Proposal for rejuvenating Wisconsin’s Failed Correctional System
contents
Intro- the need for deep change
changes needed
Charts and explanations explaining need and why our proposals will work, keep us safe and reduce prison population at least by half.
PREVIEW: links to proposals alone:
1) Parole rules
2) ending reincarceration for non felonies =to be worked out, at this time can be bipartisan study group
4) Support grants
INTRO
The Following is for General Education and Has Details and Arguments for our Proposal
REDUCE
population/build a treatment center/
build support systems that work
This essay and bill proposal
is written in response to the growing call in Wisconsin for building a new
prison because of concern over violence in the juvenile prisons, lack of staff
and extreme overcrowding and tension in the adult prisons.One of the proposals of the The DOC has been to build a prison for the elderly and
handicapped and those with special needs. This same proposal was made for the
building of the last new prison, New Lisbon Correctional Institution(NLCI) and
as soon as it was built, the needs of the bulging correctional system overruled
the need for the new building original purpose and NLCI became just another
prison. The system is even more overcrowded and understaffed now.
Whole prisons routinely go on lock down because of staff shortages and the already sparse programming
and treatment hits near zero. Particularly concerning for prisoners in general
population is the frequent cancelling of rec, library, and outdoor time. All the rehabilitative
tools vanish in this environment and staff shortage, particularly professional
shortage of professionals ( psychology staff, health staff)are felt everywhere. The guards that remain are forced into 2 , sometimes three shifts overtime. According to An article by Pat Marley in May 2018,
taxpayers paid 40 million in overtime last year alone. The prisoners are stuffed into every crevice- often two in a single solitary
cell where one person has to sleep on the floor next to the toilet. We know of
three suicides and one suspicious death in the last three months in the solitary confinement units and the public
is not notified, the prisoners themselves that strive to get the word out.
Conditions are horrific.
One wise
legislator said “ We are not going to build our way out of the present crisis”
and he is right. Those who want the new building without changing how the DOC is
run, are reveling in taxpayer money that an increasing prison population brings
to their individual bank accounts.
We need to look at who we are holding and why
In our view,
The WI Department of Corrections is neither rehabilitating offenders nor
keeping the public safe . Starting with the prison boom around 2000, the DOC
powers decided to increase population at all cost in order to receive federal
dollars and since has abandoned its mission completely. Now the fact of serious
overcrowding and lack of staff makes any healthy DOC mission a joke. And it is
this overcrowding, and resulting lack of staff ,lack of training and
treatment for prisoners that needs to be addressed. This is a critical issue
for taxpayers also because the funds for this boondoggle come directly from funds
that used to support education and other community needs.
We are
holding over 2000- ready to be released Prisoners, all over thirty when for most crime ceases and nearly 50 percent of our prison population are there for rule violations made while on
supervision or parole-non felonies! Add to this the fact that each year the DOC is forced by
law to release thousands of truth in sentencing(TIS) prisoners, mostly young
men under 30, and they are almost literally dumped on the street with no
treatment or training , in far worse shape
than when they entered the prison. In short, we need to look at who we
are holding and why and see that only those who need to be separated from
society and held in our prisons. Those who remain in prison need to be treated
humanely and wisely. IF we do this, we will have system where people want to
come to work, where prisoners will get the treatment and training they need.
And the public will be safe while having their once incarcerated love ones back
home and participating .
CHANGES NEEDED
Here are our proposals the following charts and writings will try to
explain:
1) Reduce prison Population by Paroling
those eligible and ready for release and ending reincarcerations for non felonies.
2) Install a real compassionate release policy for Old Law prisoners by
making the executive order 31, which is disregarded by the DOC, into a statute
that must be followed. The WISCONSIN prisoner system is filled with the aged
and sick that should not be there, are treated poorly and pose no risk to
society. Click here for Executive Directive 31
A few years ago FFUP submitted a compassionate release
application for three prisoners. It was not serious considered . We were told that they did not meet the criteria and sited the compassionate
release standards for TIS prisoners. Since then our multiple tries to get this
executive order honored have failed. These
are good standards and need to be put into law in a form that cannot be ignored
by the DOC. Perhaps another application submitted by all our groups is in order as it would certainly be a good education tool .
3) End reincarceration for non felonies-
around half of new admissions each year are for rule violations-no new charges.
