Ye Olde Prisoners

There are lots of countries – virtually all of Europe – where the death penalty has been abolished. Extradition of those accused in the United States of a capital crime is often stopped if the death penalty is a possibility. Life without the possibility of parole is also a sentence that is increasingly an American phenomenon, often imposed for everything from crimes like rape, murder to kidnapping, espionage, etc. Some countries cap any potential sentence, under any circumstances, at maximum fixed term – Portugal at 25 years, Brazil and Bolivia at 30 years, Serbia 40 years, Mexico 50 years, etc., etc. – or allow a maximum sentence to extend only if the criminal still poses a threat to society (Norway, which otherwise imposes a 30 year sentence for genocide and 21 years for other heinous crimes). Those that have life sentences seldom allow them to be imposed for people under 18 years of age.

“In the US, at least 40,000 people are imprisoned without hope for parole, including 2,500 under the age of 18… That is just a fraction of those who have been given a life sentence but yet may one day win release. The Sentencing Project, a non-profit organisation that studies sentencing and criminal justice in America, estimated in 2009 that at least 140,000 prisoners in the US now serve a life sentence…This does not include convicts given extremely long sentences with a fixed term, like the Alabama man sentenced to 200 years for kidnapping and armed robbery.” BBC.co.UK, June 15^th. In the UK, the number of prisoners serving “whole life” sentences is a meagre 50 total.

With 25% of the world’s prisoners, we are spending tens of billions of dollars to hold really old folks for a really long time. “More and more United States prisons resemble nursing homes with bars, where the elderly and infirm eke out shrunken lives. Prison isn’t easy for anyone, but it is especially punishing for those afflicted by the burdens of old age. Yet the old and the very old make up the fastest-growing segment of the prison population…

“[There are] at least 26,100 men and women 65 and older incarcerated in state and federal prisons, up 62 percent in just five years… Owing largely to decades of tough-on-crime policies — mandatory minimum sentences, ‘three strikes’ laws and the elimination of federal parole — these numbers are likely to increase as more and more prisoners remain incarcerated into their 70s and 80s, many until they die.” Jamie Fellner writing for the New York Times, August 18^th. Americans love their cars, football, baseball and putting folks behind bars. In budget impaired times, we still don’t want to add common sense to our judicial system even though we really cannot afford that “luxury” anymore.

US Attorney General Eric Holder recently addressed the archaic sentencing rules of the federal system, drilling down and asking judges to reconsider excessively harsh sentences, particularly in simple drug-related crimes, that are filling federal prison system that does not even have a parole alternative (a federal sentence is what it is, except for up to a 15% reduction for “good behavior”). Fellner continues: “Anger, grief and the desire for retribution are understandable, and we can all agree that people who commit serious crimes should be held accountable… But retribution can shade into vengeance. While being old should not be an automatic get-out-of-jail-free card, infirmity and illness can change the calculus of what justice requires.

“It is worth asking: What do we as a society get from keeping these people in prison? People like the 87-year-old I met who had an ‘L’ painted on his left shoe and an ‘R’ on his right so he would know which was which and who didn’t even seem to know he was in prison. Or the old men I watched play bingo in a prison day room who needed staff members to put the markers on the bingo cards for them… Holder gave his answer to this question on Aug. 12 when he announced new compassionate release policies for the Bureau of Prisons. Elderly and infirm federal prisoners who have served a significant part of their sentence and pose no danger will now be eligible for early release.” NY Times.

We have a lot of other programs, particularly education, infrastructure and research, where that money could actually be spent to make American lives a whole lot better. What do you think?

I’m Peter Dekom, and I remember my mother asking me, all-too-often, something that Americans perhaps need to hear again: are your eyes bigger than your stomach?