OPINION
6A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2015
The problematic prison problem
usually paid by the coun-
reduce the population only
ty but prisons by the state,
to
1.2
million
from
1.5
Founded in 1873
so prosecutors tend not to
million.
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The war on drugs does
retty much everybody from
STEPHEN A. FORRESTER, Editor & Publisher
nancial costs of what they
Barack Obama to Carly QRW H[SODLQ WKH URFNHW
do.
ing
rates
of
incarceration,
LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor
Fiorina seems to agree that far and ending that war, wise
Pfaff says there’s little
BETTY SMITH, Advertising Manager
too many Americans are stuck or not, will not solve this
evidence so far to prove
any of these theories,
problem.
CARL EARL, Systems Manager
behind bars.
since the prosecutorial
The
mandatory-mini-
And pretty much everybody
JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager
world is largely a black
mum theory is also prob-
David
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DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager
ER[ +H DOVR SRLQWV RXW
Brooks
for how this destructive era of mass this, but some of the most
that we have a radically
HEATHER RAMSDELL, Circulation Manager
incarceration came about.
sophisticated work with the best data decentralized array of prosecutors,
First, the war on drugs got out sets has been done by John Pfaff of with some elected and some appoint-
of control, meaning that many non- Fordham Law School. When I spoke ed. Changing their behavior cannot
violent people wound up in prison. with Pfaff on Monday I found him to EHGRQHZLWKRQHTXLFN¿[
Some politicians and activists
Second, mandatory-minimum sen- be wonderfully objective, nonideo-
suggest that solving this problem
tencing laws led to a throw-away- logical and data-driven.
the-key culture, with long, cruel and
His research suggests that while will be easy — just release the pot
pointlessly destructive prison terms. it’s true that lawmakers passed a lot smokers and the low-level dealers.
It’s true that mass incarceration is of measures calling for long prison In reality, reducing mass incarcera-
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sentences, if you look at how much tion means releasing a lot of once-vi-
Back in the 1970s the increase time inmates actually served, not olent offenders. That may be the
in incarceration did help reduce the much has changed over the past few right thing to do in individual cases,
crime rate, maybe accounting for decades. Roughly half of all prison- but it’s a knotty problem.
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a third of the drop. But today’s in- ers have prison terms in the range of
carceration levels do
two to three years, railing against the political establish-
ne of Pope Francis’ most vivid observations to the joint little to deter crime
and only 10 percent PHQW DQG H[SHUWV DQG H[SHULHQFHG
The
while
they
do
much
serve more than sev- politicians. But social problems are
session of Congress last week was the danger of viewing
to rip up families, in-
en years. The laws LQYDULDEO\ PRUH FRPSOH[ WKDQ WKH\
obvious
choices in terms of black and white.
crease racial dispari-
look punitive, but the ORRN 7KH REYLRXV H[SODQDWLRQ IRU
The Pope advised them to makers don’t realize the damage ties and destroy lives. explanation
time served hasn’t in- most problems is often wrong. It
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“guard against the simplistic to the economy that a government
planation for how we
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for
most
reductionism which sees only VKXWGRZQLQÀLFWV-RKQ&DUQH\LQ got here, however,
driver behind mass WKHWUXHFRPSOH[LW\RIUHDOLW\
good or evil.”
last Friday’s Wall Street Journal seems to be largely
problems
Finally, recategorizing a problem
incarceration, either.
So what does doesn’t solve it. In the 1970s, we let
This point was likely lost on ZURWHH[SOLFLWO\DERXWWKRVHFRVWV wrong, and most of
is often
H[SODLQ LW" 3IDII¶V a lot of people out of mental institu-
a number of the lawmakers who In a nutshell, Wall Street was the policy responses
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theory is that it’s the WLRQV2YHUWKHQH[WGHFDGHVZHSXW
wrong.
