Sadly, I think you're right. For whatever reason, looking at solutions to the root of problems is not a popular practice in our culture. The idea that locking people up, and teaching them through hard knocks, is somehow going to benefit us in the long run is short sighted beyond belief. Especially when we are talking about crime that is non violent and often times stemming from potential addictions.

In Canada (where I'm from) I've been involved with the PARTY program (preventing alcohol related trauma in youth). It's an alternative justice program that, instead of prison for first time DUI convictions, young people must spend a day with a paramedic or doctor, observe all aspects of life in a trauma center, from the ambulance to the treatment bay, to the surgical suite, and finally culminating with watching an autopsy on a trauma related fatality. The reality that cannot be avoided when one goes through this type of experience has a profound effect, and often can be a life altering experience.

In the four years I've been involved with it, I've seen the the statistics clearly show that for those who have been through the program, second convictions are 50% less than those who go the traditional route of incarceration.

I think this is the sort of thing that gets lip service from the MSM, but they rarely or never take a real, in-depth look at racism in the prison system. I think race sort of gets brought up when you have celebrity trials like OJ or MJ, but I kind of feel like it gets the short shrift in those circumstances. If anything, it's used to make black jurors look "bad" (I'm SURE I've seen articles questioning the integrity of black jurors because they managed to find one black person who said s/he thought the defendant in question should get off simply because of his race. Which of course clearly means that black people hate justice :P)

I had a REALLY cool crim professor who's done a lot of work with indigent defendants, many of them people of color. It's simply atrocious how these people are treated in our prison systems. He's seen clearly insane, clearly incompetent defendants get tried and convicted without even knowing what on earth is going on. Public defense attorneys get the shittiest wages of any lawyers in our system, which basically means most of them are regularly committing malpractice simply because otherwise their families would starve. He's done some interesting research on whether our laws are accomplishing their avowed purpose (i.e., preventing crime) and how we can change the laws to make them work better, keeping in mind the specific needs of different communities. Pretty cool stuff... if only legislators listened to academics rather than rich interest groups...

the 'murder of pregnant women' trend - if it is that - i thought of it the other day after watching Michael Moore's "Sicko" movie. if we had universal healthcare, would pregnant women still be getting murdered? i'd be curious to see a comparison of that particular stat from Canada/France/UK/etc.

"That Paris has the opportunity to remain within her community and recover from her substance abuse amongst her family is an opportunity that all addicts should be able to enjoy."

I'm not well-informed about this issue, but I wish to ameliorate this. Honest question here: what if the addict's family and/or community are drug-riddled and abusive? Obviously they should be moved to a different environment, but jail would be equally abusive. Where should they be removed to, and how should that be determined?

What is personally disgusting to me is that it seems people are more likely to talk about Paris Hilton than they are about genocide in Darfur.

Every time a coworker relates the latest installment in the Paris-in-Prison saga I cringe, but I hadn't been able to put my finger on what was bothering me so much about it (other than the fact that I honestly don't care what Paris Hilton does). You just nailed it.

This also made me think of a classmate in a Gender and Women's Studies Practicum class that I took in college volunteered for a Rape Crisis Center. The center would often hold workshops in local prisons because a huge percentage of incarcerated women are survivors of sexual assault, and many of the assaults occurred during childhood. I don't know the actual number, but I will look for it. I also do not know if any stats exist that include some kind of breakdown based on class or race. I am going to look, but if anyone else has resources, please share.

What often gets ignored in the talk about, & one of the main reasons that I am disturbed by them, is the way business & government profit from incarceration. They have a steady stream of extremely low wage workers, whether they're sewing bras for Victoria's Secret or making office furniture for the government. It really is legislated slavery.

You're right, Moxie. It is. Which is particularly horrible, seeing as how such a disproportional amount of inmates are people of color . . .

sedmunds, you're correct. I was incredibly disturbed and saddened when it occurred to me that if not for their experiences with sexual assault as children, most incarcerated women would not be in prison.
I read a book called "Couldn't Keep it to Myself" not long ago. It's a collection of short stories written by incarcerated women, compiled by Wally Lamb. Very, very heartbreaking. I imagine that many of the world's problems would be erased if child molestation were non-existant. The low-lifes who touch and/or rape little girls truly are setting them up for a lifetime of struggle.