We agree with prisoners that the system sets the prisoners up to fail- they
provide no treatment and little training while in prison and then grab them
back for the rule violation, ensuring taxpayers funds
keep rolling in seamlessly. Here is WISDOM on the subject (81 page study-takes a minute to download)
At present , we are working on this part of the bill and want something that not only ends revocations without felonies but set up viable alternatives. Perhaps one approach is to have a study committee set up.
4)Build a mental health treatment Center
like the one court ordered at Taychedah
Correctional Institution ,the women’s prison in Fond du Lac and reinstate rules that bring rehabilitation
back to our “Correction” system. Wisconsin knows the way to reinstate real
treatment. This Treatment Center was once put in the budget to be built at CCI ( Columbia Correctional Insitution in Portage). Here are templates:
b)A good model for us is the Colorado system. Rick Raemisch, former DOC secretary, now heads that system and has eliminated overuse of solitary. Solitary for more than 15 days is banned. – rules
for a safe, fair , rehabilitative system are on their website:.
https://www.doc.state.co.us/
5)Other supports for prisoners and their families that make a successful reintegration into society more certain
Support for prisoners soon to be
released and released, projects that connect prisoners and community better/
Funding for busing coordinator and a fund to help pay for families who cannot afford fare. We have
been told by 2 van owners that fares will be reduced if vans are filled and that
will be coordinators main job.
2)Ask for funding for Project patterned
after POPS program CA- one
paid coordinator, rest volunteers, and funding for materials/Volunteers line up
supports for prisoners, help them in transition, find mentors while in prison-
probably good to have someone funded who works at Project Return or with EXPO-
should be an ex-prisoner. ALL old law prisoners would be eligible for program,
and TIS as they come up for release. /could possibly be part of UM LAIP or
WIP-or an adjacent program. Will talk to them if you agree.
3)Funding
for grant writer research for many projects proposed by prisoners and their
families/ others
A particularly popular one is a
place of refuge for prisoners after release- some woudl stay temporarily, some would build their future from here- the plan is for a sustainable community.Here is an excellent proposal
from two prisoners
Why they are needed, how we got here and Why these proposals will work
Background:
A look at the money
Taxpayers money used to support our schools and public services. In the
1990’s we had 7000 prisoners and they were sentenced by the judge knowing that
they would serve 25 % of their time and after that, if their behavior was good,
they would be released. All that was nixed with the prison boom and incoming truth
in sentencing(TIS) . Paroles slowed to a trickle and laws made felonies out of
former misdemeanors and nonfelonies and drug laws were made to target the poor
communities. The prison population soared to 23,000 in WI. And we became the
state with the highest black incarceration rate in the nation Here is a 2008 chart of the growth in incarceration
rate done by the non profit WISTAX
Wisconsin spent $1.08 billion on
corrections in 2008, compared to $460 million in Minnesota. MI has 12,000 fewer
prisoners than WI with similar populations. MN puts its funding into community
programs and probation, and has the same crime rate as WI. Per capita spending
here was 23% above the average for the 11 states with violent crime rates
comparable within 10% of Wisconsin’s ( wistax)
All this tax
money spent goes to what we call “the prison industrial complex”- all the
corporations and economies that feed on incarceration, and it is taken from
schools and public services, treatment centers and community self help projects.
THIS is the
reason our college kids reel under tuition debt- in state university tuition
was around 200 dollars a semester in `the 70’s when many of the baby boomers
went- Now?? 10,000 a year? Look at chart above- this is why: THIS is where is
your tax money going?
Our kids
reel under the burden of student debt largely because we support the
corrections industry and not education. While the budget for the DOC rises (7%)
in graph above for 215-17 , budget for k=12 drops by 14% and the UW system
drops by 21 %. WHY? Look again at the prison population graph above: When the
prison book started, around 1990, WI had about 7000 prisoners. Today it has
22,000. That is where our taxpayer money is going.
Below :An overview of Wisconsin’s shame: Highest incarceration rate of African Americans in the nation. Black men especially are funneled into our prison system- all factors exaggerate this trend l and a study by the UW Wisconsin Budget Project ( chart below) shows that over incarceration actually causes crime. We who deal directly with prisoners often here that the younger prisoners, those on truth-in-sentencing, often never knew their dads except on prison visiting days. The communities that were main support are broken and gangs are what these kids turn to survive. Once out of prison, the revocation policies and lack of support make staying out a real challenge.
SO HOW would our proposal work?
