Take a look at the graph below. This is the result of many bad policy decisions but one stands out in particular…

Some months ago, I wrote about the cowardice of Illinois politicians and the corruption of the media in a post about the suspension of the state’s meritorious good time (MGT) program. Sure enough as many (including me) predicted, this disastrous political decision has had the effect of increasing the Illinois prison population by nearly 4,000 at an additional cost of nearly $100 million. I am of course not Nostrodamus. This was a completely foreseeable consequence of a dumb decision made by our Governor.

I attended a meeting about Illinois prison overcrowding on Monday and Malcolm Young once again spoke about the importance of reinstating MGT. He has written a new white paper (PDF) which is essential reading for anyone who is interested in the background on MGT, the political controversy and the consequences of the suspension of the program.

In the coming days, please look out for an opportunity to help push the Governor to instruct the Department of Corrections to reinstate MGT. I will be sharing the template of a letter that you can send to Governor Quinn as well as other ways that you can make your voice heard on this matter if you live in Illinois.

UPDATE: You can urge Governor Quinn to reinstate MGT by e-mailing, calling, sending a letter or signing a petition. Information is HERE.

I am currently working with a coalition of other groups in Illinois to pass a bill to reform the juvenile expungement process. Juvenile expungement is intended to provide people with juvenile criminal records with a chance to erase them. This is intended to make it more likely that they can qualify for financial aid, that they can apply and be hired for jobs, and that they can qualify for certain professional licenses (like nursing).

As part of our process to pass the bill, we have been meeting with various stakeholders including legislators and law enforcement representatives. For the most part, folks have been supportive of our common-sense reform measures. Our biggest opponent however is the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office which refuses to adopt any sort of reasonable posture in negotiating with our coalition.

After our latest meeting with a group of stakeholders representing the legal system this morning, I am reflecting on the fact that many people are just downright hostile against young people. The assumption seems to be that if they aren’t getting their records expunged; it’s their fault. In the world that some of these people inhabit, fees are not an obstacle to expungement “because they can afford to pay.” Additionally, the system should remain as onerous as possible because they want youth to “jump through hoops” in order to clear their records. When it is pointed out that thousands of young people are arrested each year and their cases aren’t referred to court. The response remains the same. We don’t care if these are mere arrests (some of which are surely false arrests), we just want to make them “take responsibility” for their actions.

Given the reality that almost 30% of youth in the U.S. will be arrested by the age of 23, I can’t help but think that we will be reaching a tipping point soon. When the main people who were being adversely impacted by arrest records were youth of color, there was no urgency to reform the expungement process. However now that many more young white people find themselves caught in the net of increasing police control, I wonder how much more amenable the powers that be will be to expungement reform in the future.

It’s a sad but true fact that only when they see these as “their” kids too will they find a willingness to make the system more fair, just, and cost-effective. You can learn more about our efforts by visiting the UN-MARKED CAMPAIGN BLOG.

NEW YORK, Jan. 26, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — Other state agencies cover billions in corrections expenses

State taxpayers pay, on average, 14 percent more on prisons than corrections department budgets reflect, according to a report released today by the Vera Institute for Justice. The report, The Price of Prisons: What Incarceration Costs Taxpayers, found that among the 40 states that responded to a survey, the total fiscal year 2010 taxpayer cost of prisons was $38.8 billion, $5.4 billion more than in state corrections budgets for that year. When all costs are considered, the annual average taxpayer cost in these states was $31,166 per inmate.

While it is common knowledge that some prison costs are tracked outside their budgets, The Price of Prisons marks the first time these costs have been quantified for prisons across the states. To calculate the total price of prisons, Vera developed a survey tool that tallied costs outside corrections budgets. The most common of these costs were fringe benefits, underfunded contributions for corrections employees’ pension and retiree health care plans, inmate health care, capital projects, legal costs, and inmate education and training.

“This new tool changes the equation. It paints a far more accurate picture of the costs to taxpayers,” said Adam Gelb, director of the Public Safety Performance Project at the Pew Center on the States. “State leaders already have been questioning whether corrections spending passes the cost-benefit test, especially for nonviolent offenders.”

