 Prisons to Visit around the Globe. The article begins as follows:

“The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.” said Fyodor Dostoyevsky. In spite of the negative image of prisons and the various implications which they symbolize, prisons, especially ones that have been converted to museums, continue to draw tourists. The stories of infamy that continue to play out in the imagination of the public and the legends of the rogues who spent time in these institutions tickle the fancy of visitors. In this list, we will get intimate with six interesting prisons and the men and women they held behind their bars.

The article then goes on to list Port Arthur, Alcatraz, Robben Island, Ushala Prison, Bukhara Zindan, and The Tower of London as the best prison destinations. What does this say about our “degree of civilization” that people are actually interested in taking prison tourism trips for their vacations. There is something incredibly perverse and wrong about this. Unless you are visiting a current prison to document the level of INHUMANITY that prisons display, I say that it’s a better idea to visit Disneyland on your next vacation.

Every day, I will highlight some completely incredible statistic or fact that those of you who are interested in mass incarceration and the PIC might be interested to know. Today’s crazy fact of the day comes from the California Prison system.

California’s prison system incarcerates approximately 155,500 men and women in 33 prisons that were designed to house roughly half that many. California has the nation’s largest and the world’s third largest prison system. That’s right… California’s prisons are so overcrowded that the courts have ordered the governor to release 40,000 inmates.

For more about California’s overcrowded prisons, read Donald Specter's article about the state of California's prisons.

The Scholar and Feminist Online published a new issue this spring focusing on the Children of Incarcerated Parents. I cannot stress how much “collateral” damage is caused by this epidemic of mass incarceration. Families are destroyed and children’s lives are irrevocably changed. It’s time to really think through the ways that we can “strengthen” families rather than helping to further wreck them.

So I have been a big critic of the NAACP over the past 20 years because I believe that the organization has been largely irrelevant to the lives of actual Black people in that time. But credit must be given when it is due.

Last week, the NAACP (over the objection of many) came out strongly in support of California’s Prop 19 which is a November ballot measure that seeks to allow recreational marijuana use.

From The San Francisco Chronicle:

Accompanied by other African American leaders in California, the president of the state NAACP, Alice Huffman, said the current prohibition on marijuana has led to the criminalizing of young people and consequently has hampered the ability of many African Americans to prosper.

The organization is the most mainstream statewide entity to endorse the marijuana measure, Proposition 19, to date.

“This is not a war on the drug lords, this is a war against young men and women of color,” Huffman said, adding later that, “Once a young person is arrested and brought under the justice system, he or she is more likely to get caught in the criminal justice system again, further wasting tax dollars.”

Huffman and other leaders – including Aubry Stone, president of the California Black Chamber of Commerce – argued that money currently spent on enforcing marijuana laws would be better spent on education.

The NAACP has called the unfair targeting of young black and brown people over the use of marijuana, a civil rights issue. They are correct. The usual suspects are crying about this NAACP action but I would like to applaud them for rejecting the prohibition-focused approach and focusing instead on decriminalizing this drug. Bravo NAACP!

In my ongoing attempt to catalogue available materials for people interested in the development of the PIC, I would like to feature this terrific online journal called Women, Prisons, and Change. This is a great record addressing how the PIC intersects with gender.

Yet another study points to the disproportionate targeting of African Americans as it relates to drug enforcement.

The Drug Policy Alliance Report documents widespread race-based disparities in the enforcement of low-level marijuana possession laws in California. Focused on the 25 largest counties in the state, the report finds that African Americans are arrested for marijuana possession at substantially higher rates than whites, typically at double, triple or even quadruple the rate of whites. Further, blacks are arrested for marijuana possession far out of proportion to their percentage in the total population of the counties.

According to the report, “Targeting Blacks for Marijuana,” these disparities in marijuana possession arrest rates between whites and blacks cannot be explained by their patterns of marijuana use. U.S. government studies consistently find that young blacks consume marijuana at lower rates than young whites. The report was released to coincide with the official endorsement of Proposition 19, the Control and Tax Cannabis Initiative 2010, by the California State Conference of the NAACP. Proposition 19 will appear on the general election ballot November 3rd.

“The findings in this report are a chilling reminder of the day-to-day realities of marijuana prohibition and the large-scale racist enforcement at its core,” said Stephen Gutwillig, California director of the Drug Policy Alliance. “Racial justice demands ending this policy disaster and replacing it with a sensible regulatory system that redirects law enforcement to matters of genuine public safety. Proposition 19 is California’s exit strategy from its failed war on marijuana.”

Led by Queens College sociologist Harry Levine, researchers studied arrest records from 2004 through 2008 in California’s 25 largest counties, home to about 90 percent of the state’s population and almost all of the state’s African Americans. Highlights of the report include:

In the 25 largest counties as a whole, blacks are 7% of the population but 20% of the people arrested for possessing marijuana.

