By Mansfield Frazier
Cuyahoga County Sheriff Bob Reid runs a decent jail, and is to be applauded for wanting to keep it that way. With a competent, professional staff at the helm of the facility there hasn’t been a hint of controversy or wrongdoing at the lockup in recent years. But Reid knows that persistent overcrowding will eventually cause him serious problems: you can only pack people in but so tightly (and for so long) without risking ugly incidents. And currently the facility is far above its rated capacity.
In an attempt to relieve the overcrowding, Sheriff Reid sent a memo to Common Pleas Judges awhile back, taking them to task for creating and perpetuating a problem that falls on his shoulders. In so many words he said that if some of the jurists worked harder and got accused malefactors through the system faster, overcrowding could be reduced and taxpayers could save money. Currently over 100 prisoners are “farmed out” to other N.E. Ohio lockups at a rate of $65 per day.
It’s hard to argue with Reid’s logic that fewer prisoners in the county jail would result in lower costs, and it’s a well-known fact some jurists have — shall we say — a laid back approach in terms of their work ethic. A few of them view winning a judgeship as virtually securing a lifetime sinecure.
But the jurists, on the other hand, point the finger of blame in other directions. Judge Stuart Friedman, known as one of the hardest working judges on the bench, cited sentencing guidelines as the culprit when he responded to Reid, and he’s closer to the truth in regards to why jails are over-crowded.
State legislators, egged on by lobbyists representing those who profit from the prison-industrial complex, and possessing a “lock ‘um up and throw away the key” mentality that helps to get them reelected, have — over the last half century — churned out law after onerous law, with the consequence of turning America into the most punitive nation in the history of mankind.
Both sides in this debate are operating wearing the same blinders many others in the criminal justice system wear: They only see (or appear to be interested in) the part of the problem that directly impacts their particular department, their operation. No one seems to be concerned with the overall consequences of mass arrests and incarceration (which is the root cause of the overcrowding). They don’t see it as “their” problem. In Reid’s case, he just wants to house those awaiting adjudication of criminal charges in a safe and secure environment… what could possibly be wrong with that?
The problem is we simply lock up too many people in America and for far too long. As a nation we have the highest per capita incarceration rate in the world, and a vast prison-industrial complex has been erected and foisted on an unsuspecting (and largely unthinking and uncaring) public based on specious logic and junk statistics — all in the name of the great god “Profit.”
Now, any society that does not lock up those who pose a real danger to the citizenry is foolish in the extreme and is doomed. But, on the other hand, any society that continues to lock up people that pose no real danger… those whom we’re simply mad at … is equally doomed. California has built seven new prisons in the last decade… but not one new university. There’s no surer way to end up in the dustbin of history than to continue such insanely Draconian criminal justice policies.
Three strikes. Mandatory minimums. Truth in sentencing. In America, and only in America, a dude that happens to be half-in-the-bag can stagger out of a bar at midnight, stumble into an alley, pull out his Johnson and relieve himself against a wall… and if an officer of the law catches him, in some states he could be branded as a sex offender for the remainder of his life.
The arresting cop: he just wants a few hours of overtime to appear in court to testify against the pervert he arrested. The prosecutor: he simply wants another notch on his prosecutorial belt since more notches (fair or foul ones) win promotions. The judge: he only wants to be able to posture as being tough on crime (no matter the fairness of the sentence) so that he can get re-elected.
After all, a Girl Scout troop could be taking a field trip through that alley about midnight, right? We must remain forever vigilant and protective.
While the above scenario sounds downright laughable, especially to those who’ve never been subjected to — or had a loved one subjected to — this brand of criminal justice madness, this indeed is where we find ourselves — in a country we love to tout as “the home of the free and the land of the brave.”
The solution to jail overcrowding is not to simply send people to prison faster, as Sheriff Reid would have judges do; the solution lies in a moral realignment of our country’s criminal justice system that reserves incarceration for the truly dangerous, not for potheads and turnstile jumpers.
The problem is, the pendulum has swung too far to the right in America and the guardians of liberty have fell silent over the last half century, perhaps afraid that if they speak out too loudly they’ll be next to feel the heavy hand of government.
Far right militia groups — that I usually have zero in common with — have come up with an apt term for the citizenry in our Zeitgeist: “Sheeple”… a combination of the words “sheep” and “people.” Indeed. There’s an extant belief that in France the government is afraid of the people, but in America the people are afraid of the government. And that’s why our jails are so overcrowded.
From Cool Cleveland correspondent Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com. Frazier’s From Behind The Wall: Commentary on Crime, Punishment, Race and the Underclass by a Prison Inmate is available again in hardback. Snag your copy and have it signed by the author by visiting http://www.neighborhoodsolutionsinc.com.