by Peter Moskos
34 “by small measure, by the gaoler.”: Teeters, The Cradle of the Penitentiary, 132.
34 long Washington’s political adversary: In 1787 Procter hosted a going-away dinner for George Washington. The bill lists massive amounts of alcohol, more than two bottles of wine per person in addition to substantial quantities of “old stock,” beer, hard cider, and alcoholic punch. Each servant and musician received a bottle of wine in addition to pay.
34–35 15 of whom succeeded: James Mease, Picture of Philadelphia (Philadelphia: B. & T. Kite, 1811), 164.
35 for only a third of those admitted: Rex A. Skidmore, “Penological Pioneering in the Walnut Street Jail, 1789–1799,” Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology 39, no. 2 (July/ August 1948), 167–80.
35 that from a sympathetic account: Mease, Picture of Philadelphia , 166.
35 resolved issues of racially based gangs: Johnson v. California, 543 U.S. 499 (2005); Don Thompson, “California Struggles To Desegregate Inmates,” San Francisco Chronicle, August 13, 2009.
36 the very nature of the being is changed: Mease, Picture of Philadelphia, 168. That one of the first prison wardens, Mary Weed, was a woman, is noteworthy. She took over after her husband died of yellow fever in 1793, held the paid position of “principle keeper” for three years, and left on good terms in 1796.
37 “one to take care of the other.”: Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace, Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898 (New York: Oxford, 1998), 366.
37 Newgate Prison in Greenwich Village: Ibid. Early prisons were often named Newgate after the notorious centuries-old jail in London. This scare tactic, prison commissioners hoped, would serve to deter crime a bit more.
37 “and a popular form of government.”: Ibid.
37 was also clearly punishment: Ibid., 367.
38 believe reformers’ curative promises: Mark Colvin, Penitentiaries, Reformatories, and Chain Gangs: Social Theory and the History of Punishment in Nineteenth-Century America (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1997), 56.
38 “the bitter pangs of remorse.”: Burrows and Wallace, Gotham, 366–67.
38 “the arts and practices of criminality.”: Ibid., 505–506.
38 incarceration was driving people insane: Atul Gawande, “Hellhole: The United States holds tens of thousands of inmates in long-term solitary confinement. Is this torture?” New Yorker, March 30, 2009, www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/03/30/090330fa_fact_gawande.
38 to prevent prisoners from escaping: Burrows and Wallace, Gotham, 367.
39 upriver Sing Sing in 1826: Ibid., 367. Almost two hundred years later, both Auburn and Sing Sing are still in operation.
40 “fixed provision made for this purpose.”: Bentham, Panopticon, 10–11.
41 found here together with the prisoners: Gustave de Beaumont and Alexis de Tocqueville, On the Penitentiary System in the United States and Its Application in France, translated by Francis Lieber (Philadelphia: Carey, Lea & Blanchard, 1833), 13.
41 “that Auburn is “next preferable.”: Ibid., 60, 46, xi.
42 “wise advice and pious exhortation.”: Ibid., 5, 51.
42 “moral power” of silence and labor: Ibid., ix.
43 “agony . . . upon his fellow-creature.”: Charles Dickens, “Chapter VII: Philadelphia, and Its Solitary Prison,” in American Notes for General Circulation and Pictures from Italy (London: Chapman and Hall, 1874), 114–15.
44 ordered Medley, a convicted killer, freed: Medley, 134 U.S. 160 (1890). Unfortunately, there is no account of how Medley fared with his second chance in life. In its decision the court was well aware that many prisoners in solitary committed suicide, and “a considerable number of the prisoners fell, after even a short confinement, into a semi-fatuous condition, from which it was next to impossible to arouse them, and others became violently insane.” Those who survived were generally not reformed and, in most cases, “did not recover sufficient mental activity to be of any subsequent service to the community.”
46 imprisonment as a means of promoting rehabilitation: Mistretta v. United States, 488 U.S. 361 (1989).
47 “an informant on other prisoners.”: Alexander Cockburn, “Going Insane in the SHU Box,” Los Angeles Times, July 15, 2001.
48 novel idea to deliberately fill the state’s jails: Robert Martinson, “Prison Notes of a Freedom Rider,” The Nation, January 6, 1962. Martinson’s group of Freedom Riders was arrested for integrating the “white” waiting room of the Jackson, Mississippi, train station. The governor decided to move the Freedom Riders from local jail to the Parchmann State Penitentiary. As a result, Martinson spent time in maximum security solitary confinement. Martinson, who remained unbroken by his brief time in prison, wrote, “It is impossible to prepare anyone for the humiliating, brutal atmosphere of even the best prison. There are no rules, no precedents.”
