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The object we are striving for through this collaborative is not so much to oppose and defeat the building of this new prison, but to construct an alternative to the mindset and political environment that limits the creativity of policy makers, and to resolve the states prison issues with more value added, forward looking and humanity/community affirming models.

This is not an idealistic treatise. The partners who are contibuting to this document are deeply experienced with the realities faced by the incarcerated, previously incarcerated and at risk populations. The ideas and policy proposals within this evolving document, though sometimes visionary, are reality based and gleaned from decades of collective experience and research.

Section: Intersecting Issues

Public Safety
CURRENT PROBLEMS

* Between 1999 and 2001, the money spent on the criminal justice system rose from $49 billion to $57 billion. The number of people we lock up has grown between 2.6 and 3.6% each year since 1999. So, it is reasonable to ask our leaders if we are getting our moneys worth. Crime rates are the same as 1970 levels but in order to achieve that, were spending 7 times as much. * Right now 5.6 million Americans are either in jail or prison now or were in the past. At that rate, 11.3% of all males born in 2001 can plan on a stay behind bars. We only have 4.6% of the worlds population but 22% of the worlds prisoners . * Mass incarceration is a very expensive response to crime. It is interesting to note that the crime rate in Japan and England is about the same as ours but while we lock up 715 out of every 100,000 citizens, Japan incarcerates 45 per 100,000 and England incarcerates 143 per 100,000 . * According to studies, industrialized countries have matching crimes rates, that is, between 21  24%. And, US crime rates follow suit. * The overall recidivism rate for the State of Washington is 32.3% within five years with 65% of those returning within the first two years.

VALUE ADDED INVESTMENTS

* Decriminalize drug addiction with implementation of the King County Bar Associations Drug Policy Project recommendations for a state level drug regulatory system. www.kcba.org/druglaw/ * Balance public spending between prosecution and defense. * Implement abolition of mandatory minimums including the Three Strikes Law. * Require a gradual transition from solitary confinement to release. * Require medical support services for transitioning prisoners needing mental health care and medications. * Implement alternatives to incarceration. * Implement effective rehabilitation programs. * Invest in prevention as described on each intersecting issue page.

References:
1. Justice Expenditures and Employment in the United States (Washington DC: Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1999), Table; Fox Butterfield,'With Longer Sentences Cost of Fighting Crime Is Higher,' New York Times, May 3, 2004.

2. Roy Walmseley, World Prison Population List, 3rd ed. (London: Home Office Research, Development and Statistics Directorate, 2002); US Census Bureau, 2002.

3. Ibid.

4. Pat Mayhew and Jan J.M. Van Dijk, Criminal Victimization in Eleven Industrialized Countries: Key Findings from the 1996 International Crime Victims Survey (The Hague: Research and Documentation Centre, Ministry of Justice, 1997); J. Van Kesteren, P. Mayhew, P. Niewbeerta, Criminal Victimization in Seventeen Industrialized Countries: Key Findings from the 2000 International Crime Victims Survey (The Hague: Research and Documentation Centre, Ministry of Justice, 2000).

5. Washington State DOC, Planning and Research Section, 'Recidivism Briefing Paper No. 4', April 2004.

6. Jeremy Travis, But They All Come Back: Facing the Challenges of Prisoner Reetnry, (The Urban Institute Press, 2005), p 106-107.

Criminal Justice

CURRENT PROBLEMS

• According to the International Center for Prison Studies at Kings College London, the US currently has the largest documented prison population in the world, both in absolute and proportional terms.
• Longer prison sentences account for much of the difference in incarceration rates between the US and other countries.   
• Dr. Chen, of the WA State Caseload Forecast Council, presented the following to the August 2005 Sentencing Guidelines Commission:
• o crime is down; 7% between 1991 and 1998.
• o incarceration is up, way up; 36% during the same time period in spite of the fact that crime is down, the police are making more arrests; local prosecutors, are doing likewise: increasing felony filings.
• o net impact: greater demand for more state prison beds with accompanying demanding criminal justice budgets.
• The chief justice of the Washington Supreme Court has urged state lawmakers to help pay for court-appointed attorneys in criminal cases, saying public-defense systems around the state are "broken and in crisis." Washington ranks 50th in the percentage of state contributions to trial costs. Click here for Seattle Times Article.  The bottom line of this dubious status is that our Washington State poor people are not receiving an adequate defense resulting in increased chances for injustice and incarceration.  
• The way people are treated while in the criminal justice system has a direct relationship on their ability to successfully return to the community.  Mistreatment fuels defiance which contributes to crime.  Based on the report written by retired Washington Correction Center Associate Superintendent Gary Jones to the National Commission on Prison Abuse, improvements are needed in our state prisons.
• According to past DOC Secretary, Joseph Lehman and current DOC Secretary Harold Clarke, the current DOC Secretary, studies consistently prove that people released from prison who had committed non-violent crimes are more likely to recidivate if they continue a relationship with the Department of Corrections.  

