THIS AND THAT

Chris N. Nelson

Is it just me, or does the fact that the DOC has been operating under a "state of emergency" due to "imminent prisoner overcrowding," for the past six years suggest major incompetence on the part of the departments management? I mean golly gee whiz, if it were another department of the state government, say like DOT and its road maintenance crews, we sure would have a public crisis. And if the only solution – " a temporary, stop gap" for the mess over all of the six years was to pray for better weather (like they have in Arizona), well…there would be some folks fired and more competent people hired to take care of matters on the double. So, maybe it is time that DOC Commissioner, Margaret Pugh, and Director of Institutions, Allen Cooper were replaced with someone competent enough not to permit a "state of emergency" to exist for six years. Without a clue of how to resolve the emergency.

 

Here's a thought to ponder from the category of crime prevention notions of prisoners. With the vast majority of prisoners being high school dropouts and lacking a basic education, it's not any giant leap to say that a lack of education leads to crime. At the same time, budgets for prisons have steadily risen and budgets for education have declined. So, in total self-interest, but cloaked in the "best public interests" argument, I propose that Alaska shut down a 100 bed unit, totally close it, and take the $35,000 to $50,000 a year per prison bed and use it to hire 100 school teachers. More teachers mean better education and less crime and less prison beds mean a better shot for me to get out.

Woooooaaaaaa Nelly! Let me see if I've got this right. The Kenai Natives Association wants to build a private prison near the existing Wildwood facility in Kenai and contract with the State to house Alaskan prisoners. If I have my facts straight, right now there is something like 1 out of every 100 Alaskans already locked up by the State. Of the adult prisoner population, approximately 35% to 40% are Alaska Natives. The Alaska Native population statewide is something like 15% to 20% of the total Alaska population. Now the greedy folks at the Kenai Natives Association want to incarcerate still more of their own people so that a few dollars can be made. Talk about selling out your own people! Heck, I’d almost be willing to wager that the folks at the Kenai Natives Association would pimp out their sisters and mothers if they thought they could get away with it and turn a profit. I guess we can just about say as a certainty – "Ain't nothing sacred anymore."

 

Hey, with Ramona Barnes missing from the Alaska Legislature, do you suppose there is any chance of some reasonable amendment to Alaskan presumptive sentencing laws getting passed? For those who don't talk about it much, or just ain't in the know, " presumptive sentencing" ala Alaska style, is a combination to two things. First, it sets sentencing terms based on what is supposed a "typical offender." Second, it denies discretionary parole eligibility for anyone who receives a presumptive sentence. Presumptive sentencing, defined as above, is the single largest cause for the constant crisis of prisoner overcrowding in Alaska. Presumptive sentencing was enacted in 1980, at the time there were all of 750 prisoners in the Alaska system. By 1985 the system was overcrowded, and DOC’s quick fix, then as now, is build more prison beds. Hmmm…let me see if I can state the facts in easier to understand terms. If you have a bathtub and you turn the faucet on full blast and clog the drain at the same time, well…only an idiot doesn't expect the bathtub to overflow, right? Now, if you didn't want to deal with an overflowing bath tub, you would deduce, by simple logic, that you need to either (1) turn off the faucet; (2) open the clogged drain; or (3) some combination of (1) and (2). Well, guess what DOC’s grand solution has been for twenty years? That right, build up the sides of the bathtub – which is now swimming pool proportions, by the way. At any rate, that 1000 bed private joint the Kenai Natives Association wants to build would cover about five years of Alaskan prisoner population growth rate as it stands right now. Hmmmmm…so let me see…$60,000,000 in construction costs and add another $20,000,000 to the annual DOC operating budget every five years and what do we have…? The Ramona Barnes version of "tough on crime." By the way, none of this twenty-year legacy of Barnes, and other members of the Republican Party had reduced the crime rates or made anyone’s streets any safer – it sure provided some cushy State jobs though.

 

 

Recidivism

Out of State Transfers

 

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