48 known in policy circles as “Nothing Works!”: Robert Martinson, “What Works? Questions and Answers About Prison Reform,” The Public Interest 35 (Spring 1974), 22–54.
49 “heart of the matter better than I did.”: Robert Martinson, “New Findings, New Views: A Note of Caution Regarding Sentencing,” Hofstra Law Review 7 (1979): 243–58.
49 by jumping out a Manhattan window: Jerome G. Miller, “Criminology: Is Rehabilitation a Waste of Time?” Washington Post, April 23, 1989, C3. Sasha Abramsky, American Furies: Crime, Punishment, and Vengeance in the Age of Mass Imprisonment (Boston: Beacon Press, 2007), 53.
50 kick the ball-encased person down a field: An elephant ball is on display at the Corrections Museum in Bangkok, Thailand.
50–51 “ever fallen to the lot of mere mortality.”: Edgar Allan Poe, The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe (New York: Random House, 1975), 258.
51 “literally buried from the world.”: Roger T. Pray, “How Did Our Prisons Get That Way?” American Heritage Magazine 38, no. 5 (1987), www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1987/5/1987_5_92.shtml.
51 for about eight years now: From the Crime Report, cited as originally appearing in “A Letter To No One” in The Beat Within, http://thecrimereport.org/2010/10/31/the-beat-within-a-letter-to-no-one.
52 assaulted by other inmates or staff in the past year: Allen J. Beck, Paige M. Harrison, Marcus Berzofsky, Rachel Caspar, and Christopher Krebs, “Sexual Victimization in Prisons and Jails Reported by Inmates, 2008–09” (Washington, DC: US Department of Justice, 2010).
53 and his life is in further danger: Edward Charles, “Prison 101: What you need to know before you go to prison,” 2010, www.wild-side.com/darksorrow/prison101.html.
55 the wrong spot and the wrong time: “The Prisoners of the War on Drugs,” HBO, 1996.
55 BAM! Prison: www.99chan.in/b, downloaded October 18, 2010.
56 guys like me is inside the penitentiary: “The Prisoners of the War on Drugs.”
57 “to get you some money down here.”: Ibid.
58 half of whom have multiple prior convictions: Thomas H. Cohen and Tracey Kyckelhahn, “Felony Defendants in Large Urban Counties, 2006,” Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics, May 2010, http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/pub/pdf/fdluc06.pdf. The nation’s seventy-five largest counties cover about 35 percent of America’s population.
58 even years before their day in court: Lise Olsen, “Thousands Languish in Crowded Jail: Inmates Can Stay Locked Up More Than a Year Waiting for Trial in Low-level Crimes,” Houston Chronicle, August 23, 2009.
59 16,500 did not post bail: Mosi Secret, “N.Y.C. Misdemeanor Defendants Lack Bail Money,” New York Times, December 2, 2010.
60 could receive even if found guilty: Olsen, “Thousands Languish in Crowded Jail.”
62 adrenaline and the thrill of the crime: Jack Katz, Seductions of Crime (New York: Basic Books, 1988).
62 similar criminals who don’t go to prison: C. Spohn and D. Holleran, “The Effect of Imprisonment on Recidivism Rates of Felony Offenders: A Focus on Drug Offenders,” Criminology 40 (2002), 329–58; Joan Petersilia and Susan Turner, “
Prison Versus Probation in California: Implications for Crime and Offender Recidivism” (Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 1986).
63 into self-sufficient criminal creators: Martin H. Pritikin, “Is Prison Increasing Crime?” Wisconsin Law Review, no. 6 (2008), 1049.
63 high school diploma do time in prison: Bruce Western, Punishment and Inequality in America (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2006).
69 as high as the white poverty rate: In 2009 the US Census defined poverty in the United States as an individual making less than $11,161, a couple $14,439, and a family of four $21,756. At $7.25 an hour, a full-time minimum wage job pays $15,080 a year.
70 arrested for marijuana possession: See the work of Harry Levine of Queens College, including Harry G. Levine, Jon B. Gettman, and Loren Siegel, Arresting Blacks for Marijuana in California Possession Arrests in 25 Cities, 2006–08, Drug Policy Alliance, 2010.
72 One in five Americans was a slave: 18 percent, according to the 1790 census.
74 because of a past felony conviction: Figures range from 827,000 to 960,000. The former is from Jeff Manza and Christopher Uggen’s Locked Out: Felon Disenfranchisement and American Democracy (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006). The latter is from “Felony Disenfranchisement Laws in the United States,” The Sentencing Project, 2010, www.sentencingproject.org/doc/publications/fd_bs_fdlawsinusMarch2010.pdf.
