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 Fix California’s Budget
by Dick Price‚ Mar. 16‚ 2010

 http://www.beyondchron.org/articles/First_Solve_Prison_Crisis_then_Fix_California_s_Budget_7915.html

The post Prison Lobbyists vs Prison Reform appeared first on Prison News Blog.

As the federal prison system operates today, prisoners do not have a mechanism through which they can work toward earning freedom. That is a tragedy. It is a flawed policy that contributes to high recidivism rates, higher prison budgets, and a growing us-versus-them subculture that threatens the fabric of society.

We need prison reforms that would encourage offenders to work toward meaningful incentives. Prison administrators do not serve the interests of society when they govern with policies that extinguish hope. Administrators rely upon a rigid disciplinary code to punish bad behavior; we need prison reforms that will introduce an equally objective incentive system to reward positive adjustments.

Incentives do not have to increase prison budgets. Prisons are total institutions, where administrators control the infrastructure by which all prisoners live. In setting prison policies, administrators dictate how much access prisoners have to telephone, visits, education, food, clothing, recreation, and housing. Through the use of incentives, they can encourage prisoners to strive toward graduated increases in freedom. They may earn more telephone access, more family time, more control over housing assignments through positive adjustments. A proper incentive system would encourage prisoners to work toward earning freedom through desirable adjustments.

In designing a meaningful incentive system, administrators could induce more offenders to prepare for law-abiding lives upon release. That would lower recidivism rates and make society safer. It is the reason I call for meaningful prison reform through which offenders can earn freedom.

The post Prison Administrators Can Lower Recidivism Rates by Offering Incentives appeared first on Prison News Blog.

I have written extensively about my experiences of living in prison for more than 21 years. I have also written about others. The energy I invested was part of my effort to help more people understand American prisons, the people they held, and strategies for growing through confinement.

Publishers have brought three of my books to market. Many university professors use those books as a resource to educate students of criminal justice, corrections, sociology, and other subjects. Recently, my wife Carole helped me open interactive opportunities through which I participate more directly with university students.

The program began with Dr. Sam Torres, professor of criminal justice at California State University Long Beach. His students read through articles available on PrisonNewsBlog.com as well as my books. They then post questions or reactions to my work in the comment section that follows each article. Since I don’t have direct access to the internet, or even typewriters, Carole sends me student questions through the mail. I write my responses out in longhand, and return them to Carole. She then transcribes those comments and publishes them on the blog.

I value such opportunities to interact with society. I am hopeful that other universities will extend opportunities for me to contribute. They add meaning to my life. I feel confident these interactions are advancing the preparations I make to emerge as a law-abiding citizen after my quarter-century in confinement.

The post Prisoner Contributions to Universities appeared first on Prison News Blog.

As a long-term prisoner, I am particularly interested in reforms that President Obama and a more liberal Congress will bring to our nation’s system of justice. Recently I finished reading Change We Can Believe In: Barack Obama’s Plan to Renew America’s Promise , a paperback articulating the platform positions of Obama’s campaign for the Presidency. The book mentioned on several occasions that as President, Barack Obama would ensure fairness in our nation’s criminal justice system.

I have followed the past six Presidential campaigns during my long and continuing odyssey through America’s federal prison system. President-elect Obama was the first candidate I ever heard who spoke about the need to reform sentencing disparities, about launching prison-to-work incentive programs, about reforming our nation’s correctional systems to break down barriers for ex-offenders who strive to reconcile with society.

Soon after President-elect Obama collected more votes for President than any American in history, and won an electoral landslide, I read an announcement that he had selected Eric Holder as our nation’s next Attorney General. The Attorney General has been the cabinet position that interested me most. From what I’ve read about Eric Holder, he seems an ideal candidate to usher in the reforms we need and that President-elect Obama has said our country needs.

As our nation’s first African-American Attorney General, Eric Holder brings a fresh viewpoint to the injustices that run so rampant through the criminal justice system. Mr. Holder has expressed concern in the disproportionately high number of people from minority groups who fill our nation’s jails and prisons. In a profile on Eric Holder that The New York Times published on 1 December, I read that the redemption of Malcolm X during his prison term inspired our country’s future Attorney General. That news encouraged me.

In 1987, when I began serving this lengthy sentence, I read The Autobiography of Malcolm X. I was 23-years-old then and I was struggling to come to terms with the possibility of multiple decades in prison. My background, obviously, differed from that of Malcolm X. He was a black man with a criminal history that included violence and predatory crimes. I was an American of Hispanic heritage who had been convicted of serious drug trafficking crimes. Like Malcolm, however, I intended to educate myself during the many years I expected to serve in prison.