1)RELEASE PAROLE ELIGIBLE Prisoners who have shown themselves
ready to be contributing members of society
2)Reinstate real compassionate release
3)Stop incarcerating people on parole and community
supervision for rule violations
4)Put money and energy
saved into treatment and training and community support, make the WI DOC
Fulfill its mission to rehabilitate offenders and keep citizens safe. IT does
neither now.
Here are some graphs that help illustrate the problems and
solutions
1 1) We are holding people in prison long after
they pose any danger to society
Crime Declines
Precipitously With Age for ALL Crimes
Research has conclusively shown that long before age 50,
most people have outlived the years in which they are most likely to commit
crimes. The figure below
shows the percentage of individuals arrested nationally by age in 2004. Less
than 6% of individuals ages 30-34 were arrested, whereas a little over 2% of
individuals ages 50-54 were arrested and almost 0% of those age 65 and older
were arrested. This trend of decreasing crime rates from adulthood to old age
has held constant over time, as shown by the 1979 arrest curve .
Here is
justice department in recidivism by age:
WI Old law inmates are all over thirty and in the main are not
dangerous.
In sum:
Studies show that most non corporate crime is
committed by people under thirty. Period.
A recent and incredibly detailed study by the ACLU went state by state
to get data and found that after 30, the percentage of prisoners to
reoffend
was 6 %, after 55 it dropped to
zero. This and studies by the FOB and other organizations
showing similar findings
need to be given much consideration when
deciding whether an mature or
elderly
inmate, once violent, is still a danger. People change. All old law prisoners
are over thirty (crimes committed 15 plus years ago) and about a third of our
nearly three thousand old law prisoners are over 55. Many are fathers,
grandfathers.
We have over
2000 prisoners called ”OLD LAW”prisoners , These are people sentenced before
Truth in sentencing(TIS) came to town. They were eligible to be release after
serving 25 percent of their time. The judges, knowing this, would give long
sentences knowing the then kid would only serve 1/4th of it if he
behaved well. This worked well for decades but it the early 2000, when the
federal government paid states big big bucks to keep prisoners in, The old law
prisoners stopped getting paroled- the rate dropped to a trickle . It is quite
a story of subterfuge and shenanigans. Follow it here: https://ffupstuff.files.wordpress.com/2018/09/prison-boom-in-the-making.pdf
2)Another thing to keep in mind is that our parole rules ensure that only those who have shown to be ready for release into the community are paroled.
here is a link to our proposed rules again:
In sum: We are spending our tax dollars incarcerating people that do not need to be there and the excuses for keeping them are
usually, as stated above:
1)release at this time would involve an
unreasonable risk to the public;
2) you have not served sufficient time for
punishment."
The intention of the parole statute these
prisoners were sentenced under was that 25% was the time for punishment.
Our rule proposals use that marker and
after that release or not depends on behavior.
Our society has not come to grips with the human rights violations and sheer inhumanity of holding the elderly in prisons, which are built for able bodied people. We are incarcerating people longer than ever before in history. Here are two excellent studies that seek to bring us to awareness.
3)But the disaster only begins here: We are spending our tax dollars incarcerating people that do not need to be there while we neglect the treatment and training of those that really need help- the truth in sentencing prisoners.
It is a heart rending contradiction:Truth
in sentencing (T-I-S) prisoner are given an out date the DOC must follow. These are mostly kids . While the DOC is spending
all its resources on keeping the Old law prisoners
entombed and the overcrowding has reach crisis proportions, there is no training or treatment for the vast amount of truth in sentencing prisoners. They come in
drug addicted and go out drug addicted and traumatized. Our society
does not provide treatment for its mentally
ill anymore unless they have big bucks so they are funneled into the prison system also. Over a third of
prisoners are mentally ill we are told. And they are literally dumped on the streets
with little or no support on their
law
mandated release, most to be whisked back in for a rule revocation.
Putting OLD LAW and TIS together = The DOC
maintains their overcrowded prisons, and staff quitting in droves
because forced overtime and rising tensions – it maintains the dysfunction with relative ease because
of the policy of reincarcerating prisoners for non felonies. Some parole
agents, we are told , brag of their zero success rate. What most released
prisoners get: a three month temporary room, no money , no bus
pass, no phone, they get food stamps from the government and a state ID and they get a strict curfew. Those prisoners
who do have people who want to take them in are often denied for various
reason- most end up in these TLPs and from there they are supposed to get a job
pronto. Transportation to jobs? Phone? The activist community is
working hard to connect these stranded folk with outfits that help but the need
is great and the help is fledgling.
