A supposed newsworthy event occurred this week in Madison. TV camera operators focused their lens on folks who received their fifteen seconds of fame, converging in the state capitol, holding placards that denounced Gov. Walker and his appointed chief of Wisconsin Corrections.
One placard stated in heavy black letters: TORTURE. Do you think some of the program's viewers really think it's possible to torture inmates—and get away with it without anyone ever knowing it happened? Indeed, yes. There are people who will believe just about anything.
A minister, who was a former justice department attorney and now the group's spokesman, stated he and his group wanted Wisconsin to parole more offenders to the community. Under Walker, he said, parole is a thing of the past. "They've been locked up too long."
While a state legislator, Walker introduced the "Truth in Sentencing" bill which was passed. It called for felons to do the "actual time given them for the crime they committed." Parole is not possible but there are men still locked up under the previous law.
What's that old saying about not learning from history?
Former Wisconsin Governor Patrick Lucey's Committee on Offender Rehabilitation demanded to have a meeting set up in which committee members and inmates of minimum, medium, and maximum security institutions would gather together and help solve perceived problems. Naturally, the committee chose a woman inmate from the women's prison at Taycheedah, as well.
One wouldn't have to guess the outcome. Inmate members lambasted cops, DA's, defense attorneys, judges, juries, prison administrators, correctional officers, prison doctors and nurses, social workers, psychiatrists, psychologists, teachers, and what have you. Inmates didn't like inmate clothing. They wanted to be able to dress in regular civilian clothing. Muslim inmates demanded to be served beef while the rest of the inmate population was served pork. A male inmate who claimed he was actually a female demanded taxpayers pay for the necessary medical operation, enabling him to be transformed into her. (A judge later ordered the state to enable the man to do so and provide her with breast enhancement medication). Devil worshippers complained they weren't allowed to meet in the prison chapel. I fully believe in democracy but was this carrying equality a little too far?
One inmate committee member assigned to the get-together pulled off a successful escape. He was destined, by the way, to become the eventual husband of the offender rehabilitation committee's lead attorney—at least for a short while, that is, before he was incarcerated again after being found guilty of committing additional felonies.
A short criminal justice primer is in order. First, criminals have to be caught. Then, the DA may or may not charge them, depending upon the information provided by police. Milwaukee's DA Michael McCann told a group of correctional teachers that Milwaukee County's first time offenders were not usually imprisoned, except for rape, armed robbery, and murder.
Every citizen accused of a crime has a right to a trial. In that trial, he may be found guilty—or not. Folks who are found guilty by a jury of their peers are sentenced by duly elected circuit court judges to periods of confinement. Most charged individuals, however, agree to plead guilty to a lesser charge or charges, avoid a trial, and accept punishment of shorter sentences.
In the last 25 years in my working with inmates, not one revealed the blow by blow reasons why he was incarcerated. Fact is, most claimed their innocence. In 1968, many of my students told me they were sorry for what they had done to get them in prison. They wanted to redirect their lives and change for the better. First, they felt the need for a high school equivalency diploma which would enable them to be on a near equal footing with their non-felonious job competitors. Part of their studies in my classroom included filling out blank job applications—time and again—in order to get the task as close to perfect as was possible.
During the 70's, that stopped. Why? Most of my students claimed they didn't want a job upon their release. They were political prisoners and pawns of the state. The state, therefore, “owed” them money in return. At my career's end, intimidating black inmates exhorted fellow African Americans to not study "Whitey's ways," which meant English class. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Here are just some of the outcomes recommended by the Committee on Offender Rehabilitation:
1. The prison laundry no longer could clean bedding for other state-supported institutions but was allowed to perform in-house laundry only. (The state awarded the former prison contract to Milwaukee's Adelman laundry. I don't know if the laundry owners had any connection to state Senator Adelman but many staff members believed there was some sort of linkage).
2. The tailor shop could no longer produce inmate clothing. That job was contracted out to a private company.
3. State institutions would now be allowed to order metal furniture from private companies.
4. The shoe repair shop was closed.
5. Farm #1 halted large animal slaughtering, the job awarded to an outside concern, as well.
Obviously, the number of jobs inmates performed which helped pay for their incarceration dwindled drastically. And who gets hooked with paying the ever increasing costs to operate those institutions? It's sad that it takes more taxpayer money to fund Wisconsin's correctional institutions than our university system. That's a damned shame.
I'm not saying we should return to institutions such as the fictional Shawshank prison, but I do believe it's an embarrassment that our state correctional institutions no longer rely on inmates to help pay for their incarceration. They should. I had to work at a job in order to pay my way through life until retirement age. Why isn't that same concept applied to imprisoned convicts?
