lune 29.2011____________________________
®i» ^Jortlani» (Observer
Page 9
Q pinion
Our Prison System is Bankrupting Us
Need smarter and
more compassionate
approach
by
S arah
van
G elder
If there was any doubt
about the broken state of
our prison system, recent
news should put it to rest.
The Global Commission on Drug Policy,
made up of fonner presidents and other
luminaries from the United States and
abroad, just concluded that the Drug War
is an expensive failure. The California
prison system— which the U.S. Supreme
Court declared to be in violation of the 8th
Amendment due to overcrowding and
neglect— has yet to develop a plan to bring
it into compliance with the court order.
Less well publicized, but also disturb
ing, is a letter from Tom Lutz in which he
resigns from his post as department chair
at the University of California Riverside.
Lutz warns that the state is dismantling in
just a few years a world-class system of
higher education. Funding has shifted dra
matically from educating California’s
young to imprisoning them— not a way to
build a strong country.
Meanwhile, massive state budget defi
cits are worsened by the expense of lock
ing up more of our own citizens than any
other country in the world.
Perhaps we’re finally ready for a reas
sessment. What might a more effective
and rational system look like?
As we researched the summer issue of
YES!, “Beyond Prisons,” we found a
blossoming of creative alternatives to the
punitive drug war and to the criminal
justice system’s expensive punishment
ethic.
People behind bars for drug possession
make up the greatest share of the massive
uptick in the prison population. The ex
perts we talked to, including a former
police chief and a medical doctor who
specializes in addiction, called for an end
to the war on drugs. Instead of punishing
drug addicts— many of whom are victims
of trauma— treatment, needle exchanges,
and safe housing lessen addiction, dis
ease, and the crimes caused by drug use.
Most of the 2.3 million now in prison
will eventually be released. Education and
job training are proven ways to reduce the
number who reoffend and return to prison.
Ex-offenders and ex-addicts can be the
best mentors of those released from prison;
the Delancey Street Project, for example,
offers peer support and job-skills training
in businesses run by ex-inmates and ad
dicts, and their success record is impres
sive.
Traditional approaches to crime hold
special promise. In New Zealand, instead
of locking up young offenders, a council
made up of family, community members,
and crime victims holds them accountable
for their crimes, and then gives them an
opportunity to make restitution and be
reintegrated into the community. This
approach, which borrows from the Maori
people, has become the norm in New
Zealand, reducing to almost zero the num
ber of young people locked up in expen
sive and violent detention facilities.
This “restorative justice” approach is
spreading. Studies show crime victims
who are involved in victim-offender me
diation processes are less likely to experi
ence long-term post-traumatic stress.
The involvement of the broader com
munity is key to the success of restorative
approaches. A welding instructor who
volunteers to instruct inmates, a Girl Scout
leader who brings girls to visit their im
prisoned mothers, or a garden club that
helps inmates start prison gardens all do
their part to create vital links to the out
side.
There are people we might agree should
be locked up; psychopathic killers, rap
ists, and others who endanger their fami
lies or communities. But most of those in
prison are people with few resources who
have committed nonviolent offenses—
especially poor people, people of color,
drug users, alcoholics, and the mentally
challenged.
Imprisoning millions of these people
does not make us safer. But imprisoning
2.3 million people does deplete govern
ment coffers resulting in massive cuts in
programs— like California’s system of
higher education— that have proven track
records for reducing crime.
A smarter and more compassionate
criminal justice system could not only
save lives and restore communities espe
cially hard hit by imprisonments, it could
save us from fiscal meltdown.
Sarah van Gelder is executive editor o f
YES! Magazine.
Inaccurate claim on Women, Beauty and Race
‘Psychology
Today’ blog
supported racism
BY VlLMARYS PlCHARDO
A lot of outrage was provoked when
Psychology Today published a blog on
race and beauty titled, “Why Are Black
Women Less Physically Attractive than
Other Women, And Not Men.”
The recent post was written by Satoshi
Kanazawa, a Japanese journalist and pro
fessor at the London School of Econom
ics who uses evolutionary psychology to
examine economic, social and anthropo
logical issues.
Kanazawa referred to a study con
ducted by the University of North to make
what he calls a “scientific” analysis on
why “black women are objectively less
physically attractive than other women.”
He then faced an investigation by the
London School and was fired. His article
(Dbseruer
was removed from Psychology Today’s
website.
The magazine’s editor- in- chief, Kaja
Purina, delivered the following apology;
“A blog post about race and appearance
by Satoshi Kanazawa was published—and
promptly rem oved-from this site. We
deeply apologize for the pain and offense
that this post caused. Psychology Today's
mission is to inform the public, not to
provide a platform for inflammatory and
offensive material. Psychology Today does
not tolerate racism or prejudice of any
sort. The post was not approved by Psy
chology Today, but we take full responsi
bility for its publication on our site. We
have taken measures to ensure that such
an incident does not occur again. Again,
we are deeply sorry for the hurt that this
post caused.”
Kanazawa’s article, to no surprise, of
fended many.
But because the claims he made contra
dict the values in Psychology Today’s
own mission statement, the question that
Established 1970
USPS 959-680 __________________________________
47 47 NE Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd., Portland, OR 97211
still prevails is how and why was the study could not draw the implication
Kanazawa’s article published in the first that African-American women were per
place?
ceived as less attractive than other women.
Did the publication’s editors miss the
Instead of writing a piece on why the
bizarre claims made in the article or was teenagers who participated in the study
Kanazawa’s analysis viewed as an inter perceived black women as they did,
esting and scientific approach to the psy Kanawaza decided to perceive their re
chology of beauty in relationship to racial sults as “objective” data and preceded
differences?
with making what he claims were “scien
The idea that beauty is in the eye of the tific” conclusions. He made the analysis
beholder is a common phenomena. No that black women are perceived as less
tions of beauty often differ among people attractive due to their testosterone levels.
and communities and furthermore are
The offensive and peculiar article brings
likely to be influenced by popular culture, up multiple concerns, ranging from why
power structures and social constructs.
was Kanazawa’s article published, to
When taking a close look at the data the who’s to say who is or isn’t beautiful, to
“evolutionary psychologist” used for his the question of why “scientists” and pro
article, it is obvious that he chose to focus fessionals such as Kanazawa feel com
on a specific part of the study. The study fortable with making such inaccurate, and
was composed of two groups, adolescent poorly researched claims to promote rac
aged participants and adults.
ism?
The adolescents, between the ages of
Vilmarys Pichardo is a freelance writer
12 and 17, were said to perceive black working with the Portland Observer this
women as less attractive than other women. summer. She is also a student at Mills
Meanwhile the adults who participated in College in Oakland, Calif.
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