The scale of the expenditures outside of corrections departments ranged from less than 1 percent of the total cost of Arizona’s prison budget to as much as 34 percent in Connecticut. For example, the Connecticut Department of Corrections spent $613.3 million for prisons in fiscal year 2010; when all state costs are included, the total taxpayer cost was $929.4 million. The main outside costs were pension contributions ($147.1 million) and employee fringe benefits, including health insurance ($104.2 million). (For more information, see the fact sheets for states that completed the survey at www.vera.org/priceofprisons .)

The study found the following range of prison costs outside states’ corrections budgets in 2010:

20 to 34 percent in six states: Connecticut, Illinois, Missouri, New York, Pennsylvania, and Texas;

10 to 19.9 percent in nine states: Arkansas, California, Delaware, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, New Jersey, Washington, and West Virginia; and

5 to 9.9 percent in nine states and less than 5 percent in 16 states.

“As states continue to deal with serious budget constraints, it’s critical that policy makers, corrections officials, taxpayers, and legislators know exactly what their prisons cost,” says Vera director Michael Jacobson. “Many states are moving toward reserving incarceration for the most dangerous people and using proven strategies to improve public safety at a lower cost.”

To help policy makers manage prison costs, the report identifies a number of measures that states have taken to reduce spending while maintaining public safety. Options include modifying sentencing and release policies, strengthening strategies to reduce recidivism, and boosting operating efficiencies.

The publication is based on a survey conducted in August 2011 by Vera’s Center on Sentencing and Corrections and Cost-Benefit Analysis Unit, in partnership with the Pew Public Safety Performance Project. The report includes detailed methodology that state officials may use to calculate the full taxpayer price of prisons each year.

SOURCE Pew Center on the States
REPORT: http://www.vera.org/download?file=3407/the-price-of-prisons.pdf
Download the report and fact sheets for each participating state at www.vera.org/priceofprisons.

PARTICIPATING STATES: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho. Illinois
Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland Michigan, Minnesota ,Missouri ,Montana ,Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma , Pennsylvania Rhode Island Texas, Utah, Vermont ,Virginia, Washington, West Virginia , Wisconsin
Copyright (C) 2012 PR Newswire. All rights reserved

Yesterday, the Sentencing Project released a new report about private prisons titled “Too Good To Be True.”

The report details the history of private prisons in America, documents the increase in their use, and examines their supposed benefits. Among the report’s major findings:

1. From 1999 to 2010 the use of private prisons increased by 40 percent at the state level and by 784 percent in the federal prison system.

2. In 2010 seven states housed more than a quarter of their prison population in private facilities.

3. Claims of private prisons’ cost effectiveness are overstated and largely illusory.

4. The services provided by private prisons are generally inferior to those found in publicly operated facilities.

5. Private prison companies spend millions of dollars each year attempting to influence policy at the state and federal level.

The following table shows the dramatic increase in prisoners held in private prisons in the U.S. over the last decade:

Prisoners Held in Private Prisons in the United States

Question: What message would you say this infographic is trying to convey?

A. We should provide more resources to support Michigan students’ education while still treating prisoners humanely.
B. We should divert resources from prisoners in Michigan because they are living in luxury while our children suffer.
C. We should decarcerate Michigan so that we can devote adequate resources to Michigan students.

[I'll bet that the answer is neither A nor C.]

via

Please answer the following ten (10) questions to the best of your ability:

How many juvenile arrests were there in your city/state last year (2010)?

How many juveniles were referred to court in your city/state last year (2010)?

How many juvenile petitions were filed in your city/state last year (2010)?

How many juveniles were detained in your city/state last year?

How many juveniles were diverted from the juvenile justice system in your city/state last year?

How many juveniles were given probation/supervision last year?

How many juveniles were incarcerated in your city or state last year?

How many juvenile expungements of criminal records were granted in your city/state last year?

How much did it cost to incarcerate a juvenile in your city/state last year?

How much did it cost to offer community-based treatment for juveniles last year?

If you were unable to answer even one of the questions listed above correctly, don’t worry you are in good company. The vast majority of Americans have no clue about the scope or impact of the juvenile justice system in their local communities. Community members cannot be faulted for this. Local juvenile justice systems do not make the data readily accessible for the most part. This of course makes it very difficult to mobilize to hold the systems accountable for how they treat our children. Information properly deployed is power and I believe that the government tries to control and manage information so as to keep the public disempowered.

