I found it hard to believe when I read that 70% of California’s prisoners were formerly part of the foster care system.  This was one of the findings by a Select Committee of the California State Legislature (Source: 2007-2008 Los Angeles County Civil Grand Jury Final Report).

I decided to do some research to better understand the intersections between the child “welfare” system and the prison industrial complex.

I found the following report that speaks to this:

A 1991 federal study of former foster care wards found that one-fourth had been homeless, 40 percent were on public assistance and half were unemployed. Connecticut officials estimate 75 percent of youths in the state’s criminal justice system were once in foster care.[13]

According to a survey by the National Association of Social Workers, 20 percent of children living in runaway shelters come directly from foster care. Children placed in out-of-home care, regardless of the reason, are at higher risk of developing alcohol and drug problems. The survey also found that 80 percent of prisoners in Illinois spent time in foster care as children.[14]

These numbers were not unexpected but jarring nonetheless.

I have been thinking a lot about the question: “Why is mass incarceration invisible to most Americans?”  One answer that has been proposed by researchers Robert J. Sampson and Charles Loeffler is that “spatial inequality in punishment helps explain the widespread invisibility of mass incarceration to the average American (p.20).”

Looking specifically at Chicago as a case study,  the researchers found that prisoners primarily come from the South and West Sides.  According to them, “Large areas of Chicago have escaped the brunt of the incarceration regime, while a small band of communities on the West, far West, South, and far South Sides of Chicago are highly affected.”

Bruce Bower in Science News has more about the study by Sampson and Loeffler:

Chicago crime data for 1990 to 1995 show that a large majority of prison and jail populations came from two poor, black sections of the city, Sampson and Loeffler found. During that time, overall rates of crime and violence declined in Chicago while incarceration rates rose in those two areas.

Following these encouraging crime reductions, Chicago officials closed massive public housing units in the two high-crime, high-incarceration areas because they were considered breeding grounds for drug dealing and violence.

But between 2000 and 2005, the geographic location of each incarceration hot spot in Chicago shifted slightly to the southwest as former public housing residents sought new homes. Incarceration rates in the two new hot spots remained about the same as those in the old ones from a decade earlier, Sampson said.

What this suggests to me is that since most prisoners come from few neighborhoods, we have many places that are seemingly innoculated from the trend of prison expansion.  As such, Sampson suggests that the term “mass incarceration” may not be the right one to characterize the current problem of huge numbers of incarcerated people.  This is something that I really have to think about further.  Is it not considered Mass because only certain populations in certain parts of the country are being most targeted and directly impacted?  It’s definitely something worth considering in greater depth.

I want to extend the discussion about the aging prison population that was sparked a couple of weeks ago by Sara Mayeux’s post at Prison Law Blog and followed by my own about the top states with the highest percentages of prisoners over 55 years old and then was engaged by Adam Serwer over at Tapped.

Yesterday the AP published a piece titled Aging inmates strain prison systems. From the article:

The ACLU estimates that it costs about $72,000 to house an elderly inmate for a year, compared to $24,000 for a younger prisoner.

The federal Bureau of Justice Statistics reported that the number of men and women in state and federal prisons age 55 and older grew 76 percent between 1999 and 2008, the latest year available, from 43,300 to 76,400. The growth of the entire prison population grew only 18 percent in that period.

“We’re reaping the fruits of bad public policy like Three Strikes laws and other mandatory minimum sentencing laws,” said David C. Fathi, director of the ACLU National Prison Project in Washington, D.C. “One in 11 prisoners is serving a life sentence.”

Washington has 2,495 inmates who are age 50 or older, the state’s definition of elderly, according to information released after a public records request from The Associated Press. There are 270 inmates over the age of 65.

It occurs to me that not all segments of the prison population are aging at the same rate.  For example, it turns out according to Dr. Heather West of the Bureau of Justice Statistics, that while prisoners of all races are getting older, this is more pronounced among whites and African Americans.  Latino/Hispanic prisoners are younger with a particularly large grouping who are between the ages of 25-29 (source: Exploring Racial Differences in Imprisonement Rates 2000-2009, Presentation at the ACA Conference 8/3/10).