VALUE ADDED INVESTMENTS

• Review and revise mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines including abolishing the current Persistent Offender Act.
• Implement Re-entry Courts http://www.reentrypolicy.org/news/reentry-courts.php as an alternative to prison time for community custody violations.
• Shift to restorative justice model which respectfully engages the person who has committed a crime, the survivor of that crime and the larger community in a broad view response to repairing and preventing harm.   Implement alternatives to incarceration.  Stop prison expansion.
• Invest in treatment and reap the savings.  The annual cost of treatment per prisoner for one year is $3,500. The first year after completion of treatment results in a $5,000 savings in reduced crime, $7,300 saving in reduced arrest and prosecution costs, and $21,000 reduced cost of incarceration (national cost) for a total annual savings of $29,800.
• Support Chief Justice Gerry Alexander when he urged during his State of the Judiciary address to the joint legislature, that "there must be a rebalancing of responsibility" for funding Washington's trial courts, with the state easing the financial burden carried by counties and cities.  And, state monies spent on enforcement, prosecution versus defense and rehabilitation must be reapportioned.  
• Implement statewide use in DOC of standards of treatment for incarcerated people and accompanying procedures as implemented at Washington Correction Center by Gary Jones from 1997 to 2001.  As described in his statement to the National Commission on Prison Abuse, these changes created a respectful environment for everyone and drastically reduced prison operational costs.
  

References:
References:

1. Warren Young and Mark Brown, Cross-National Comparisons on Imprisonment, in Michael Tonry, ed., Crime and Justice: A Review of Research, Vol. 17 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994), pp. 1-49.
2. Jennifer Dinsdale, Restorative Justice in H.M. Prison Holme House (London, England: International Centre for Prison Studies, 2001)
3. Ronald Fraser, DKT Liberty Project.
4. Gary Jones www.prisoncommission.org/statements/jones-gary.pdf and chapter six of Total Confinement by University of Washington anthropologist Lorna Rhodes.

Youth

• 1.5 million US children grow up in single parent homes because their mothers or fathers are behind bars.
• 17.2% of all children  12.2 million boys and girls - live below the poverty level.
• Out of the thirty-two states evaluated under the Child and Family Services Review for their ability to protect children from child abuse, twenty-eight states failed either all seven or six out of seven criteria.  This, when there are over one million substantiated cases of child abuse each year.
• Age is the primary statistical predictor of criminal behavior.
• With only one adult to supervise and act as a role model for youth, fatherless children make up 60% of rapists, 72% of adolescent murderers, and 70% of all long term incarcerated people.
• In the US we currently have 14,500 boys and girls housed in adult prisons where they fall prey to adults incarcerated there.  This practice is unheard of in other parts of the world.  A recent study from the National Institute for Mental Health, Harvard and UCLA show those areas of the brain that control impulse behavior and the ability to anticipate consequences do not mature until a person is in their early twenties.  
• In 2002/2003 session, the US Supreme Court supported the execution of individuals who were juveniles at the time of their crimes.  No other country has ever executed a person under these conditions and we are in the company of only Pakistan and the Republic of Congo who also have laws that provide for this option.  
• Therapists are successful at turning around young criminals.  In May 2001, based on an analysis of four hundred studies, the Washington State Institute for Public Policy found that compared to the $64,000 cost of incarcerated youth psychosocial services,
•  The Functional Family Therapy program saved $14,149 per child per year while also lowering recidivism by 30%;
•  Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care saved $21,836 and produced 60% less days locked up; and
•  Multisystemic Therapy saved $31,661 and had 25  70% lower long-term re-arrest rates.

