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Prison Lobbyists vs Prison Reform
Read Michael’s recent posts on Change.org:
Most Popular Posts by Michael Santos
What Happened to Prison Reform?
Do Longer Prison Sentences Make the Public Safer?
The View from Inside: Prison Time Doesn’t Equal Justice
Take Action on Long-Term Imprisonment
Bring Back Federal Parole
And here’s a related article addressing the issue of prison lobbyists vs. prison reform:
First Solve Prison Crisis, then [...]
Michael Hamden is Mad As Hell About the Failed U.S. Prison System
The following article is featured on Change.org
http://criminaljustice.change.org/blog/view/mad_as_hell_about_the_failed_us_prison_system
Mad As Hell About the Failed U.S. Prison System
by Michael Hamden
category: Prison Reform
Published March 10, 2010 @ 05:34AM PT
Yeah, I’m angry. I’m all riled up because our misguided criminal justice policies destroy individuals, families and entire communities. I’m steamed because at a time of financial crisis worse [...]
Intelligence Trumps Force, Professor David Kennedy Suggests
David Kennedy, a professor at New York’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice, uses common sense to reduce crime and keep communities safer. In the February 9, 2009 issue of Newsweek, Suzanne Smalley reported on Kennedy’s techniques and the significant drop in crime (in 2008, one Nashville community saw a 91% decrease in drug crimes and [...]
Prison Administrators Should Not Discourage Successful Adjustments
Many years have passed since I read A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. When I read the story, I was locked inside the impenetrable walls of the United States Penitentiary in Atlanta. I was in my early 20s then, and staring down the long end of a 45-year prison sentence. A character from [...]
Prisoners Must Learn to Thrive Despite Administrative Obstacles
My lovely wife, Carole, sent me a copy of a legal decision recently published by the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. The case of Bonner v. Outlaw illustrates the position I have known many prison wardens to take. Although the inmate prevailed in this case, the warden’s attempted defense evidenced a dereliction of his duty [...]
Reform the Pardon Process
President Obama ought to order the Department of Justice to reform the pardon process. Access to a Presidential pardon could be an effective tool in motivating prisoners to commit to prison adjustments that would help them emerge as successful, law-abiding citizens. For pardons to serve as a force for good, however, the President must order [...]
Squandering Billions on Corrections
America squanders $59 billion each year on a system that ridiculously calls itself corrections. According to the famous social scientist James Q. Wilson, society should limit the purpose of this system to isolating and punishing offenders. I wonder when American citizens will tire of this failed public policy.
Too many American citizens live with delusions that [...]
Bad Leadership in the Bureau of Prisons
We have bad leadership in the Bureau of Prisons!
The Second Chance Act of 2007 provided federal prison administrators with the authority to release prisoners to halfway houses one year before their sentences expired. That Act also urged administrators to expand programs that would help prisoners build stronger family and community ties while the prisoners served [...]
Furloughs Reduce Recidivism
All prisoners hope for furloughs, but not all prisoners qualify. I have never known a prisoner to deny a furlough. Though many prisoners recognize that they do not meet the criteria for furlough consideration and so do not apply. In federal prison, a prisoner must advance to within two years of his release date to [...]
Prison Administrators Resist Change
Through the Second Chance Act, Congress found that those who spent lengthy terms in prison lost touch with society. When prisoners released, they lacked sufficient support to establish themselves. Such weakness led many prisoners to recidivate, lifting the costs for society. In passing the Second Chance Act, Congress hoped to help lower recidivism rates. Prison [...]
Incentives Would Improve Prison Culture
The U.S. Congress published findings that show how much prisons cost taxpayers to operate. They swallow more than $59 billion each year. According to the Pew Report, those funds are diverted from social programs like education, health care, and unemployment assistance. What taxpayers may find especially troubling is that despite the massive expenditures, recidivism rates [...]
Utilize the Family Structure to Prepare Offenders for Re-entry
More than two years have passed since I’ve heard my mother’s voice. I have not spoken with my younger sister, Christina, in the same length of time. During those two years I’ve seen my older sister, Julie, three times. I hardly know my nieces and nephew, as prison rules prohibit me from playing a significant [...]
The Pervasiveness of Prison Apathy
An old maxim holds that power corrupts, and that absolute power corrupts absolutely. The prison culture is one that imbues staff members with an inordinate amount of power, while simultaneously stripping prisoners of a sense of efficacy. Consequences follow from such a culture.
In the 1960s, Professor Milgram conducted an experiment at Yale University that measured [...]
Rigid Rules Influence Prisoners
One of the reasons prisons rock with violence, gang pressures, and corruption is because the rigid controls extinguish hope. Prisoners live inside the boundaries with a continuous pressure. Granted, most of the prisoners brought that discomfort upon themselves through their criminal convictions. While locked inside the prison boundaries, however, the prisoners adjust to the culture [...]
Reform Prison Guards
In the 1970s, Professor Phillip Zimbardo conducted the famous Stanford Prison Guard experiment. Many academics have cited his findings. Matt Kelley quoted some of Professor Zimbardo’s findings in an article he recently wrote for change.org. The academic experiment at Stanford, together with my own experiences as a long-term prisoner, convince me that when guards enforce [...]