Look at this chart below, finally. Look
at the second to last line: 3652 people admitted without new charges- rule
violations as small as going out to get a package on the lawn after curfew or
being late to an appointment. One man
was revoked for screaming “I am going to kill myself” after he was not given
his medications . That screaming was labeled an “assault”. Because these people
are poor and without lawyers.they are putty to the justice system.
2013-2014 had 7,071 new entries- OVER HALF, 3,652 were revocations without felonies. ( above)
Therefore, ALSO essentials to our plan
3) End reincarceration for non felonies-
around half of new admissions each year are for rule violations-no new charges.
We agree with prisoners that the system sets the prisoners up to fail- they
provide no treatment and little training while in prison and then grab them
back for the rule violation.. ( give quote, example)ensuring taxpayers funds
keep rolling in seamlessly. Here are WISDOM's recommendations On the subject:
At present , we need a study committee
for make a new statute proposal that not only ends revocations without felonies but set up viable alternatives-some grants are proposed next.
4)Build a mental health treatment Center
like the one court ordered at Taychedah
Correctional Institution ,the women’s prison in Fond du Lac and reinstate rules that bring rehabilitation
back to our “Correction” system. Wisconsin knows the way to reinstate real
treatment. Here are templates:
b)Here are rules put
in place by Rick Raemisch, former DOC secretary, after he moved to CO. – rules
for a safe, fair , rehabilitative system.
Other supports for prisoners and their families the increase chance for
successful reintegration into society
Support for prisoners soon to be
released and released, projects that connect prisoners and community better/
Funding for busing
coordinator and a fund to help pay for families who cannot afford fare. We have
been told by 2 van owners that fares will be reduced if vans are filled and that
will be coordinators main job.
2)Ask for funding for Project patterned
after POPS program CA- one
paid coordinator, rest volunteers, and funding for materials/Volunteers line up
supports for prisoners, help them in transition, find mentors while in prison-
probably good to have someone funded who works at Project Return or with EXPO-
should be an ex-prisoner. ALL old law prisoners would be eligible for program,
and TIS as they come up for release. A few years ago I talked to LAIP people about it, they said it would require only a coordinator and supplies to be paid.
3)Funding
for grant writer research for many projects proposed by prisoners and their
families/ others
A particularly popular one is a
place of refuge for prisoners after release- to learn the ropes again for some,
for others to forge a new life- self sustaining community with training and
small business going in all traditional crafts.
Here is an excellent proposal
from two prisoners
Summation:
Our disfunctional correction system poses a real danger to society. Physical and mental abuse is
rampant and although many prisoners do rehabilitate themselves , they do this in spite of the system,
not with it's aid. like these men, Nelson Mandela came out of 27 years of abusive conditions as a loving man and
share with the world the poem that kept his soul alive:"invictus":
This is a Poem 'Invictus' (Unconquered, Undefeated) by William Henley. Great
South African
Leader Nelson Mandela (Madiba) was inspired by the poem,
and had it written on a scrap
of paper on his prison cell while he was
incarcerated for 27 years on Robben Island.
I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the
scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
The DOC knows the public
would not stand for a any disruptions by newly released prisoners
so they whip them back as soon as they
can for as little as they can. It’s a neat little system and now
with
overcrowding the DOC, Alex Corporation and whole prison
industrial complex monster are
poised to convince us that we need a new
prison,the situation is dire- the conditions
are so bad
that there will be violence.
But crack downs and more torture will not help and neither are new buildings without fundamental change-
the WIDOC needs to
be redirected. strongly redirected- it used to heal – Old
law prisoners got
college degrees and got out after 25% of their sentences. Rehabilitation
was taken seriously and it
was a good place to work . There were resources for
treating the mentally ill and sick and the
public was welcome, families were welcome. I am told that there used to be monthly
pot lucks with families in
the maximum prisons! And there were free buses to the prison!
The lack of
ability of poor families to get to their love ones has devastated families
and
communities and all support from the outside has become ever harder because of rules that
discouraging contact.
Lets us think broader and deeper-
punishment only does not work—it needs to be balanced
with treatment, training and
understanding. We, the public, are the employers of the DOC. It is
our
mission they need to implement and we say punishment needs to be
balanced with
rehabilitation and real public safety. .
Read and SIGN PETITION – this will go to
legislators, the DOC and the public.( to be composed)
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