Teenagers and young people age 20 to 29 make up the great bulk –70% to 80% – of all the people arrested for possessing marijuana.

These racially-biased marijuana arrests are a system-wide phenomenon, occurring in every county and nearly every police department in California, and elsewhere. The arrests are not mainly the result of personal bias or racism on the part of individual patrol officers.
Marijuana possession arrests have serious consequences. They create permanent “drug arrest” records that can be easily found on the Internet by employers, landlords, schools, credit agencies, licensing boards, and banks.

“Patrol and narcotics police face enormous pressure to meet arrest and ticket quotas. Marijuana arrests are a relatively safe and easy way to meet them, but they don’t reduce serious crime,” said Prof. Levine, primary author of the report. “However, these mass arrests can impact the life chances of young African Americans, who actually consume marijuana at lower rates than young whites.”

The report’s specific findings include:

In Los Angeles County, with nearly ten million residents and over a quarter of California’s population, the marijuana possession arrest rate for blacks is 332% higher than the arrest rate for whites. Blacks make up less than 10% of L.A. County’s population, but they constitute 30% of the marijuana possession arrests.

In San Diego and Orange counties, each with about three million residents, the marijuana arrest rates for blacks are 365% and 221% higher than the arrest rates for whites. In San Diego County, blacks are 5.6% of the population but 20% of marijuana possession arrests.

In Riverside and San Bernardino counties, each with about two million people, the marijuana arrest rates for blacks are 265% and 255% higher than the arrest rates for whites. In Riverside County, blacks are 6.6% of the population, but 17% of the arrests. In San Bernardino County, they are 9.5% of the population, but 23% of the arrests.

Four other heavily populated counties – Santa Clara, Sacramento, Contra Costa, and Fresno – each with a population from just under two million to just under one million, arrest African Americans at double to triple the rate of whites. In Santa Clara County, blacks are less than 3% of the population but 11% of the arrests. In Sacramento County, blacks are 10.4% of the population but 38% of the marijuana possession arrests.

Police in other California counties, even those with relatively few blacks or relatively low rates of marijuana arrests, still arrest blacks at much higher rates than whites. African Americans are arrested for marijuana possession at nearly three times the rate of whites in Solano County, and at three to four times the rate of whites in Sonoma, Santa Cruz, and San Francisco counties.

Yesterday Andrew Sullivan offered a blog post that speaks to the problems that are raised from the Drug Alliance’s report. It points out that marijuana laws have never been fairly enforced. This is another reason to do away with the current oppressive and injust drug laws.

I am completely obsessed with data visualization and infographics. I have been an Edward Tufte groupie for years. I love data visualization because I know that most people don’t read research studies and yet those studies often provide very important information that needs to be conveyed to the general public. It’s important to find better ways to translate data for the public so that they can be used to inspire social action. Below is a good example of an infographic that illustrates the expansion of prisons over 30 years.

This is an image from the Prisoners of the Census website.

The Louisville Courier-Journal had an article about charges that were filed against a 5 year old. The article reads:

“He was charged — along with his brothers, who are 11 and 9 — with criminal mischief and criminal trespassing after being accused of walking on and scratching a neighbor’s vehicle with a stick, rock and lighter, causing more than $3,000 in damage.

While Deweese ultimately ruled that she could not even arraign the boy because he couldn’t understand the charges against him, the public defender’s office said this type of prosecution has become an all-too common occurrence in juvenile court: children too young to understand criminal proceedings being ushered into a courtroom to face justice.”

This reminds of the case of the kindergartener from Florida who was arrested for throwing a temper tantrum at school. We really need to get a handle on all this upcharging in the criminal legal system. The Louisville case focuses needed attention to the “cradle to prison pipeline” which is pushing so many youth (especially of color) into the criminal legal system.

The article in the Courier-Journal continues:

Just last week a 6-year-old and two 7-year-olds where charged and brought before judges in juvenile court, public defenders said.

“This case never should have been brought to court,” public defender Carlos Wood said, in an interview, of the 5-year-old child, who he represented. “There should have been more oversight before it got to court.”

Jefferson County Attorney Mike O’Connell agreed that the charging of the 5-year-old was a mistake and that prosecutors need to better scrutinize cases involving young children before waiving them into the courtroom.

Only God knows how traumatized this 5 year old was based on this horrific experience of being dragged to court.

It is worth taking a look at the actual raw numbers of people under “correctional” supervision in the U.S. If you are not appalled by these numbers, then you are not human.

People under Correctional Supervision 1980-2000

Many people have been talking about Michelle Alexander’s new book called “The New Jim Crow.” I don’t really know how many people have actually READ said book. Many Americans do not read actual books anymore. I would highly encourage people to actually read the entire book in order to fully engage Michelle’s argument.

In the meantime, as an introduction to her ideas, please feel free to watch her presentation at Demos: