A LIBERAL VIEW OF THINGS: The land of the free … really?

Someone sent me a link to a disturbing video clip on YouTube wherein some British commentators were discussing our prisons and, more accurately, the number of American citizens in them compared to the rest of the world.

Search for "Stephen Fry on American Prison Facts" at youtube.com.

When I taught school in Colorado, some family friends conducted religious services for prisoners in the state prison system. They sent me chilling statistics that, for the first time in my life, made me realize how pervasive incarceration in our country really is. I learned 75 percent of those in jail are functionally illiterate, and it costs the state more to house a prisoner for a year than the starting salary of a school teacher. That correlation was more than a little ironic to me. The year was 1995. Since then, the numbers have become increasingly unfavorable to validating our prison system.

The questions keep coming: What are we doing with these people? Are we rehabilitating them or warehousing them? Why are 75 percent of the inmates in for nonviolent crimes such as drug possession, sales and distribution of drugs?

Then: Why are we spending countless billions on drug wars when the usage and arrests keep climbing? Are we allowing this to support the private-enterprise prison business? Is this what we have become as a nation?

It is now common knowledge that we, “the land of the free," incarcerate more people than any other nation on Earth. That is not per capita. We warehouse 2.3 million people for mostly nonviolent crimes, with more on the way.

What are our answers from government and politicians? “Build more prisons!”

Of course, we all want to be safe from criminals, so let’s look at what criminals are doing. If the 75 percent drug-related crimes statistic is accurate and law enforcement only catches 50 percent of potential drug criminals, as we’re told, then that must mean about 6 percent to 10 percent of our citizens are illegally using, growing, selling and making illegal drugs.

Why is this happening in our wonderful country? Don’t all our citizens find the United States the best place on Earth to live? What’s wrong with them? Why do they need to escape the realities of their lives?

If these crimes were restricted to those who law enforcement or most upstanding citizens called “low-lifes," maybe we could accept this. Increasingly, though, wealthy people are buying and using drugs. I’m sure actor Michael Douglas can tell you all about his son’s misadventures to corroborate that.

While taking care to not make false correlations between different data, I can’t help but note most of the children who drop out of school do so because of lack of interest.  These data are coincident with the advent of extensive testing associated with No Child Left Behind. Having taught school in this environment, I can say firsthand that utilizing watered-down curricula and still keeping kids interested was my biggest challenge. So, I supplemented weak parts of the curriculum and expanded the information and lesson designs that did keep children interested and motivated.

What I’m suggesting is we have a serious systemic problem with our way of life.  Chipping away at symptoms like building more prisons for an obviously flawed legal system and myopic government policies will never get to the cause of the problem. We might not be asking the right questions or listening to the answers from our people.

Of course, there always will be the experimenters and those who tempt forbidden fruits. That is normal. But the pandemic use of very harmful drugs by our children and adults goes beyond causal experimentation.

Poverty is the driving force behind most crime. People in poor neighborhoods get the weakest public education. Poor people also have the poorest nutrition, the lowest opportunity for quality parenting and the highest frequency of violent crime. We know that just throwing money at the problem without oversight won’t cure the systemic ills.

Perhaps providing opportunities to train poor people with the skills to build their own lives as a first priority is the answer. The 15 percent of people in poverty who supply 90 percent of our incarcerated citizens must not think they are very free.

Video clip: www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPZed8af9RI&feature=share

Turner is a retired teacher and industrial engineer who lives near Marble Falls. He is an independent columnist, not a staff member, and his views do not necessarily reflect those of The Tribune or its parent company. "The Voter’s Guide to National Salvation" is a newly published e-book from Turner. You can find it at www.barnesandnoble.com/ebooks. He can be reached by email at vtgolf@zeecon.com.