This situation is an excellent example of how many issues intersect. First, we have the incarceration situation as the ladies have so eloquently laid out. Second, the slave labor issue, which gets me all riled up.

Third, I'd like to speak to what Samhita mentioned about the murdered pregnant women media circus.

My first thought when I heard she went missing was, "Didn't these people learn anything from the Scott Peterson case? The boyfriend probably did it." While I agree with Samhita that crimes shouldn't be tried in the media, I also know how likely it is that a murdered pregnant woman is killed by her significant other.

Not that I was surprised, but only one man on MSM (CNN to be exact) talked about murder being the #1 cause of death of pregnant women in the US. Of course, what really sticks in my craw is that pregnant women of color who are victims of murder are NEVER talked about.

Hell, I can only remember seeing one missing woman of color talked about AT ALL, never mind pregnant. Goddess forbid, Nancy Grace was doing the reporting. I had to give her a modicum of respect for doing that.

It seemed all of us got all up in the MSM's face about this before. Looks like it's time to do that again.

There's a large part of me that frustrated that we have to keep hammering this home. Why do we have to keep reminding the media that ALL lives are valuable? That NOT ONE WOMAN should have to live in fear of someone in their own home? GRRRRRRRRR!

Okay, end rant here. I know change is slow and I am in it for the long haul. I just have to vent the ol' frustrations.

I had the honor of having the truly awesome H. Bruce Franklin as my professor for Crime & Punishment in American Lit. He really helped me to think of the 13th amendment in a new way.
Section 1 of the 13th amendment says, Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
After you read the bold part, it's pretty easy to see how the chain gang and prison plantation evolved into the prison industrial complex.

"Not that I was surprised, but only one man on MSM (CNN to be exact) talked about murder being the #1 cause of death of pregnant women in the US. Of course, what really sticks in my craw is that pregnant women of color who are victims of murder are NEVER talked about."

I was just talking about that the other day! You also don't hear about it much when it is working class or poverty stricken white women who are murdered while pregnant. The media grabs the story and runs with it if it is a middle to upper class white woman who has disapeared and another prerequisite is that they live in a "safe" town.

After the whole Lacy Peterson case quieted down, there was a special on tv, I can't remember which station, that profiled women of color who went missing while pregnant or were murdered. It was sad to watch, but it was great that they were actually discussing how no one paid attention to these women or cared about them missing except their families.

Sassygirl,

I couldn't agree with you more. It annoys me when I watch the news with someone and they're always like "It's so depressing" they don't even know the half of it. What seems like a tragedy to most of America (pregnant women dying, parents killing chidren) is unfortunately more of a reality for people of color. The Chicago news recently mentioned a small tribute to the 31 kids that have been killed in the inner city this year, and I believe another girl was killed just recently.

yet people forget this over the next day while paris hilton is mentioned everyday.

I also hated the whole arguement that "she got a harder time becausue she was a celebrity"...there are people in the jail by me serving six months for stealing a bottle of pop, or guys going to prison for two DUIs....the world has no idea how much the criminal justice systme just throws people away and locks away the key.

the 'murder of pregnant women' trend - if it is that - i thought of it the other day after watching Michael Moore's "Sicko" movie. if we had healthcare, would pregnant women still be getting murdered? i'd be curious to see a comparison of that particular stat from Canada/France/UK/etc.

I'm failing so see how healthcare has anything to do with murder. What is the reasoning?

Paris Hilton gets coverage partly because of her wealth and because she's famous for, well, nothing, but that's not all of it. As a society, each of us recognizes that woman is such a cartoonish figure of ignorance that even the stupidest among us feel confident that we are more intelligent, so it makes us feel good to see her suffer. It's twisted, but true.

She doesn't deserve the coverage, real issues do. Not hard to argue. The only thing is that real issues require thought, and with viewers unwilling to think, this is what their media gives them.