¿OOHGWKH+RXVHFKDPEHUWRKHDU buoyed by Speaker Boehner’s therefore be inappro-
prosecutors. District a lot of people into prisons. But the
the Pope. Their politics these announced resignation, because it priate.
attorneys and their share of people kept out of circula-
The drug war is not even close to assistants have gotten a lot more ag- tion has been strangely continuous.
days are all about black -and - signaled there would be no shut-
being the primary driver behind the gressive in bringing felony charges. In the real world, crime, lack of ed-
white choices. Black and white down this year.
sharp rise in incarceration. About 90 Twenty years ago they brought fel- ucation, mental health issues, family
is what raises big money.
Wrote Carney: “Before Mr. percent of America’s prisoners are ony charges against about 1 in 3 ar- breakdown and economic hopeless-
It didn’t used to be that way. Boehner’s
announcement, held in state institutions. Only 17 restees. Now it’s something like 2 ness are all intertwined.
Changing prosecutor behavior
Not so long ago, senators and Goldman Sachs analysts estimat- percent of these inmates are in for a in 3. That produces a lot more plea
drug-related offense, or less than 1 bargains and a lot more prison terms. might be a start. Lifting the spirits
congressmen realized that com- ed a 50% chance of a shutdown. in 5.
I asked Pfaff why prosecutors are of inmates, as described in the out-
promise was essential to prog- While the analysts said they
Moreover, the share of people more aggressive. He’s heard theo- standing Atlantic online video “An-
ress.
H[SHFWHG D PXWHG PDUNHW UHDF imprisoned for drug offenses is drop- ries. Maybe they are more political gola for Life,” can also help. But
House Speaker John Bohner’s tion, they estimated each week ping sharply, down by 22 percent and they want to show toughness to the fundamental situation won’t be
between 2006 and 2011. Writing in UDLVH WKHLU SUR¿OH WR LPSUHVV YRWHUV altered without a comprehensive
surprising resignation was in of a shutdown would subtract Slate, Leon Neyfakh emphasized LI WKH\ UXQ IRU IXWXUH RI¿FH 0D\ VXUJHXQOHVVZHÀRRGWKH]RQHZLWK
large part about the new way of two-tenths of a percentage point that if you released every drug of- be the police are bringing stronger economic, familial, psychological
doing business in the House. A from real gross domestic product fender from state prison today, you’d cases. Additionally, prosecutors are and social repair.
By DAVID BROOKS
New York Times News Service
P
Shutdown damages
are real costs
O
Remember when Republicans
were the party of business?
group of recently arrived tea par-
ty Republicans stand in the way
of the speaker’s bringing bills to
WKH+RXVHÀRRUIRULQVWDQFHWKH
immigration reform bill passed
by the Senate in 2013.
That insurgent group, which
calls itself “conservative” is itch-
ing to shut down the federal gov-
ernment over the issue of fund-
ing Planned Parenthood.
In their ignorance, these law-
growth in the fourth quarter.”
The projections of a shutdown
damage are not hypothetical.
Reported Carney: “The 2013
government shutdown cut be-
WZHHQ WZRWHQWKV DQG VL[WHQWKV
of a percentage point from real
GDP in that year’s fourth quar-
ter, according to government and
private estimates.”
Remember when Republicans
were the party of business?
Jeb Bush, ‘free stuff’ and black folks
As King told an audi-
cent work in the prior or
ence at Stanford Universi-
subsequent year.”
ty in 1967, he understood
The problem isn’t re-
that the dismantling of
t a campaign event in fusal to work, but inabil-
legal segregation was in a
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South Carolina last week,
way, the easy part. It was
stable and pays a living
Republican presidential candi- wage, thereby pushing
the structural racism, not
date Jeb Bush was asked how he them out of need and el-
written in law but on in
the minds of men, that was
planned to include black people igibility.
harder to change.