74 5.3 million Americans are denied the vote: “Felony Disenfranchisement Laws in the United States.”
74 “They don’t vote, so, I guess, not really.”: Sam Roberts, “Census Bureau’s Counting of Prisoners Benefits Some Rural Voting Districts,” New York Times, October 23, 2008, www.nytimes.com/2008/10/24/us/politics/24census.html?_r= 1.
74 slavery, to segregation, to incarceration: Loïc Wacquant, Punishing the Poor: The Neoliberal Government of Social Insecurity (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2009).
77 the business of incarceration: Peter Wagner, The Prison Index: Taking the Pulse of the Crime Control Industry (Northampton, MA: The Prison Policy Initiative, 2003). To give but one example, the market to control collect calls from prisoners is $1 billion per year. Collect calls from jail and prison can cost dollars per minute. Part of the phone company’s profit is then kicked back to the state or county in the form of a highest-bidder contract to provide phone service.
77 by building housing for the poor: Eric Schlosser, “The Prison-Industrial Complex,” The Atlantic, December 1998. The term itself was coined by Mike Davis in “Hell Factories in the Field: The Prison Industrial Complex,” Nation, February 20, 1995.
78 literally and figuratively left and right: Ben Carrasco and Joan Petersilia, “Assessing the CCPOA’s Political Influence and Its Impact on Efforts to Reform the California Corrections System,” California Sentencing & Corrections Policy Series, Stanford Criminal Justice Center Working Papers, www.law.stanford.edu/program/centers/scjc/workiingpapers/BCarassco-wp4_06.pdf.
78 correctional officer is a difficult job: Ted Conover, Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing (New York: Riverhead, 2004). Conover worked as a correctional officer in Sing Sing, and Newjack is probably the best single account of a very difficult occupation.
79 to prosecute a guard for assault: Stephen James, “Decline of the Empire,” Sacramento News & Review (March 17, 2005).
80 roughly the same level as unionized prison guards: Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2010–11 Edition, Correctional Officers (Washington, DC: Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2009), www.bls.gov/oco/ocos156.htm; Corrections Corporation of America, “CAA Announces Fourth Quarter and Full-Year 2009 Financial Results,” press release, February 9, 2010, http://ir.correctionscorp.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=117983&p=irol-newsArticle&id=1385706. There is no reason to single out the Corrections Corporation of America. They are not the worst of the private prison companies, only the largest. In 2008 median annual wages for correctional officers in the public sector were $50,830 for the federal government, $38,850 for state government, and $37,510 for local government. For private prisons, median wages are $28,790.
80 turnover rate of 40 percent annually: Wagner, The Prison Index. The comparable rate for the public sector is 15 percent.
81 “If we build it, they will come.”: Robert B. Gunnison, “Privately Run Prison Planned for Mojave,” San Francisco Chronicle , August 1, 1997.
81 country illegally who were facing deportation: Joseph T. Hallinan, “Federal Government Saves Private Prisons as State Convict Population Levels Off,” Wall Street Journal, November 6, 2001.
81 town residents in the 2000 census: “California City Prison Gets $529 Million Federal Contract,” www.ilovecaliforniacity.com/prison.html.
81 federal contract to fill the beds with immigrants: Corrections Corporation of America, “California City Correctional Center to Remain Open,” press release, September 27, 2010, www.correctionscorp.com/newsroom/news-releases/226. On CCA’s website (which looks a bit too much like a futuristic advertisement from the movie Starship Troopers), there is much pride in the rehabilitation programs. Yet for the life of me I cannot figure how to “rehabilitate” an immigrant.
81 such as Arizona’s controversial SB-1070: Laura Sullivan, “Prison Economics Help Drive Arizona Immigration Law,” National Public Radio, Morning Edition, October 28, 2010, www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130833741.
84 medications when they were arrested: Andrew P. Wilper, Steffie Woolhandler, J. Wesley Boyd, Karen E. Lasser, Danny Mc-Cormick, David H. Bor, and David U. Himmelstein, “The Health and Health Care of U.S. Prisoners: A Nationwide Survey,” American Journal of Public Health 99, no. 4 (January 2009): 666–72.
86 soon reached the general public: Jennifer Gonnerman, “The Lost Boys of Tryon: Inside New York’s most infamous juvenile prison, where troubled kids—abused and forgotten—learn to become troubled adults,” New York, January 24, 2010.