VALUE ADDED INVESTMENTS

• Divert all investments from threatening or preaching programs such as Scared Straight  and Project DARE  to programs similar to those that the 1984 RAND Corporation study  and the Syracuse Universitys Family Development Research Program  found to be exceptionally successful, such as; the Chicago Area Project and the Perry Preschool Program.
• Invest in successful youth therapeutic programs as those described above.
• Invest in homeless youth support programs such as New Horizons Ministries located in Seattle.
• Implement a program providing home visiting by public health workers, as in the PEIP Program in Elmira, NY.  
• Conduct a study to create a plan for revamping Washington State Juvenile Justice system so that youth are not treated as adults and not housed with adults when they have committed a crime.
• Support prevention measures delineated on other issue pages.

References:
References:

1.   US Census Bureau
2.   Laura Meckler, Associated Press, States Fail Rigorous Child-Protection Test, Richmond Times-Dispatch, August 19,2003.
3.   Marc Mauer, Race To Incarcerate (New York: The New Press, 1999), p. 112.
4.   Charles W. Colson, Justice That Restores (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2001), p. 101.
5.   Beth Edmonson, Teenage Sniper Suspect Shouldnt Be Tried As Adult, Virginian-Pilot, November 10, 2003, p. B11.
6.   Malvo Likely Wont Be Part of Campaign to End Juvenile Death Penalty, CNN.com, January 7, 2003.
7.   Tori DeAngelis, Youth Programs Cut Crime, Costs, Monitor on Psychology (American Psychological Association), Vol. 34, No. 7, July-August 2003, pp. 48-49; see also www.colorado.edu/cspv/blueprints.
8.   James Q. Finckenhauer and Patricia W. Gavin, Scared Straight: The Panacea Phenomenon Revisited (Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press, 1999)
9.   Fox Butterfield, no headline, New York Times News Service Online, April 16, 1997, 7:06 E.S.T., citing Office of Justice Programs, Preventing Crime: What Works, What Doesnt, Whats Promising (Washington DC: U.S. Department of Justice, 1997).
10.   Steven Schlossman et al., Delinquency Prevention in Southern Chicago: A Fifty-Year Assessment of the Chicago Area Project (Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corp., 1984).
11.   Elliott Currie, Crime and Punishment in America (New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1998), p. 97.
12.   Currie, Crime, op. cit., p. 83.

Poverty

CURRENT PROBLEMS

• The official poverty level provides $13.22 per person per day for everything: rent, utilities, food, transportation, medical, education, etc.   According to the US Census Bureau, 3.8 million families miss meals due to a lack of money and 11 million families reported being afraid that they would run out of food.
• A 1996/1997 study of Aid to Families with Dependent Children in 140 metropolitan areas found that the higher the welfare payments were, the lower the burglary and homicide rates fell.   And internationally, countries that spend 12-14% of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on welfare have lower violent crime rates compared to the US that only spends 4% of its GDP on welfare.  
•  
• In Europe, social policies are designed around the internationally recognized principle of using custodial sentences only when strictly necessary, according to the Danish Prison and Probation Service.  This emphasis on welfare over prisons has the side effect that only 4% of Danish and Norwegian children, and just 6% of French and German children grow up in poverty  as opposed to 22% of American children (by this studys definition of poverty, which is less than half the countrys median income.)
• When people are coming out of prison and without an adequate social safety net, they and their families are at high risk for going hungry or becoming homeless.  Some, particularly juveniles, will find themselves drawn back into the same social networks or conditions that were a catalyst for their original offense, because they feel it is the only option available to them. In our state last year over 6000 people returned home from prison.
• Many people who leave prison today re-enter impoverished communities. They struggle with many of the same challenges facing the working poor  a lack of living wage jobs, inadequate social supports, the high cost of finding childcare, transportation and housing.  In order to make a fresh start they, like everyone else, need to be able to meet their needs and have the opportunity to prosper.

VALUE ADDED INVESTMENTS

• Implement recommendations of the Statewide Poverty Action Network www.povertyaction.org including:    
• Meeting Basic Needs
• Income support for ALL parents with lower incomes
• Childcare while parents work
• Healthcare for everyone
• Income support for people unable to work
• Opportunities to Prosper
• ß Create a fair lending marketplace for all Washington consumers
• ß Create opportunities to save money and build assets
• ß Provide access to higher education

References:
References:

1.   Associated Press, Consensus Survey: More in Poverty Richmond Times-Dispatch, September 3, 2003, p. A13.
2.   Associated Press, Report Says US Hunger Level Is Rising, Virginian-Pilot, November 3, 2003, p. A6.
3.   James DeFronzo, AFDC, a Citys Racial and Ethnic Composition, and Burglary, Social Service Review, September 1996, pp. 464-471; James DeFronzo, Welfare and Homicide, Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, Vol. 34, No. 3, August 1997.
4.   Measuring the Impact of Imprisonment: Papers from a Roundtable Held in London on 9 November 2001 (London, England: International Centre for Prison Studies, July 2002), p. 28.
5.   Lee Rainwater and Timothy M. Smeeding, Doing Poorly, The Real Income of American Children in a Comparative Perspective (Syracuse University: Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, 1995).

