Gates of Injustice The Crisis in America's Prisons

by Elsner, Alan

• ISBN13: 9780131881792
• ISBN10: 0131881795
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-01-06
• Publisher: FT Press

Summary

Elsner provides new insight into the powerful political and social forces driving imprisonment in America. Most importantly, he charts a path for reform . . . one that could make America not merely more humane, but safer. Gates of Injustice is a compelling exposi of the U.S. prison system: it tells how more than 2 million Americans came to be incarcerated . . . what it's really like on the inside . . . and how a giant "prison-industrial complex" promotes imprisonment over other solutions. Alan Elsner paints a terrifying picture of how our prisons really work. You'll hear how race-based gangs control institutions and prey on the weak and how a rape epidemic has swept the U.S. prison system. You'll discover the plight of 300,000 mentally ill prisoners, many abandoned to suffer with grossly inadequate medical care. Elsner takes you inside "supermax" prisons that deny inmates human contact and reveals official corruption and brutality within U.S. jails.

Author Biography

Alan Elsner has written extensively about conditions in jails and prisons, visiting institutions in a dozen states to meet with inmates, lawyers, corrections officers, medical staff, religious volunteers, family members, and law enforcement. He has 25 years’ experience in journalism, covering stories ranging from the September 11, 2001 attacks on America and the Arab-Israeli conflict to the 2000 presidential election and the end of the Cold War. Elsner is currently National Correspondent for Reuters news agency. For more information, visit www.AlanElsner.com.

Table of Contents

Preface to the Second Edition	xi
Preface to the First Edition	xiii
Acknowledgments	xvii
The Second Toughest Sheriff in America	1	(10)
Becoming a Prison Nation	11	(20)
Entering the Gates	31	(32)
The Vulnerable	63	(18)
The Sanity of the System	81	(22)
An Unhealthy Situation	103	(28)
Women Behind Bars	131	(22)
Supermax	153	(28)
Short-Term Problems	181	(20)
Money, Money, Money	201	(18)
After Prison	219	(12)
Some Modest Suggestions	231	(12)
Endnotes	243	(22)
Index	265

Excerpts

Preface to the Second Edition Preface to the Second Edition ust as the first edition of this book was published in 2004, shocking video emerged of U.S. military personal abusing Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison. The images produced a wave of revulsion among Americans. The scandal also placed increased attention on the U.S. prison system, especially after it became clear that two of those mostly deeply involved in the Abu Ghraib abuses had been employed as correctional officers here at home. Suddenly, some Americans began to question conditions in the U.S. prison system. They asked themselves whether we should not be at least as concerned about the mistreatment of U.S. prisoners as we were about the abuse and torture of Iraqis. Unfortunately, that wave of attention and concern did not sustain itself for very long. Soon enough, it was back to business as usual. The story receded from the headlines while the steady, relentless growth of our giant prison system continued unchecked. That is not to say there have not been some positive developments in the past two years. An independent bipartisan Commission on Safety and Abuse in America's Prisons was established and began holding public hearings. I testified at the first of them. The Commission's eventual report could focus much-needed attention on the issue of prison abuse. Drug courts are spreading around the nation, diverting more and more non-violent offenders away from prison and toward treatment. There are also signs that the federal government is finally taking the scourge of prison rape seriously. Meanwhile, a group of congressional members of both parties began a new effort to pass a bill that would dismantle some of the barriers that prevent released prisoners from being reabsorbed into society. On the negative side, the costs of incarceration are exploding, despite the efforts of states and counties to explore alternatives to incarceration for non-violent offenders. Lawmakers continue to invent new mandatory sentences, which as usual will fall disproportionately on young African Americans and Hispanics. A good example is the so-called "Gangbusters Act" passed by the House of Representatives in April 2005. The act condemns juveniles to 10- or 20-year prison sentences or even the death penalty for a long list of so-called 'gang crimes.' Judges no longer have the ability to weigh the individual circumstances of the crime before passing sentence. A gang is defined as any group of three or more people who commit two crimes. The congressional budget office estimated that this bill alone would increase the prison population at a cost of $62 million for the first four years, growing exponentially after that. Gates of Injusticepoints out two fundamental problems. Our prison system is too big and it remains too abusive. What can we do about this? As members of a proud democracy, we have the right and the responsibility to make sure that our elected representatives hear our voices about subjects that matter to us. But first, we need to educate ourselves. I hope once again that this book will play a part in that process. Alan Elsner, Washington, D.C. July 2005 Preface to the First Edition his book is a guide to a land that most readers will never visit--the world of U.S. prisons and jails. Like any travel book, it profiles the people that live in this land, outlines their customs, history, geography, and language and lists the many dangers that lurk. It also provides key facts about the local currency, food, and health care. Readers may ask, Why would anyone want to visit this forbidding land, even in a book? After all, we're never going there. Why should we want to know what really goes on in America's prisons? Why should we care about the massive growth of the U.S. penal system over the past quarter century? Why should we worry about the racial inequalities? Why do we need to be told about the abuses? Why should we bother about the plight of the hundreds of thousands of mentally ill people kept behind bars, about the thousands of men subjected to rape, about women abused and harassed, about those left in solitary confinement for months and years on end with virtually no human contact? What has all this got to do with us? I offer three answers. First, this book is not in fact about some remote foreign country that has nothing to do with us. It is about the United States, the global superpower. For those of us who live here, if we believe that we are all, in a deep sense, one nation and one family, then how can we ignore the plight of so many of our brothers and sisters, our cousins, our neighbors, our fellow citizens? President George W. Bush acknowledged this in his State of the Union Address on January 20, 2004. Asking Congress for $300 million to help prisoners who had served their sentences reintegrate into society, the President said, "America is the land of the second chance and when the gates of the prison open, the path ahead should lead to a better life." Bush's words showed that prisons and the plight of prisoners are climbing higher on the nation's agenda. Unfortunately, as this book shows, America too often is not the land of the second chance for those behind bars, and when the gates open, there is no path ahead. Second, try as we might, we Americans cannot separate ourselves from the world of jails and prisons. Ten million people cycle through our jails every year. The abuses they endure, the diseases they contract, the traumas they suffer inevitably come back to haunt the rest of society. There is no Iron Curtain separating them from us. They areus. Third, as members of an old and proud democracy, respect for human rights is a central and vital part of who we are. We champion human rights all around the world. It's one of the most important American values. Yet, increasingly, other people do not take us seriously. We are seen as self-righteous and hypocritical. We criticize others but not ourselves. Each spring, the State Department issues a report on the state of human rights in every nation on the globe. Secretary of State Colin Powell wrote these words in the introduction to the report issued in March 2003 (U.S. Department of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2002. Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. Washington. March 31, 2003): We gain little by ignoring human rights abuses or flinching from reporting them. _ But in truth, no country is exempt from scrutiny, and all countries benefit from constant striving to identify their weaknesses and improve their performance in this less-than-perfect world. The report covered 196 countries, but it left out one--the United States of America. This book holds up a mirror for us to examine one aspect of our nation. It does not always make for comfortable viewing. The face staring back at us is not the perfect, unblemished image we would all wish to see. But it is better to confront the truth without flinching than to behave like Oscar Wilde's Dorian Gray, who concealed his ugliness behind a false veneer of physical perfection. We must acknowledge our imperfections. As the Scripture teaches us, "You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free" (Gospel of St. John, 8:32). Alan Elsner, Washington, D.C. January 2004 Copyright Pearson Education. All rights reserved.