One exception that I just learned about is the state of Georgia which has launched a juvenile justice data clearinghouse as part of an effort to increase system transparency. I hope that every state in the country follows suit and expands this effort to include adult criminal legal data as well. It is critical for citizens to know what is being done in our name and to be able to hold public officials accountable for how they use our resources.

Here in Chicago (in a much more low budget and low tech way), my organization is also attempting to make juvenile justice data more transparent. This past weekend, I facilitated a training for over 30 community members about how to access and more importantly how to understand local juvenile justice data. The Chicago Youth Justice Data Project (CYJDP) is a grassroots attempt to mobilize community members to use data in organizing efforts to increase system accountability. I don’t think that it should be left to small community organizations to seek out relevant and accurate data. Our local governments need to do this work.

In the meantime, I encourage all citizens to get educated about how the juvenile justice system operates in your local community.

I am in a reflective mood since celebrating a milestone birthday last week. I have been thinking about the fact that I am blessed to have the best parents on the planet. I assume that some of you might take issue with this characterization and want to put up your own parents as contestants in the “best on the planet” category. That’s OK, I give you permission.

As I have been reflecting on my childhood, I can’t help but think of the millions of children and youth in America who are living without a parent because of mass incarceration. A year ago, the Pew Charitable Trust published a report that found that 2.7 million children in the U.S. now have an incarcerated parent.

2.7 million is a number that is almost impossible to fathom. Yet here we are. I have a friend who runs a program that offers free transportation to children to visit their incarcerated mothers. She always mentions the resilience of the children. However she also underscores how sad they always are when they have to leave their mothers behind. I can’t even imagine the pain of that. We rarely hear the voices of these children in the public square. One exception to this can be found in the book "What Will Happen to Me?", a publication that I wrote about a few months ago. A young boy named Kevin is quoted in the book speaking about the losses that he experiences because his stepmother is behind bars:

“If my stepmom were here, we would see her every day, and it would be happy and everything. She missed my honors assembly. Missed a lot of parent-teacher conferences — some parent things where they go to the school and talk to them about how good or bad we’ve been in school.”

Years ago, I remember seeing Daniel Beaty perform this poem “Knock, Knock” at Def Poetry Jam. I could not stop watching this clip of his performance for several weeks. He does a terrific job drawing on his own experience to paint a picture of what a child loses when his parent is imprisoned. If you’ve never seen this performance, do yourself a favor and do so today.

So many children cannot articulate their feelings of longing for their incarcerated parent and so they keep their anger, sadness, and fear bottled up. This can sometimes lead to emotional implosions and explosions.

I am happy to announce that I am currently working on a project that will address (in part) the concept of what the children of incarcerated parents “miss” when their parent(s) is locked up. I can’t wait to share more about this in the coming months.

According to a press release that I received yesterday:

“Jake Cronin, a policy analyst with the Institute of Public Policy in the Truman School of Public Affairs at the University of Missouri, studied Missouri Department of Corrections data and found that inmates who earned their GED in Missouri prisons were significantly more likely to find a job after prison and less likely to recidivate than inmates who did not. Cronin found the biggest jump in reduced recidivism rates, more than 33 percent, when he looked at inmates who earned a GED and acquired a full-time job after their release.

“Employment proves to be the strongest predictor of not returning to prison that we found,” Cronin said. “Those who have a full-time job are much less likely to return to prison than similar inmates who are unemployed. Recidivism rates were nearly cut in half for former inmates with a full-time job compared to similar inmates who are unemployed. Inmates who take advantage of the educational opportunities available to them in prison are more likely to find a job than those who do not.”

Cronin says these reduced recidivism rates can save the state a substantial amount of money in reduced incarceration costs. He points to a similar study which found that educational programs that reduced recidivism rates saved the state of Maryland $24 million a year, which is twice the amount of money spent on the program. Cronin believes this shows that correctional facility educational programs are a good investment for the state of Missouri.

“If similar results occur in Missouri, which I would expect given the findings of this study, that would mean the state is currently saving more than $20 million a year in reduced incarceration costs as a result of correctional education programs,” Cronin said. “In this political environment, states across the country are looking for ways to save money. This is one program that, in the long run, saves the state money. It is a good investment; an investment that has a high rate of return.”

