Incarceration rates in the United States and Wisconsin far outstrip other NATO countries, according to Sean Wilson, the statewide organizer for the “Smart Justice” program sponsored by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Wisconsin.
Wilson spoke last week at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation, following the annual meeting of the Chippewa Valley ACLU chapter. He said the “Smart Justice” program is a nonpartisan, multi-year effort to reduce Wisconsin’s jail and prison population by 50% and to combat racial disparities in the criminal justice system.
Wilson added that Wisconsin’s incarceration rate for African-Americans is the highest in the country.
He noted that the 13th Amendment prohibits slavery, with one key exception: “as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.” He said that incarcerated people today are routinely dehumanized, given a number instead of a name, often subjected to inhumane conditions and forced to labor for little or no pay.
“America is a slave holding country,” he said.
Wisconsin spends $1.2 billion per year on inadequate prison programs
Wisconsin spends $1.2 billion per year on corrections, and the costs for more incarceration are growing, Wilson said, adding that over-incarceration is a bipartisan challenge. Wisconsin currently has 23,000 prisoners in a state system designed for 17,000, and another 66,000 people are on parole or probation, he noted.
He said about 8,000 prisoners return every year to their communities where they face numerous restrictions and difficulties in re-entry, including restricted housing opportunities, unemployment, denial of student aid, denial of federal benefits, denial of the right to vote or to hold a passport, and many more.
Wilson said the costs to families and communities are immediate and long range, including a developing wealth gap when lifetime earnings for former prisoners average 42% less than for peers.
Wilson, who is from Milwaukee, experienced incarceration himself. One of his experiences was three months of solitary confinement, as a punishment for protesting the violation of prison rules by the authorities.
He said that prison gates are there to keep the public out because people would be horrified to see the conditions inside that their tax dollars provide. “Corrections” involves woefully inadequate mental health care, addiction rehabilitation and job training, as well as failing to provide instruction on good decision-making and other skills and services that prepare prisoners for reentry, he said.
“Smart Justice” campaign goals
The goals of the ACLU’s “Smart Justice” campaign include:
- Expand the Earned Release Program, which allows low-level nonviolent offenders to complete a treatment program and work for the opportunity to be released more quickly. Currently, 5,000 individuals are on the waiting list for 750 beds.
- End crimeless parole revocation, which could prevent up to 3,000 people from being returned to prison for technical violations of rules, not for committing new crimes.
Wilson said he is promoting the idea that it is much more important to invest in people than in more prisons. He said that people who would like to help could visit www.aclu-wi.org/en/smart-justice.
He informed the group that additional statistical information about the prison system is available at www.prisonpolicy.org.
In the discussion that followed Wilson’s presentation, several additional points were made. These included:
- Plea-bargaining is common among poor defendants who cannot afford lawyers and plead guilty to get a shorter sentence. They may not learn until later about many other consequences of a felony conviction.
- Telephone charges are often exorbitant. Video-conferencing, which can be helpful, sometimes replaces face-to-face visits and costs the prisoner $12.50 to $25 per half hour.
- Restorative justice programs require the ability to forgive and the recognition that often the offender is a victim of trauma before the crime took place.
Note: this story was reported with the help of Ann Heywood, Chippewa Valley CLU president.