87 full-time psychiatrist on staff: Gonnerman, “The Lost Boys of Tryon.”
87 “facilities all across the country.”: “Sentenced to Abuse,” Editorial, New York Times, January 14, 2010.
87 raped, mainly by staff members: Allen J. Beck, Paige M. Harrison, and Paul Guerino, “Sexual Victimization in Juvenile Facilities Reported by Youth, 2008–09,” US Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics, January 2010.
87 and suicide attempts are routine: Nicholas Confessore, “A Glimpse Inside a Troubled Youth Prison,” New York Times, February 12, 2010; Gonnerman, “The Lost Boys of Tryon.”
88 by the time they’re twenty-eight: Gonnerman, “The Lost Boys of Tryon.”
91 between a community and punishment: Burrows and Wallace, Gotham, 367.
96 “to be there, don’t commit the crime.”: Richard Grant, “Banging Up the Bad Guys,” The Independent, May 21, 1995, 6.
96 deters crime or prevents recidivism: John R. Hepburn and Marie L. Griffin, “Jail Recidivism in Maricopa County: A Report Submitted to the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office,” Maricopa County, AZ, 1998.
96 doubled, to ten thousand prisoners: Randal C. Archibold, “On Border Violence, Truth Pales Compared to Ideas,” New York Times, June 19, 2010.
97 Arpaio’s policies garnered little hatred: Marie L. Griffin, The Use of Force by Detention Officers (LFB Scholarly Publishing, 2001), 44.
100 back with the “cat-o’-nine-tails.”: The Progress (Clearfield, PA), March 8, 1972, cited in Hal Roth, “Old News from Delmarva: The Whipping Post in Maryland and Delaware,” Tidewater Times, July 2006, www.tidewatertimes.com/HalRothJuly2006.htm. In other accounts the flogged criminal is listed, probably erroneously, as a wife beater.
101 “mode of whipping and pillory.”: Delaware Gazette, November 11, 1853, 2.
101 here’s the kicker—“legal abstractions.”: Robert Graham Caldwell, Red Hannah: Delaware’s Whipping Post (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1947), 99.
104 were now . . . a hell to me: Mary W. Shelley, Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus (Boston: Sever, Francis, & Co., 1869), 45–46.
106 meals to closing ent
ire institutions: The Continuing Fiscal Crisis in Corrections: Setting a New Course, Vera Institute of Justice, October 2010) www.vera.org/download?file=3072/The-continuing-fiscal-crisis-in-corrections-10-2010-updated.pdf.
107 and communist Cuba (530): Ron Walmsley, World Prison Population List, 8th ed. (London: International Centre for Prison Studies, King’s College, 2010). Nobody is certain about how many prisons are in North Korea, which may have a higher incarceration rate than America.
107 five times the world’s average: Ron Walmsley, World Prison Population List. The world’s incarceration rate is estimated at 150 per 100,000.
107 from 60 to 110 per 100,000: Charles A. Ellwood, “Has Crime Increased in the United States Since 1880?” Journal of the American Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology 1, no. 3 (September 1910), 379.
110 “imposes the punishment of flogging.”: Antonin Scalia, “Originalism: The Lesser Evil,” University of Cincinnati Law Review 57 (1989): 849–66.
110 “and not cruel and unusual, today.”: Stephen Breyer, Making Our Democracy Work: A Judge’s View (New York: Knopf Doubleday, 2010).
120 discretion, we make things worse: Mandatory arrest for domestic violence became popular after the publication of the flawed Minneapolis Domestic Violence Experiment. But more recent experiments show the limitations of mandatory arrest and even mandatory prosecution. See Janell D. Schmidt and Lawrence W. Sherman, “Does Arrest Deter Domestic Violence?” American Behavioral Scientist 36 (1993): 601–609; and Eve Buzawa and Aaron Buzawa, “Courting Domestic Violence Victims: A Tale of Two Cities,” Criminology & Public Policy 7, no. 4 (2008), 671–85.
124 than a similar nonincarcerated person: The Pew Charitable Trusts, Collateral Costs: Incarceration’s Effect on Economic Mobility (Washington, DC: The Pew Charitable Trusts, 2010).
125 and contrary to human rights law: V. Sithambaram, The Current Form of Sentencing Is Outdated: Time for Reform (Kuala Lumpur: The Malaysian Bar, 2005), www.malaysianbar.org.my/criminal_law/the_current_form_of_sentencing_is_outdated_time_for_reform_by_v._sithambaram.html.