This is directly relevant to current prisoners. My pen pal Randy Miller who is incarcerated at Indiana State Prison is an advocate for prisoner education. Here is a letter to the editor that he wrote a couple of months ago about this topic:

Recent legislation passed by Indiana law makers eliminated the bachelor’s degree program from all Indiana State Prison beginning in the fall semester of 2011. The reason given by Governor Mitch Daniels and the state legislators for this action, is that it is unfair for tax payers to be burdened with the cost of covering educational expenses for convicted felons. This may be a valid argument, except that financially it is an outright lie.

The cost of college expenses in the 2010 school year for all Department of Correction inmates was $9.06 million, covered by the Obama grant program. Under new legislation, only $2 million will be allocated to the Department of Corrections to cover educational expenses for college. On the surface this appears to be a financially sound move and looks to save tax payers $7 million a year, but let’s look at what it really costs.

The state of Indiana pays the Department of Corrections just under $58 per day, per inmate, or $21,170.00 per year. There are approximately 361 inmates eligible to receive a bachelor’s degree each year within the Department of Corrections. Obtaining a bachelor’s degree cuts two years off an inmates sentence, saving tax payers $42,340.00 per inmate. By eliminating this opportunity for an average of 361 inmates state wide per year, Governor Mitch Daniels and your state legislators have saved you the tax payer $7 million a year in educational expenses to inmates, and burdened you with $15,284,740.00 per year to house inmates who now cannot receive this time cut. These costs do not include the rising rate of recidivism bound to follow these cuts in education.

Governor Mitch Daniels wants to move to technical schooling to teach inmates a trade rather than a general education, even though these trades have been shown and proven to have little to no effect on lowering recidivism rates. As it stands today, the average recidivism rate in Indiana is at 63 percent. A bachelor’s degree cuts that rate to less than 8 percent! Under Governor Mitch Daniels, Indiana has led the nation in prison population growth, with a prison population increase of more than 6 percent per year. Even California, a state who’s prison population dwarfs Indiana’s in comparison, cut it’s prison population by almost 3 percent.

It is time to change the way we think about the Department of Corrections. It is unfeasible to think you can warehouse inmates and ignore the problem, especially when more that 95 percent of those inmates will be re-entering society someday. The single most beneficial tool we have to lower crime rates, reduce recidivism and ensure the success of inmates re-entering society is education. There is absolutely no benefit for anyone in cutting educational funding to prisoners and eliminating the bachelor’s degree opportunity to inmates.

By
Randy Miller #154124
Indiana State Prison
August 6, 2011

If you know that incarceration makes youth worse…

If you know that youth incarceration is ineffective, costly and counterproductive…

If you know that there is a better way to address the needs of youth in trouble with the law…

Then now is the time to WAKE UP and SHARE WHAT YOU KNOW TO BE TRUE.

On September 8th, Governor Pat Quinn announced that he would recommend closing IYC-Murphysboro this fiscal year. This will save the state $3.1 million in just FY12. This is a good start and we believe that many more youth prisons can and should be closed too. For specific information about IYC-Murphysboro, click here.

We have the opportunity in Illinois to mobilize to educate the public and push our legislators to close youth prisons. Betsy Clarke, director of the Juvenile Justice Initiative, put it best in a recent column:

Illinois currently runs eight separate far-flung juvenile facilities to house an average of less than 1,200 youth. These eight facilities are costly. The average annual cost per bed has rapidly risen from $70,915 five years ago to an estimate of more than $90,000 this year. The per bed cost at the Murphysboro youth prison, which the governor plans to close, is far above average and climbed to $142,342 per bed in FY10. Operation of each facility entails significant administrative costs as does collective oversight and management of the eight separate facilities.

If each of the eight facilities ran quality programming with successful results, there might be justification for continuing their operation. The facts, however, are dismally opposite. Reports document a juvenile prison system that is ineffective, with over half the youth returning to juvenile prisons within three years. Most facilities struggle to maintain minimal educational programming, let alone adequate mental health treatment, recreation or vocational classes.

According to an analysis of state records by the Juvenile Justice Initiative the average daily population for youth prisons in the state was 1,113 in fiscal year 2011, down from 1,603 in fiscal year 2005 and 1,192 in fiscal year 2011. The same analysis estimates operation costs for the facilities as $92,257 per bed for fiscal year 2011.