Bush’s
comment
also
in his campaign and get them to
He blasted “large seg-
hints at the role of black
Charles
vote for him.
ments
of white society”
men without acknowledg-
Blow
Bush responded, “Our message is ing the disastrous toll ra-
for being “more concerned
cially skewed patterns of mass incar- about tranquility and the status quo
one of hope and aspiration.”
ceration have taken on the fortunes than about justice, equality, and hu-
But he didn’t stop there. He con- of black families by disproportion- manity.” He slammed what he calls
tinued: “It isn’t one of division and ately ensnaring black men.
the “white backlash” for being the
get in line and we’ll take care of you
$OO KLVWRU\ DQG FRQWH[W DUH FDVW cause of black discontent and shouts
with free stuff. Our message is one aside in support of a specious argu- for Black Power, rather than the re-
.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, on the unprincipled belief that that is uplifting — that says you can ment: That the black community is sult of it, calling it “merely a new
plagued by pathological dependence name for an old phenomenon.” And
D-Ore., is unusual in the the nation is best off when gov- achieve earned success.”
There
it
is!
If
you
let
people
talk
and a chronic, self-defeating posture he declared that true integration “is
modern American Congress ernment is crippled.
long enough, the true self will al- of victimization.
not merely a romantic or aesthetic
in attaching a high value to the
The Lugar Center at ways be revealed. Not only is there
And this is not some one-time something where you merely add
principle of bipartisanship — of Georgetown University honors a supreme irony in this racial con- slip of the tongue for Bush. In Bush’s color to a still predominantly white
putting “problem solving and former Republican U.S. Sen. descension that casts black people, book written two decades ago, Pro- power structure.”
You see, King wasn’t naively
the needs of the country ahead Richard Lugar’s legacy of work- whose free labor helped establish the ¿ les in Character, he wrote: “Since
prosperity of this country and who the 1960s, the politics of victimiza- oblivious to structural racism and
of your political party, caucus or ing with colleagues on behalf of ZHUH V\VWHPDWLFDOO\ H[FOXGHG IURP WLRQ KDV VWHDGLO\ LQWHQVL¿HG %HLQJ how it cloistered power and inhib-
any other group or pledge that the national good. It publishes a WKHIXOOEHQH¿WVRIWKDWSURVSHULW\IRU a victim gives rise to certain enti- LWHG PRELOLW\ DQG HTXDOLW\ KH ZDV
WOHPHQWV EHQH¿WV DQG acutely aware of it and adamantly
you have signed,” as he said in %LSDUWLVDQ,QGH[WKDWUDWHVFXUUHQW generations, as leeches
only desirous of “free
in society. opposed to it. It wasn’t about victim-
2012.
members.
If you let preferences
stuff,” this line of rea-
The surest way to get ization, but honest appraisal. Most
Wyden again addressed the
Wyden comes out among the soning also infantilizes
something in today’s black people don’t want America’s
people
society is to elevate prescriptions, pittances or pity, and
issue of working together this most bipartisan senators , 36th black thought and con-
sciousness
and
presents
one’s status to that of never have.
talk
long
week as the Senate passed a tem- out of 100. Elsewhere in the
James Baldwin told The Paris
an I-know-best-what-
the oppressed. Many
porary spending bill to avoid a Northwest, senators who rate ails-you paternalism
enough,
of the modern victim Review three decades ago that he re-
looming government shutdown. comparatively well for bipar- about black progress.
movements — the fused to think of himself as a victim,
the
true
It
echoes
the
trope
gay rights movement, and that “perhaps the turning point in
Noting Wednesday that this tisanship include Sens. Maria
about
lazy
“welfare
the feminist move- one’s life is realizing that to be treat-
self will
includes $700 million in desper- Cantwell, D-Wash., 43rd and Jon
queens,” although as
ment, the black em- ed like a victim is not necessarily to
DWHO\ QHHGHG ZLOG¿UH IXQGLQJ Tester, D-Mont., 23rd.
a report last year from always be
powerment movement EHFRPHRQH´$V%DOGZLQH[SODLQHG
Wyden said, “This short-term
Highly partisan U.S. sena- the Congressional Re-
— have attempted to it, “if I took the role of a victim then I
revealed.