The AARP has produced this short report about the issue of aging prisoners that is worth watching to get an understanding of what is at stake (h/t vera institute of justice)

Photographer Tim Gruber has also created an incredible photo essay called Served Out: Aging and Dying Behind Bars. Honestly, I cannot say enough about this harrowing piece of work.  You need to see it yourself.  He describes the photographs as follows:

Served Out documents a world that is made up of inmates that are weathered beyond their years. Many of these men struggle with simple tasks, like remembering the date, feeding themselves or even leaving their bed. Beyond the loss of their physical and mental independence many fight with keeping their hope alive. Forgiveness, hope and a sense of independence are not easily found behind bars. “Hope is all we have. We have to keep some kind of hope if we don’t we’ll surely perish,” said inmate Thomas Jones of coming to terms with a life behind bars.

Here is just one of the images.  Tell me why are these men is STILL LOCKED UP?

Tim Gruber - Served Out: Aging and Dying Behind Bars

Tim Gruber -- Served Out: Aging & Dying Behind Bars

I have been meaning to blog about this subject in greater depth than I have. You cannot understand the Prison Industrial Complex without having some knowledge about corrupting power of money in our political system. I have over the past few weeks cataloged the intersections between commerce and prisons.  I have also highlighted the various connections between the passage of racist and anti-immigrant laws like S.B. 1070 and the expansion of private prisons.  Local and now Investigative reporting is explicitly linking Jan Brewer and her administration to big money supporters in the private prison industry and questioning whether the passage of S.B. 1070 might be connected to this.  These are steps in the right direction but much more still needs to be done to inform the general public.  When even high profile escapes from private prisons do not deter local politicians in Arizona from endorsing and advocating for private prisons, one knows that public pressure opposing these entities is not strong enough.

If you don’t do anything else, this week please take some time to review the following information about the Corrections Corporation of America’s Political Action Committee. In several easy charts, you can review which politicians received contributions from this private prison juggernaut in the 2008 cycle and you can begin to connect the dots on your own between our politicians and the expansion of prisons across the United States.  You will be able to see that while more republican politicians have received contributions from CCA, there are several democrats who are also patrons.  This is an equal opportunity attempt to grease the wheels in their favor.

I highly recommend this report on NY1 about jaihouse schooling for NYC students which is an indictment on the educational system and on society broadly speaking.

From the tv news report:

After being arrested for tampering with a jury, Avion David, 18, found herself sitting in a classroom within hours of arriving on Rikers Island. But it was the wrong class.

Only six credits and one exam shy of her high school diploma, Avion was placed in a GED-prep program. That’s where she remained for several weeks, until she finally decided to tell someone.

“I thought I was going to go home soon, but when I realized I’m not, I really settled in and started thinking about what I wanted to do,” David said. “I spoke to the guidance counselor. I didn’t think I wanted to get a GED. I don’t want to say I’m better than that, but I thought I deserved more than a GED. I wanted a high school diploma. So I spoke to her.”

Island Academy on Rikers was the country’s first high school in a jail, but it’s become primarily a GED program. Cami Anderson, the crusading superintendent of the city’s alternative school district, wants to change that.

“We had a group that had become very focused on the GED, not necessarily what we thought was best for kids,” said Anderson.

But former teachers say Anderson doesn’t understand the jailhouse school, where the average inmate reads at fifth grade level, stays just 28 days, and is under extreme emotional stress.

“As educators, we were being told they had to take these tests and there were certain goals they had to achieve by a certain time, but [the kids would say] we can’t do social studies right now, because they just had a search, there was just a big riot, a fire, or a kid was murdered in the cell,” said former Liza Peterson, a former teacher on Rikers Island. “These were things that were coming into our classrooms.”

This year, teachers filed countless complaints over violations ranging from safety issues to students not receiving mandated special education services to testing irregularities. Anderson downplays their claims, suggesting disgruntled teachers were just making excuses for a failing school.

But at least one student says said the problem wasn’t her teachers, but what courses and materials were available.

“If they want to work with more people getting their high school diplomas, we need to take Regents and they only have three subjects, and to graduate from high school you need five,” said David. “There was no U.S. history class, no global history class, so there wasn’t enough preparation for us to take the Regents. Like when I had to take mine, I just had to find books from everywhere to study.”

David earned her GED in jail, despite falling asleep during the test. She was recently released from Rikers Island and last NY1 heard, was still waiting to find out if she passed her final Regents exam and earned her high school diploma.

Click here to watch the actual video of the news report.

Source: FBI, Uniform Crime Reports

Click here to see the actual breakdown of estimated numbers of arrests by year and age group.