Although I did not become an iconic leader of a religious movement like Malcolm X, I already have served more than three times as long as he served in prison. During this journey that has kept me locked inside federal prisons of every security level for longer than 21 years, I feel blessed to have had opportunities to earn an undergraduate degree from Mercer University and a graduate degree from Hofstra University. My observations and experiences have enabled me to write about the struggles of other prisoners. Through my work, I strive to help others understand America’s prisons and the people they hold.

The redemption of Malcolm X would not have made a sliver of difference in today’s Bureau of Prisons. I know this from personal experience as well as from what I have learned through my interviews of other prisoners that number in the many hundreds. Individual efforts to reconcile with society are meaningless in today’s prison system. As one high-level administrator once admonished me, “We don’t care anything about the life you lead once you leave prison. All we care about is the security of the institution.”

Until the historic election of 2008, neither political leadership nor public administrators have paid much attention to the injustices of our nation’s prison system. Yet I am optimistic that at this defining moment in history, Americans will stand up and embrace the leadership and vision of our new President. As President-elect Obama has called out, we are one nation. We are one people. And our time for change has come.

The post Redemption in Prison has Meaning Under Obama Administration appeared first on Prison News Blog.

Despite what was then my naivete regarding the criminal justice system, a judge imposed a sentence of 45 years. The government acknowledged that, as only consenting adults were involved, my crime did not have a single victim. Yet a severe sentence was necessary to promote respect for our nation’s drug laws. Recent events suggest an irony at such hypocritical assertions.

Over the past few months, for example, we have seen that a federal jury convicted Senator Ted Stevens of unfairly enriching himself by exploiting his power as a federal lawmaker. Clearly, the Senator has more than a high school education. American voters entrusted him with the power to look after their interests, yet the Senator made every American taxpayer a victim when he abused that power and tarnished the reputation of our government. Despite his criminal convictions, Ted Stevens remains home to enjoy the holidays with his family.

Earlier this week, a second example, a federal prosecutor made international headlines when he ordered the arrest of Governor Rod Blagojevich from the State of Illinois. As most every American now knows, the government has tape recordings of the Governor’s profane and patently offensive efforts to sell a seat in the United States Senate to the highest bidder.

Governor Blagojevich has a law degree and extensive experience as the Chief Executive of a state, as well as a former legislator. Every citizen in America is a victim of the crime for which the Governor was charged. Yet as a 23-year-old uneducated offender, who sold cocaine to consenting adults, I was held to a higher standard than the people who make laws. Ironically, the Governor continues to retain his power as the head of Illinois.

Last night, I saw yet another example that shows the corruption of power in our country. Bernard Madoff, a former Chairman of the NASDAQ’s Board of Directors was charged with running a Ponzi scheme that swallowed a staggering $50 billion. Government agencies had received repeated warnings that suggested Madoff’s fraud, yet his powerful position persuaded those agencies to ignore his theft. As a consequence of Madoff’s financial crime spree that lasted for years and made real victims of hundreds of unsuspecting trusting investors, that powerful criminal remains free on bond, enjoying the spoils of his riches, while he employs legal machinations to delay his confinement.

I am about to pass through my 22nd consecutive Christmas holiday in prison because of the bad decisions I made during the recklessness of youth. I was locked in prison when my father passed away, and I am denied sufficient telephone privileges to speak with my aging mother, and my sisters. My wife struggles through life without my presence. Whereas I started serving my time in my early 20s, release is not scheduled until I am nearly age 50.

The rich and powerful, the leaders in society who should have known better, face sanctions that are an insult to justice and are offensive to the millions of ordinary citizens who struggle through harsh, unforgiving laws. We need prison reform that will bring fairness to all, including those without connections and power.

The post Ordinary Americans Face Harsh Justice, While Powerful Enjoy Christmas at Home appeared first on Prison News Blog.

When my judge imposed a 45-year prison term I was 23. At the time, I could not wrap my mind around the severity of the sentence. I had never been confined before, and contemplating the reality that I would serve several decades was surreal. Other prisoners with whom I shared space were serving sentences that were only a fraction of the length of mine. Some of those men had long histories of incarceration, violence, and were unrepentant. I was confined with one school teacher who was sentenced to five years for molesting several young boys. In comparison to those terms, I then felt as if my sentence was absurd, as if there was no way justice would permit my imprisonment for multiple decades. By then I did not have much hope of relief through the judicial system, so I chose to focus on the first ten years. During that first decade, I felt as if the best use of my time would be in educating myself and striving to create opportunities that would prepare me for release.

I studied through courses that would lead to university degrees. As I read more about social philosophy, I discovered the writings of Socrates, Rousseau, and others who helped me understand more about the social platforms on which societies are built. Rather than lamenting on the lengthy sentence I received, I decided to accept that I would serve a long time in prison. Once I accepted that I likely would serve more than 20 years of my life in prison, I could more easily contemplate ways that I could use my situation to make contributions to society. That shift in focus eliminated thoughts about whether justice was achieved in my case, and enabled me to find meaning through thoughts and actions. The shift empowered me.