This is where we are in Illinois. On both humanitarian and fiscal grounds, the status quo is unsustainable. Just today, I read that the forces of the opposition are mobilizing to resist closing IYC-Murphysboro. I am extremely sympathetic to those who would lose their jobs with the closing of this facility. However, I agree strongly with Betsy Clarke who is quoted as saying: “Funding for juvenile justice is a limited amount of money, and we want to use it in the best way possible. Your jobs should not be built on the back of human misery. That should not be our job development plan.”

Here’s what you can do to add your voice in support of the Governor’s decision to close IYC-Murphysboro if you live in Illinois:

1. Sign this Change.org Petition telling Governor Pat Quinn to stand firm in closing Murphysboro Youth Prison.

2. Call Governor Quinn’s office and let him know that you support his decision to close IYC-Murphysboro. Let him also know that Illinois can afford to close even more youth prisons and that you would support that too. Call the Governor at 217-782-0244 or 312-814-2121. Tell all of your friends and family to call too. Locking young people up does not make us safer and in fact make us all less safe.

3. You can also write letters to the Governor. If you work with youth, have them write letters to the Governor telling him that they support his decision:

Office of the Governor
207 State House
Springfield, IL 62706

or

Office of the Governor
James R. Thompson Center
100 W. Randolph, 16-100
Chicago, IL 60601

4. If you live in Illinois, attend a Teach-In on Closing Illinois Youth Prisons scheduled for October 29th from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m.

5. Visit the new "Closing Illinois Youth Prisons" which includes resources, information, and ways to take action.

I thought that some readers would find it interesting to know just how much stuff costs at Illinois prison commissaries.

Prisoners who do not have a job currently receive up to $10.00 “state pay” each month. This amount has not been increased in many years. Additionally, Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) usually deducts 3-4% from the $10.00 to cover housing costs. And sometimes the “state pay” is not in fact paid. The “state pay” is used to cover other costs the prisoner has that are not covered by the IDOC. For example:

* Deodorant-$2-4.00 on commissary. None supplied.
* Toothpaste-$2-4.00 on commissary. Not supplied on a consistent basis or at all.
* Toothbrushes-$0.50 on commissary. Very rarely supplied by IDOC.
* Soap- small (1″ by 2″) bars-nondeoderant, provided to each inmate each week. $0.40 per bar at commissary.
* Shampoo. $1-3.00 at commissary. None provided
* Laundry detergent-$4-5.00 at commissary. None provided.
* Lotions-$2-4.00 on commissary. None provided
* Shaving Equipment-one single edge razor provided at most once per week. Usually, 2-3 times per month.
* Shaving equipment-electric razor or trimmer combs purchased from $10-50.00 from commissary.
* Fans-cell houses have no air conditioning. General population cells have no windows. Fan costs $25.00 from commissary.
* Legal services-copies of legal decisions and other similar materials at $0.05 per Pages.
* Food-IDOC provides three meals a day (quality questionable). Additional food, coffee, condiments, etc., must be purchased from commissary.
* Clothing-currently, inmates are fortunate if they receive two pairs of boxers, socks, twoT-shirts, one blue shirt, one pair of pants from IDOC. Due to budget cuts, this happens only once per year. Formerly, an inmate would receive these items four times per year. Inmates do not receive boots, even during winter months, other than slipper-type shoes. Regular shoes must be purchased from commissary. Costs range from $12-66.00.
* A towel and washcloth may be given 1-2 times per year.
* All electronics must be purchased from commissary. Extension cords, cable cords, headphones, TV’s, radios, splitters, lights, light bulbs, batteries, razors, etc.
* Cold/allergy/pain relievers are purchased from commissary. The nurses/med techs formerly provided the at the cost of the $2.00 co-pay, but don’t have them anymore.
* Envelopes/paper/pens to write to family, friends are not provided and must be purchased from commissary. An envelope with stamp currently costs $0.53.

(H/T to the Illinois Institute for Community Law and Affairs for this information)

Note: No sooner had I posted this was I reminded that the vast majority of the items listed above are not full sized but travel sized items. Thanks Dan for the reminder.