Physical Health


CURRENT PROBLEMS
 

• Prisons are well known breeding grounds for disease.  Bodily functions happen within inches of other people.  Specifically, TB, AIDS and Hepatitis are spread from one incarcerated person to the next.  Nationwide, more than 200 prisoners with active tuberculosis are released from prison each year.  Upwards of 15,000 HIV-positive prisoners, 2,500 with AIDS, and an estimated 200,000 prisoners with Hepatitis C leave our nations prisons as they return to the community annually.
• In Washington State, 97% of the people incarcerated in our state prisons will eventually come back to the community, bringing the diseases they contracted while in prison.
•  Former Virginia Attorney General Mark Earley testified before the US Congress in July 2002 that anywhere from 250,000 to 600,000 Americas 2.1 million prisoners were forced to have sex against their will each year.   The result is an HIV infection rate of 8.5% in New York States correctional system, which tests its population more systematically than others.   By comparison, the estimated infection rate for the US civilian population is 0.3%.

• Support the work of local organizations such as PEOPLE OF COLOR AGAINST AIDS NETWORK and HEPATITIS EDUCATION PROJECT, non-profit organizations dedicated to helping those affected with the diseases commonly spread in prison.  They offer a wide range of support services.  www.pocaan.org   www.hepeducation.org
• Treat returning prisoners who have been receiving health care while in prison the same as any other patient discharged from a health service facility needing a post-release health care plan.
• Increase efforts to reduce transmission of diseases in prisons and jails.
• Link returning prisoners immediately to health services and treatment programs.

References:

References:

1.   Jeremy Travis, But They All Come Back: Facing the Challenges of Prisoner Reetnry, (The Urban Institute Press, 2005), p186-187.
2.   Michael M. Horrock, Hundreds of Thousands Raped in US Lockups, United Press International, July 31, 2002.
3.   HIV in Prisons (Washington DC: Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2000), p.2
4.   Centers for Disease Control, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, February 26, 2003, Vol. 52.
5.   Jeremy Travis, But They All Come Back: Facing the Challenges of Prisoner Reetnry, (The Urban Institute Press, 2005), p187.

Mental Health

CURRENT PROBLEMS
 

• Unsupervised de-institutionalization of the people unable to function in society is what lead to their incarceration. In the 1970s and 80s, large mental hospitals were closed with the assumption that the people would be cared for by the community.  That never happened, so prisons are de facto mental hospitals.  Only 80,000 patients are still housed in psychiatric facilities but roughly 444,000 certified, diagnosed mentally ill men and women are doing time behind bars  where they live with the general population and can be subjected to sexual and financial abuses.
• Although one fifth of all prisoners are certified mentally ill, 40% of the jails and 17% of prisons do not test their mental health status and do not provide any attempt at therapy.  Perhaps many of these people do need institutionalization but not incarceration.  Twenty-five percent of prisoners held in segregation are diagnosed as mentally ill.
• In his book Out of the Shadows, the author estimates that there are now approximately 1000 homicides a year committed by individuals with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, almost all of whom were untreated and not taking medication at the time of the homicide.
• Former Virginia Attorney General Mark Earley testified before the US Congress in July 2002 that anywhere from 250,000 to 600,000 Americas 2.1 million prisoners were forced to have sex against their will each year.  Rape is no less traumatic for an incarcerated person than it is for anyone else.
• Intensive psychotherapy is proven to significantly reduce recidivism for people convicted of sex crimes from 17.5% to 9.9% through modern treatment methods.

VALUE ADDED INVESTMENTS

• Increase use of mental health courts.
• Move current mentally ill incarcerated people to low- and medium-security prisons set aside for them only; transfer the authority for these facilities from DOC to public health departments; re-train guards to be psychiatric nurse-helpers. 

