Prison Reform

اصلاح وضع زندان

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Context •Institutions •Legal •Safety •
Posted by Rezwan • Apr 23, 2009 • (0) Comments •
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The recent media storm over the sentencing of Roxana Saberi to 8 years in prison draws our attention to the plight of prisoners world wide, and to planning issues related to justice systems and prisoners.

Ms. Saberi is fortunate to be blessed with being a political prisoner of a derided regime, with a flock of journalists following the story, the US president commenting on her case and with a nobel laureate on her legal defense team. Meanwhile, millions of lesser beings languish in jails on minor drug charges, mostly in America, and 40% more than the global average languish in prisons in Iran.

I don't mean to be all "Tu quoque" here. Prison and justice reform must be addressed systematically throughout the world. Let's start by looking at my two countries in the mirror.

So, here's an article in Parade by Senator Jim Webb about the woeful state of US prisons, and the terrible injustice. (FYI, The World According to Hip Hop asks that you Thank Jim Webb for his visionary efforts.)

Many millions of lives are affected. Unfortunately for them, they are expendable minorities, and not elite symbolic prisoners or media darlings.

[Update May 2, 2009: Since posting this article, I was tweeted by innocenceblog - working to exonerate wrongfully convicted prisoners. Their Innocence Project website is an excellent resource on the topic of wrongful imprisonment and a great starting point to take action in America. Now, for a similar link to a Persian organization on prison reform here.]

Comparative Prison Populations

Jim Webb notes that:

The United States has by far the world's highest incarceration rate. With 5% of the world's population, our country now houses nearly 25% of the world's reported prisoners. We currently incarcerate 756 inmates per 100,000 residents, a rate nearly five times the average worldwide of 158 for every 100,000. In addition, more than 5 million people who recently left jail remain under "correctional supervision," which includes parole, probation, and other community sanctions. All told, about one in every 31 adults in the United States is in prison, in jail, or on supervised release. This all comes at a very high price to taxpayers: Local, state, and federal spending on corrections adds up to about $68 billion a year.

OK, America incarcerates 756 inmates per 100,000 residents.

Iran incarcerates 226 inmates per 100,000 residents.

Thus, Iran incarcerates at less than 30% of the US incarceration rate. Iran wins the "tu quoque" showdown with the US. But this is still 40% more than the global average, so it still doesn't look very rosy.

Speaking of Japanese American Iranians (Saberi), compare these incarceration statistics with Japan. Japan incarcerates 54 inmates per 100,000 residents. What a utopia! Jim Webb notes that:

In 1984, Japan had a population half the size of ours and was incarcerating 40,000 sentenced offenders, compared with 580,000 in the United States. As shocking as that disparity was, the difference between the countries now is even more astounding--and profoundly disturbing. Since then, Japan's prison population has not quite doubled to 71,000, while ours has quadrupled to 2.3 million.

Jim wonders if Americans are more evil:

With so many of our citizens in prison compared with the rest of the world, there are only two possibilities: Either we are home to the most evil people on earth or we are doing something different--and vastly counterproductive. Obviously, the answer is the latter.

It is possible that they are a bit more evil, after all, they have one of the highest murder rates in the world.

Somewhat related: many prisoners in the US die before they even get to jail, suffering from "Sudden Custody Death Syndrome". At least these death "usually spark outrage, lawsuits and charges of police brutality."

The Drug Connection

Most of the people in the US are in prison on minor drug-related offenses. There also seems to be a racial bias: blacks are incarcerated at a disproportionate and unjust rate. The article notes there's no greater drug use among black people than whites, yet they are 74% more likely to be convicted and imprisoned for drug use.

So, here, in Iran, a woman with a bottle of wine (a minor drug-related offense) is faced with escalating charges.

Many will focus on the spy charges, but I'd like to take this opportunity to reflect on the drug issue. Iran has a 40% higher than the world inmate population. Most likely, the excess comes from minor drug charges as well, just as it does in America [No data here! We need pie charts of offenses and # of prisoners for each country]. The only difference is, in America alcohol possession isn't an incarcerable offense. Yet, even with alcoholics free to imbibe, and thus, ostensibly, fewer controlled substances to arrest for, America still has millions more in prison on drug charges.

The point here is that, it appears that America is operating on some sort of moralistic prohibition platform, just as Iran is, and they both have an excess prison population as a result. This situation makes the policy of legalizing the drugs and tax them much more appealing. OK, so you lose a few citizens to drug addiction, but it's probably worth it. You're losing them anyway...OK, this is pure speculation and must be investigated elsewhere.

Back to Roxana

While she is facing a horrifying situation, Roxana is, nevertheless, one of the lucky ones. We should all be so lucky. As noted, as a writer, journalist and former beauty queen of Japanese American Iranian extract, facing a derided regime on trumped up spy charges, she has worldwide media attention for her plight. She's represented by a nobel laureate, and journalists from over the globe have descended to make sure she's OK.

If only we were all so cared about, so watched in our hour of need.

Having written this, I realize that as a blogger on planning issues I'm in a high risk category for incarceration in the Iranian justice system. In the event that that happens, I would be incredibly grateful for the kind of support that Roxana is getting. At the same time, I would have to realize that this is a moment to get in touch with the horror faced by so many millions of people, our brothers and sisters out there languishing in jails.

Let's get them all out! Let's release all unsung prisoners from this terrible fate! Don't be satisfied with just getting one woman out. Do the math! Dream big!

In conclusion: Support Roxana Saberi. Support Jim Webb and his American Prison Reform. Emigrate to Japan to stay out of jail. And finally, Legalize Marijuana.

These opinions are in flux and may change at any moment, depending on actual data and persuasive arguments. Or not.

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