Making correctional institutions self-supporting can be done again, but we need a forceful and creative body of voters who insist their legislators make certain that convicts indeed pay for their crimes.
One placard stated in heavy black letters: TORTURE. Do you think some of the program's viewers really think it's possible to torture inmates—and get away with it without anyone ever knowing it happened? Indeed, yes. There are people who will believe just about anything.
A minister, who was a former justice department attorney and now the group's spokesman, stated he and his group wanted Wisconsin to parole more offenders to the community. Under Walker, he said, parole is a thing of the past. "They've been locked up too long."
While a state legislator, Walker introduced the "Truth in Sentencing" bill which was passed. It called for felons to do the "actual time given them for the crime they committed." Parole is not possible but there are men still locked up under the previous law.
What's that old saying about not learning from history?
Former Wisconsin Governor Patrick Lucey's Committee on Offender Rehabilitation demanded to have a meeting set up in which committee members and inmates of minimum, medium, and maximum security institutions would gather together and help solve perceived problems. Naturally, the committee chose a woman inmate from the women's prison at Taycheedah, as well.
One wouldn't have to guess the outcome. Inmate members lambasted cops, DA's, defense attorneys, judges, juries, prison administrators, correctional officers, prison doctors and nurses, social workers, psychiatrists, psychologists, teachers, and what have you. Inmates didn't like inmate clothing. They wanted to be able to dress in regular civilian clothing. Muslim inmates demanded to be served beef while the rest of the inmate population was served pork. A male inmate who claimed he was actually a female demanded taxpayers pay for the necessary medical operation, enabling him to be transformed into her. (A judge later ordered the state to enable the man to do so and provide her with breast enhancement medication). Devil worshippers complained they weren't allowed to meet in the prison chapel. I fully believe in democracy but was this carrying equality a little too far?
One inmate committee member assigned to the get-together pulled off a successful escape. He was destined, by the way, to become the eventual husband of the offender rehabilitation committee's lead attorney—at least for a short while, that is, before he was incarcerated again after being found guilty of committing additional felonies.
A short criminal justice primer is in order. First, criminals have to be caught. Then, the DA may or may not charge them, depending upon the information provided by police. Milwaukee's DA Michael McCann told a group of correctional teachers that Milwaukee County's first time offenders were not usually imprisoned, except for rape, armed robbery, and murder.
Every citizen accused of a crime has a right to a trial. In that trial, he may be found guilty—or not. Folks who are found guilty by a jury of their peers are sentenced by duly elected circuit court judges to periods of confinement. Most charged individuals, however, agree to plead guilty to a lesser charge or charges, avoid a trial, and accept punishment of shorter sentences.
In the last 25 years in my working with inmates, not one revealed the blow by blow reasons why he was incarcerated. Fact is, most claimed their innocence. In 1968, many of my students told me they were sorry for what they had done to get them in prison. They wanted to redirect their lives and change for the better. First, they felt the need for a high school equivalency diploma which would enable them to be on a near equal footing with their non-felonious job competitors. Part of their studies in my classroom included filling out blank job applications—time and again—in order to get the task as close to perfect as was possible.
During the 70's, that stopped. Why? Most of my students claimed they didn't want a job upon their release. They were political prisoners and pawns of the state. The state, therefore, “owed” them money in return. At my career's end, intimidating black inmates exhorted fellow African Americans to not study "Whitey's ways," which meant English class. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Here are just some of the outcomes recommended by the Committee on Offender Rehabilitation:
1. The prison laundry no longer could clean bedding for other state-supported institutions but was allowed to perform in-house laundry only. (The state awarded the former prison contract to Milwaukee's Adelman laundry. I don't know if the laundry owners had any connection to state Senator Adelman but many staff members believed there was some sort of linkage).
2. The tailor shop could no longer produce inmate clothing. That job was contracted out to a private company.
3. State institutions would now be allowed to order metal furniture from private companies.
4. The shoe repair shop was closed.
5. Farm #1 halted large animal slaughtering, the job awarded to an outside concern, as well.
Obviously, the number of jobs inmates performed which helped pay for their incarceration dwindled drastically. And who gets hooked with paying the ever increasing costs to operate those institutions? It's sad that it takes more taxpayer money to fund Wisconsin's correctional institutions than our university system. That's a damned shame.
I'm not saying we should return to institutions such as the fictional Shawshank prison, but I do believe it's an embarrassment that our state correctional institutions no longer rely on inmates to help pay for their incarceration. They should. I had to work at a job in order to pay my way through life until retirement age. Why isn't that same concept applied to imprisoned convicts?
Making correctional institutions self-supporting can be done again, but we need a forceful and creative body of voters who insist their legislators make certain that convicts indeed pay for their crimes.