References:
References:

1.   Fox Butterfield, Study Finds Hundreds of Thousands of Inmates Mentally Ill, New York Times, October 22, 2003.
2.   The Health Status of Soon-to-Be-Released Inmates: A Report to Congress (Washington DC: National Commission on Correctional Care, November-December 2002), p.xii.
3.   Paul von Zielbauer, Report on State Prisons Cites Inmates Mental Illness, New York Times, October 22, 2003.
4.   Michael M. Horrock, Hundreds of Thousands Raped in US Lockups, United Press International, July 31, 2002.
5.   Karen Kersting, New Hope for Sex Offender Treatment, Monitor on Psychology (American Psychological Association), Vol. 34, No. 7, July-August 2003, pp. 52-53, citing R. Karl Hansons study in Sex Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment, Vol. 14, No. 2, 2002.

Drug and Alcohol Addiction

CURRENT PROBLEMS

• It is well known that people suffering from depression will take alcohol or other drugs to ease suffering.
• Based on a 2002 chemical dependency screening of Washington State incarcerated people, it was determined that 85% were presumed to be chemically dependent.
• We lead the world in treating depression with prison.  Only 14% of those prisoners who were drunk when they committed their crimes receive treatment for alcohol abuse while incarcerated; and just 18% of those who were high on drugs at the time of their crime get drug therapy while incarcerated.
• Many studies indicate that people arrested for drug crimes are MORE likely to re-offend after they are released than if they had not been arrested.  This is because people convicted of a non-violent drug crime are less able to find employment after they are released, and are ineligible for federally funded low income housing or educational loans.
• A 1994 RAND study found that drug treatment is seven times more cost-effective than drug law enforcement in reducing drug abuse.  This study found that every dollar spent on treatment saves $7.48 on reduced crime and regained productivity.

VALUE ADDED INVESTMENTS

• Support the decriminalization of addiction and the recommendations of the King County Bar Associations Drug Policy Project plans for a state level drug regulatory system.  www.kcba.org/druglaw/
• Increase treatment options for incarcerated people.
• Increase use of drug courts as an alternative to incarceration.
• Support the work of local organizations such as PEOPLE OF COLOR AGAINST AIDS NETWORK working to pre-treatment support for those returning from prison.  www.pocaan.org
• Increase funding for and availability of treatment for addicts.

References:

Housing

CURRENT PROBLEMS
 

• Without housing, previously incarcerated people have a stronger likelihood to re-offend.
• People living at the official poverty level require $13.22 per person per day for everything: rent, utilities, food, transportation, medical, education, etc.  yet taxpayers pay approximately $55 per day to house people in prisons and $89 per day to house people in jails.
• A large percentage of landlords deny rental access to those with serious offences.  
• Individuals with drug convictions are denied Federal Pell Grants, thus inhibiting their ability to acquire credentials to secure a job with a livable wage, thus substantially limiting housing options.
• Applicants with drug convictions or charges on their record are denied public housing from the Housing Authorities.
• A higher percentage of recidivism comes from those without stable housing.

VALUE ADDED INVESTMENTS

• Support and invest in the Committee to End Homelessness in King Countys Ten Year Plan  

• Support and endorse programs such as the United Way of King Countys Ready To Rent Tenant Education Program  to increase the success of previously incarcerated people as they return to the community and search for decent and affordable housing.  Provide options for incarcerated people to receive this training prior to release.
• Support the Human Rights Watch November 18, 2004 recommendations   related to housing and people with criminal histories and redesigning HUD guidelines so citizens with criminal convictions have access to affordable public housing.

References:
References:

1.   Example: Seattle Police Department automatically increase sex offender classification if the previously incarcerated person is homeless due to the lack of stability associated with homelessness.
2.   Associated Press, Consensus Survey: More in Poverty Richmond Times-Dispatch, September 3, 2003, p. A13.
3.   While data to substantiate this statement has not been captured empirically, the anecdotal experiences among previously incarcerated people in the search for housing is overwhelming. Those that have the most difficult time securing decent and affordable housing are those convicted of: drug manufacturing, sex offenses, and arson.
4.   Committee to End Homelessness in King County, http://www.cehkc.org/plan-finals.html
5.   Ready to Rent, http://www.uwkc.org/ourcommunity/readytorent/default.asp
6.   http://hrw.org/english/docs/2004/11/18/usdom9695_txt.htm