Guest commentary: A second chance for inmates

3-13-2012 Missouri:

The many problems in the criminal justice system are evident. Despite plunging crime rates, imprisonment rates have skyrocketed. Between 1990 and 2005 Missouri's prison population doubled. The more than 30,700 prisoners now cost the state over $615 million every year.

We have too many people in prison for too many years, with too little hope. For parolees, there are too few jobs on the outside, and release is to the same sad streets full of poverty, racism and drugs.

In a recent public forum, Department of Corrections Director George Lombardi said that he has seen Missouri prisons become a de facto mental health system. Thousands of mentally ill people who had no help or treatment on the outside make prisons often seem like madhouses.

There's a big attitude problem in society. Besides the "us vs. them" of the haves vs. the have-nots, there's the attitude of those on the outside vs. those inside. Crime itself is viewed with skewed lenses. By far, the most expensive crimes are committed by white-collar criminals, especially the high rollers. Yet these high-class criminals rarely go to prison. If they do, it's for shorter periods and in less restrictive venues.

For the underclass, powerlessness often leads to crime. Being born into poverty, with poor education, with no expectation of living the "American dream," witnessing violence from a young age, too many precious young lives are lost. Children who grow up victims of drugs, gangs and violence too often spend their lives in cages isolated from society. The loss is tragic for these young people and their families. The loss to society is devastating. Instead of bright creative minds contributing to the progress of our communities and our world, we pay big bucks to build more cages and pay more people to guard those inside.

Extremely long sentences are unproductive. Those that require 85 percent of the time be served before eligibility for parole provide no incentive for prisoners to strive for improvement until they get close to that 85 percent mark. Many other prisoners are being treated as if they were "85 percenters." Once the 85 percent legislation was passed in 2004, judges began issuing shorter sentences, knowing that virtually all of the time would be served. But many who were already imprisoned with longer sentences now are being held to the same standards by the parole board.

..For the remainder of this article: by Edna "Hedy" Harden is chair of Missouri Citizens United for Rehabilitation of Errants, a prison reform organization that advocates for prisoners and those who support them.