Justice, I came to realize, represented the will of our citizens through the laws and procedures that elected representatives passed. Lawmakers decided that lengthy sentences were appropriate for nonviolent drug offenders, and the citizens apparently supported those views. My decisions exposed me to the sanctions. Likewise, the decisions I made while serving time would determine my usefulness as a citizen. I chose to prepare myself to live as a model that my bolster my power to persuade taxpaying citizens that the criminal justice system is in need of reform. If I succeed in these efforts, then I will have made a meaningful contribution to society. I will have helped our criminal justice system evolve into a more enlightened model that is more in line with my interpretation of justice.

I will continue working to reform our system, as these efforts offer an opportunity for me to make a meaningful contribution.

The post Was My 45-Year Prison Sentence Just? appeared first on Prison News Blog.

I did not enjoy reading this biography. In fact, I disliked it intensely. Freeh spent too much time describing his version of the reasons that Clinton snubbed him. The author’s political biases soured me to the rest of his message. Because I did not like it, I would not recommend it to anyone.

The post My FBI: Bringing Down the Mafia, Investigating Bill Clinton, and Fighting the War on Terror appeared first on Prison News Blog.

The warden of Taft Camp made this vision possible by authorizing me to speak with Dr. Sam Torres and a group of his students from California State University in Long Beach. Although Dr. Torres and I have been building a friendship through four years of correspondence, yesterday was our first opportunity to meet. He has tried to visit me in previous facilities, but institutional rules prohibited our visit because Dr. Torres and I do not have a friendship that precedes my imprisonment. The warden at Taft, however, used his discretion to allow Dr. Torres and his students to tour Taft’s prison, and authorized 45 minutes for me to speak with the group.

The university students are pursuing degrees in criminal justice and many are considering careers in law enforcement. Since Dr. Torres assigns my book Inside as part of their learning curriculum, the students were somewhat familiar with my life and my work. I enjoyed the privilege of contributing to their education and of helping them understand confinement from a long-term prisoner’s perspective. Those students will eventually assume leadership roles in our criminal justice system, so I was especially grateful to listen and interact with them. Meeting Dr. Torres, too, was certainly an early holiday gift.

For the 45 minutes that I was speaking with the group, I felt totally free, as if I were a citizen speaking on a university campus. The students asked intelligent questions about the challenges I’ve had in working through this quarter century of imprisonment. My hopes are that I can build a career upon my release by speaking with such groups about the struggles of imprisonment, overcoming adversity, and steps we all can take to improve our nation’s correctional system. The meeting I had yesterday brought insight into how I can prepare further for such a career.

The post College Professor and Students Visit Me at Taft Camp appeared first on Prison News Blog.

This report is a wonderful testimony for change and much-needed reform and relief in America’s prison system.

Overview:

Report Says U.S. Prison System In Need of Major Change

Criminology experts and practitioners gathered today at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. to announce the release of Unlocking America: Why and How to Reduce America’s Prison Population, a report calling for wholesale criminal justice reform.

“Our resources are misspent, our punishments too severe, our sentences too long,” said James Austin, president of the JFA Institute and report co-author. He added that the United States is “clearly overusing” the prison system and many of those incarcerated would better benefit from alternative forms of punishment. The rate of imprisonment is “clearly is not proportional to the nature of the crime.”

Issue Area(s): Sentencing Policy, Incarceration, Racial Disparity, Felony Disenfranchisement, Drug Policy, Women in the Justice System, Collateral Consequences

The report released by the JFA Institute, is authored by nine experts in the criminal justice field including two who were formerly incarcerated including John Irwin, professor emeritus, San Francisco State University. The report finds that the nation’s prison sentences are too long, prison conditions are unacceptable and the nation is losing money by continuing to overuse prisons.

Senator Jim Webb (D-VA), whose comments were taped and presented during the press conference, said that “prison growth has less to do with crime than it does with how we respond to crime.” He committed himself to working on a solution and thanked The Sentencing Project and its executive director, Marc Mauer, for working to educate policymakers and the public on criminal justice issues.

Four recommendations are offered in the report:

• · reduce time served in prison;
• · eliminate the use of prison for parole or probation technical violators;
• · reduce the length of parole and probation supervision periods;
• · decriminalize ‘victimless’ crimes, particular those related to drug use and abuse.

“The report is very timely and warrants the reading of every American and politician,” said Devon Brown, director of the Washington, D.C. Department of Corrections. “We must have a multifaceted approach toward the reduction of the prison population.”

“The current way we’re approaching this issue is not working,” said Christy A. Visher, principal research associate at the Justice Policy Center at the Urban Institute. “We need to be doing something different.” She added that combating recidivism is the best way to address the problem around incarceration. (From www.sentencingproject.org)

The post Unlocking America: Why and How to Reduce America’s Prison Population appeared first on Prison News Blog.