Jailhouse blues

It's hard to feel sorry for prisoners. They're not exactly model citizens. Often in jail for serious crimes like murder and rape, communities would rather have wrongdoers locked up behind bars, no matter what the circumstances or the offense. \nSo I wasn't surprised to read an article in the Indiana Daily Student this week that detailed overcrowding in the Monroe County Jail. Due to a lack of space, prisoners are being accommodated in common areas like hallways and the recreation room. While these conditions are unacceptable, the jail is also plagued by faulty plumbing and limits on visitation hours. \nUnfortunately, the Monroe County Jail is just a microcosm of the prison system in our country today. The United States, which comprises 5 percent of the world's population, accounts for a whopping 25 percent of the world's incarcerated. Moreover, the incarceration rate in this country is 737 per 100,000 people, topping even havens of human rights violations like China. To give you a little perspective, the average incarceration rate in other Western countries is only a 100 for every 100,000 people. \nAs a result of such high incarceration rates, populations in jails around the country are swelling. On a purely economic level, this means increased costs for taxpayers. For example, in 2002, $40 billion was spent on prisons alone. Such an emphasis on punishment, as opposed to rehabilitation, has led to decreased funding for alternative treatments. Instead of equipping prisoners for life after prison through programs like work release, jails are acting as a transit point for repeat offenders. In Indiana alone, 40 percent of inmates return to prison in just three years.\nStrangely enough, the crime rate in the country has steadily decreased. Yet, the incarceration rates have not decreased proportionately. This is, in part, due to the extremely harsh drug laws instituted by the government. Thanks to mandatory sentences, nonviolent drug offenders constitute a large section of the prison population. While drug rehabilitation programs would be a better solution to dealing with such offenders, this has not been embraced by prisons, simply due to a lack of funds. \nAs a society that relishes retributive justice with no consideration for harmful social effects, maybe it was inevitable that the prison system has degenerated into such a position. After all, 38 states, including Indiana, continue to sanction the barbaric practice of the death penalty. While we pretend that the justice system is governed by the creed "innocent until proven guilty," newspapers regularly publish police blots that ostracize people for crimes they may or may not have committed. We demonize sex offenders and place inane restrictions on them, like staying at least 500 feet from a school, conveniently forgetting that a majority of sexual offenders are known to the victim. \nWith such a hostile social environment, pathetic prison conditions and illogical sentencing laws, we have essentially stacked the deck against prisoners. It's time we gave them a chance -- and we can start with the men at Monroe County Jail.