Additionally, Keith Humphreys reminds us that even with the recent victory for reformers of Congress reducing the crack-cocaine sentencing disparity much work remains to be done at the state level.

Juvies by Ara Oshagan

Every time I walk into a juvenile jail or prison, I am overcome by a sense of unshakable sadness. I have friends who work in these spaces on a daily basis. They walk those halls, they share their talents, and most of all they ensure that these young people are not forgotten, that they are valued. The following are some reflections on a year of teaching in a juvenile jail that I received from a friend. I have changed any names that were mentioned in the piece. It was written quickly and not originally intended to be published. I asked for permission to share it here because I found it so poignant.

Reflections of a year in the Juvenile Detention Center

This year at the center has been a life changing experience – not only my life, but the lives of my students as well. When I first came into this situation I was unsure, unclear and excited about what I had the opportunity to do. The concept of changing youngsters’ lives through art is such a wonderful thing. The one thing which public schools are trying to derail from modern day education is the thing that I’m now teaching to wayward individuals.

How beautiful is this, I think everyday as I walk that mile long hallway to my exit. Freedom is such a strange word, what does it mean to be free? Am I really free when I leave these juvenile doors, or just reintroduced into an environment of superficial comfort? I think freedom is in art, when you can fully express yourself with no bounds. I hope my students got a chance to experience that. The best artist statement I received from a student was from Tommy. He said, about a beautiful ceramic mask he created:

I call this project blind because unfortunately I am blind to my future. I try to blind myself from my past, and still blind to see what I’m doing wrong in the present. I feel that this project shows me that I can create a masterpiece out of clunks of clays. This is especially important in my situation because all though I’m incarcerated I feel I can still make something of my predicaments.

What a beautiful thing to say. After reading this I thought, “Wow, they’re getting what they need God, freedom.”

Can an experience change a life? Overall I have to say I’ve grown a lot from this first experience, but I’m not satisfied. There is still so much more to do, more lives to affect, more fingers to point. What is the future of the Juvenile Detention Center? Tommy asked a question about whether kids would ever be able to get diplomas here in jail. Maybe that question will one day be answered.

By the way Tommy was taken to County today. I was told I should write him a letter, and send him ten bucks for commissary. That’s the best you can do for him.

Don’t you wish love and knowledge were easily accessible.

Friday Aug 6, 2010
Last day of school

I was curious to find out what the breakdown of spending per prisoner was in California.  How does California allocate the $49,000 per year that it spends for each prisoner?  Thankfully Mother Jones magazine already did the research back in 2008.

It is clear from this chart that the bulk of the costs of incarceration are staffing (security, administration, parole operations etc…) and overhead (facilities).  The amount that actually goes to supporting the prisoner himself is dwarfed by these other costs.  I think that this chart is a great way of explaining what we mean when we talk about a prison industrial complex to others.  It illustrates the jobs that are associated with this system and all of the different places where people are financially profiting from incarceration.

I don’t know how many people are going to admit to watching Flavor of Love. I have to say that I, for one, have not watched a single episode. I am, however, surrounded by young women who LOVE the show. I am not going to take up valuable space to deconstruct that. Well at least not today.

But for those who do watch the show, you’ll be happy to know that Saaphyri Windsor is out of prison after 22 months and VH1 was there to get her “exclusive” post-incarceration interview.

If I have never watched Flavor of Love and never heard of Saaphyri, why in the heck would I be blogging about this? The answer is simple; #1. Some of the young people that I work with are starting to read this blog (got to appeal to their demographic :); #2. More seriously, she has a couple of interesting reflections about her incarceration that serve to de-glamourize the experience. I am currently on a one woman mission to discredit the Lil’ Wayne Incarceration Road Show which I believe is having a negative effect on young people of color in particular. When the young black and brown people that I work with go to prison, their experiences are NOT rosy. It is an oppressive and destructive experience. Prison is NOT a country club so I will continue to highlight the experiences of so-called “celebrities” who come out of prison to KEEP IT REAL!

First a short comment on the photograph that VH1 chose to feature in their story about Ms. Windsor. Can I get a witness my sisters? What’s up with the neck-rolling, teeth sucking photo? As a Black woman, I expect that we are not going to be accurately reflected in the media. But please… VH1 can we find another photo that will not reinforce the negative representation of black women?

Here are some of the key parts of the interview that are relevant to what I wanted to underscore:

Give me a sentence or a word that sums up the prison experience.