search
Service
makes
get people to view was simply reassuring the defenders
¿[LVDQXQIRUWXQDWHQHFHVVLW\DV tors from our region include
clear:
“Historically,
themselves as part of RIWKHVWDWXVTXRDVORQJDV,ZDVD
once again, Congress has decid- Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., at nonwhite women had a higher la- a smaller group
deserving of some- victim they could pity me and add a
ed to govern by crisis. ... I intend 93rd, along with Sen. Jim Risch, bor force participation rate than did thing from society. It is a major de- few more pennies to my home-relief
to keep pushing for a bipartisan, R-Idaho, 95th, John Barrasso, white women. This especially held viation from the society envisioned check.”
Pity doesn’t dismantle privilege,
by Martin Luther King, who would
ORQJWHUP¿[WRSURYLGHIXQGLQJ R-Wyo., 86th, and Patty Murray, true for married women.”
Furthermore, although blacks have had people judged by the con- but supports it. Pity requires a perch.
for prevention funds as well as D-Wash., 83rd.
are disproportionately the recipients tent of their character and not by the It rolls down. Pity reinforces imbal-
ZLOG¿UHVXSSUHVVLRQ´
In the U.S. House from our of programs likes the Supplemen- FRORURIWKHLUVNLQ²RUVH[XDOSUHI ances of power. It can be violence
operating as benevolence.
This is precisely the kind of area, Democratic U.S. Rep. tal Nutrition Assistance Program, erence or gender or ethnicity.”
Black folk don’t want “free stuff”
a
2013
report
from
the
Center
on
Not
only
does
this
completely
ig-
“public good” that national gov- Suzanne Bonamici is in the mid-
Budget and Policy Priorities found nore the historical and structural ef- DV PXFK DV WKH IXO¿OOPHQW RI WKH
ernment is best positioned to dle of the pack — 176th out of that most households with at least fect of America’s endemic anti-black promise of freedom: true equality of
provide — stepping up to help the 422 House members , while one working-age, non disabled adult racism, it also misinterprets King’s access, opportunity and justice. Bush
in an emergency and working Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, UHFHLYLQJ WKH EHQH¿W ZRUN DQG RI own understanding of this phenom- — and America — would do well to
consider that.
those with families, “almost 90 per- enon.
By CHARLES M. BLOW
New York Times News Service
A
Sen. Wyden is a
bipartisan champion
U
to avoid future disasters. This
is particularly appropriate in
WKH FDVH RI ZLOG¿UHV DQG IRU
est maintenance, which often
heavily impact publicly owned
lands.
Unfortunately, we live in a
lamentable time in American
politics when a powerful block
of blockheads in Congress acts
R-Wash., is 150th.
Clearly, the most partisan
political party members who
actively participate in primary
elections and caucuses are likely
to feel less happy about efforts to
cooperate with “the other side.”
But a majority of Americans be-
OLHYH SDUW\ DI¿OLDWLRQV VKRXOGQ¶W
get in the way of governing.
Where to write
• U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici
(D): 2338 Rayburn HOB, Washing-
ton, D.C., 20515. Phone: 202- 225-
)D[ 'LVWULFW
RI¿FH 6: 0LOOLNDQ :D\
Suite 220, Beaverton, OR 97005.
3KRQH)D[
5066. Web: bonamici.house. gov/
• U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D):
+DUW 6HQDWH 2I¿FH %XLOGLQJ
Washington, D.C. 20510. Phone:
202-224-3753. Web: www.merkley.
senate.gov
• U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D):
'LUNVHQ6HQDWH2I¿FH%XLOGLQJ
Washington, D.C., 20510. Phone:
202-224-5244. Web: www.wyden.
senate.gov
• State Rep. Brad Witt (D):
State Capitol, 900 Court Street N.E.,
H-373, Salem, OR 97301. Phone:
503-986-1431. Web: www.leg.state.
or.us/witt/ Email: rep.bradwitt@
state.or.us