The Profit in Locking Up Our Kids II

I have been tugging at the string of the prison population explosion for about 6 years, trying to unravel the cause of the mass incarceration happening in our nation.  With all of the articles, books, reports and information I have poured over, I really couldn’t tell you what started this mess, which poses a problem.  I am the type of person that likes to start at the beginning and progress through a series of reasonable events or circumstances and come to the conclusion.  This is always very helpful when problem solving.  You can find the underlying cause, change it and set a new course.

What I have found is there are several cogs in this wheel and the momentum has grown so much that it has blurred the causes together…..making them dependent upon each other.  Let me give you an example.  For the most part, we assume that a substantial rise in prison population is the direct result in a significant rise in crime.  According to the statistics on crime that I have found, this is not the case.  So what changed?  The laws in our country have changed to put heftier punishments on criminal acts.  We punish even the smallest infractions with prison sentences, we have lengthy mandatory sentences that keep people behind bars reducing the turnover rate of beds; we have eliminated drug and alcohol rehabilitation programs and declared war on these addictions; we have sentences for repeat offenders that require they receive 3 times the mandatory sentence for any crime or parole infraction; and so legislatively we have created a monster.  Why?  As previously stated it is not a rise in the crime rate.  We have declared war on our youth giving our youth prison sentences in adult facilities instead of rehabilitation or incarceration in juvenile facilities.  Why?  Once again our crime rate has not gone up. 

Yet if you address any segment or “cog” in this wheel, they will all point to the other as the reason for their actions.  New laws were made as a result of crime.  New prisons were built because of crime.  Additions to the police force were made because of crime.  But crime is not up!

I am afraid the answer starts with us, our perception, our gullible nature and the development of a huge new industry. So enter two more cogs in the wheel, media and the profit that can be made off of the prison industry.  Let’s start with the media. 

“While poll results indicate that feelings about crime and punishment are more complex than is commonly understood, such complexity is only rarely translated into media coverage.  Although crime frequently soars to the top of the nation’s list of major problems, those who follow public opinion have concluded that it is driven more by the media’s treatment of crime than by changes in crime rates” -National Criminal Justice Commission, 1995

We have become a nation that feeds on violence, crime and dysfunction.  It sells well, it grabs our attention and those who are looking to place marketing dollars look for those networks or programs that draw big audiences.  So we watch our L.A. Law or Police Story and the advertisers spend their dollars on that time slot.  They show us glimpses of sensational action, death, intrigue and we rearrange our schedule so that we can watch the program.  The same holds true for news.  News stations look for the sensational and controversial story, they run leaders for it on their “news updates” and hope that you will stay tuned to watch the report later.  If they find a story that captures the attention of a large viewing audience, the news team will find 10 different ways to tell you the story and maybe add some new pictures of the victims or other family members. 

I remember being horrified the first time I saw a news team push their way into the private pain of someone who just lost a family member.  I also remember feeling just as appalled as I watched when someone was arrested and thrown into a police car.  What gave these people the right to invade someone else’s personal life?  Although it was invasive and impersonal, we ate it up and news teams began to do it more and more.  From the response they got from the news programs, television producers began to wonder if we would be as entertained by all candid events where someone was put on the spot.  From this came the birth of reality television. 

Now remember that they are selling you a product.  They want you to watch a particular news channel and they are going to do whatever it takes to make their news story the most eye catching and alarming……even at the cost of the truth.  Then the network will play it over and over again to get every viewer minute they can milk out of the story.  All the while getting you to believe, that it is a violent, scary world out there……while you sit in your recliner……never looking out your front door to see the truth.

This entry was posted on 9. September 2008 at 11:06 and is filed under Prison Reform Advocates, Juvenile Reform Advocates. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

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