Boring. Boring. Boring. And turnt up. I think I’ll had to be a little bit more turnt up than normal. Or turnt down.

What does that mean?

Just a little but more on P’s and Q’s. Watching yourself a lot. I mean, I didn’t really have any problems with inmates. It was boring. I felt like my whole life was on pause. So when Buckwild and my other friend Shay came and picked me up from prison, I ran my mouth like the whole time. Five or six hours straight because it seemed like I had all these words to let out that I hadn’t let out.

How were you feeling when you left?

I would say it was euphoric and it was almost like as soon as you leave it becomes a dream, like Biggie, “It was all a dream.” It was all a dream!

In part two of her interview, Saaphyri goes into greater depth about her prison routine and experience:

What’s your day-to-day life like in prison? Take me through an average day.

I had two different things that I had to do. The first was I went to Fire Camp. Now let me tell you about Fire Camp. First of all, I am not athletic! [Laughs] I don’t know if you could tell by looking at I Love Money. But I am not athletic! So it was this program called Fire Camp where you could get out of prison early if you go and fight fires. First I joined up because I wanted to get out early. Well it’s mid-July. They have us waking up at 5 o’clock in the morning, running around a track and stuff. You’re supposed to do a mile—a mile!—in under ten minutes. I can’t run at all, under no minutes. Then they have you doing burpies, you know what burpies are?

No.

Child, let me tell you. Burpies, those are those things in the military where you have to fall down on the ground, do three push-ups, do some mountain climber thing and then jump back up and do a jumping jack, then go back down to the ground. OK, so they had us in like it was military training. And not only that. It was like a hundred degrees. And we’re doing this stuff. Now after fire camp, I crumble out there because, like I said, I wasn’t athletic. I was like, “I am not going to be able to get out early, since I am not athletic. That’s not right.” But anyway, then the next situation when you’re there is, they make you work. They turn people into slaves, Rich. And when I say work, they make you work doing dumb stuff. I had like six jobs, I kept getting fired.

Why did you keep getting fired?

Because I didn’t want to do it!

Did you have an attitude?

No, I didn’t have an attitude. I had situations where my body wouldn’t want me to work. And Rich, let me tell you how much they pay you. They pay you a whopping—whopping!—18 cents an hour. You would have to wake up at 5 o’clock in the morning. This this C.O. comes, and he shines a bright light. Everyday it’s like you’re in a Nazi camp, because he’s coming and shining this bright light in your face early in the morning so you can wake up and go to your quote unquote “job” so you can get paid. I worked in like the kitchen as the server. And the people steal food. They steal a lot of food. [Laughs] And they sell it! You have people selling pancakes! And peanut butter! And potatoes! They sell this stuff, right? And the potatoes, they sell for more, and you try to buy them they stab you in your gums. So then they would have to go to the emergency from getting stabbed from potatoes.

How much does a potato go for in jail?

They go for a noodle—a noodle is 25 cents. [Laughs] Top Ramen are precious items in prison! It’s like the barter system, because you don’t get actual money. Everything is traded for like noodles, hygiene products, stuff like that. It’s crazy. Food is like the utmost important thing in the world.

Then what do you do with it? Do you hide that in your cell?

Yeah you keep in your cell. You have it in your locker. I was not stealing any food out of the kitchen. I was trying to not eat anything, so the good thing about prison is that I lost weight.

Now on the surface, this is just another puff piece interview and it reads as though Ms. Windsor was having a lot of fun with her interviewer and yet in her own way she has offered an important critique of the prison industrial complex. She complains that prisoners were treated like “slaves.” She points out the unfairness of being forced to work for $0.18 cents an hour. She discusses the connection between prison culture and military culture. She addresses the barter economy that develops in prison because people have to do what they have to do to survive. Food is a premium item on the inside. It’s worth reading both parts of her interview. There are certainly problematic aspects of it but I choose not to comment on those here. Perhaps another time….

If you are curious about some of the memorable jailhouse interviews that have occurred, this is a handy list.

Activist, ally, friend, and all around mensch Mauricio Pineda has contributed the following piece of art titled “the Actions of the System” to our upcoming Art against Incarceration Show and Fundraiser taking place on August 28th. Having previously featured the incredible work of Andrea Slocum I wanted to continue the series by sharing Mauricio’s contribution. This is a multimedia piece painted on wood. It is even more beautiful in person and we are grateful beyond words to Mauricio for supporting our mission of eradicating youth incarceration.

Work by Mauricio Pineda