November in the News
The Power of Drug Courts; 11/30/2007
TEXAS OBSERVER: For nearly 20 years, Joel Bennett shuttled drug addicts through courtrooms. He dutifully sent them off to prison, first as a prosecutor and later as a state district judge in Austin, though he knew he was accomplishing little. Incarceration wouldn’t puncture their addiction. They would use again. Predictably, case files bearing familiar names would pile again on his desk. A sense of futility hung over the exercise. “What I saw was the same people returning to the system over and over again. And their children coming into the system,” Bennett says.
Break the Chain; 11/16/2007
TEXAS OBSERVER: If all the people in the Texas criminal justice system lived in a single community, it would be the fourth largest city in Texas. It doesn’t have to be this way. Increasing parole rates for nonviolent, first-time offenders by only 4 percent would eliminate the need for any new prison beds in the short term, according to the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition. The group’s Web site (www.criminaljusticecoalition.org) has a number of commonsense solutions to prison overcrowding, including increased drug treatment and probation reform. For what we spend on each addict in a Texas prison, five could be given drug treatment at nearly the same cost.
Letters from Prison; 11/16/2007
TEXAS OBSERVER: Tucked among the various constitutional amendments approved by Texas voters on November 6 was a shiny campaign vehicle for tough-on-crime officials to ride into the next election cycle— $233 million for the state to build three new prisons. So brazen was the political impetus for the new lockups that lawmakers didn’t set aside a penny to operate the facilities when they put the construction funding on the ballot.
Give Me Shelter; 11/16/2007
TEXAS OBSERVER: Death by lethal injection is but a circle come full. Lady Justice is not blind. She has 20/20 vision. Her actions shriek, “How you live is how you die,” assuring us that all ends are born of their means. Convicts know this all too well. They sense that the public doesn’t want to hear it. And why should they? The convicts didn’t when they were out in the free world running hard and fast. They thought, “Oh, I could never end up like that.” And dismissed the notion of consequences. But these convicts were once citizens, and that makes citizens uncomfortable.
Life and Death in a Cold, Lonely Cell; 11/16/2007
TEXAS OBSERVER: I sit in a prison cell. It’s only 5 feet wide. I can stretch out my arms and place both palms flat against the walls. There is a 6-foot metal bunk with a thin, hard, plastic-covered mat on one wall. I cover it with the old, often torn-up and stained sheets that are communally used and exchanged every Tuesday morning at 4 a.m. if you are awake. They will pass you by if not, and they hope that is the case.