LOUISIANA INCARCERATED HOW WE BUILT THE WORLD’S PRISON CAPITAL
LOUISIANA IS THE WORLD’S PRISON CAPITAL. THE STATE IMPRISONS MORE OF ITS PEOPLE, PER HEAD, THAN ANY OF ITS U.S. COUNTERPARTS. FIRST AMONG AMERICANS ME ANS FIRST IN THE WORLD. LOUISIANA’S INCARCERATION RATE IS NEARLY FIVE TIMES IRAN’S, 13 TIMES CHINA’S AND 20 TIMES GERMANY’S. THE HIDDEN ENGINE BEHIND THE STATE’S WELL-OILED PRISON MACHINE IS COLD, HARD CASH.
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SHERIFFS AND POLITICIANS HAVE FINANCIAL INCENTIVES TO KEEP PEOPLE LOCKED UP MAY 13, 2012
By Cindy Chang prison population has doubled, cost- Sta! writer ing taxpayers billions while New ouisiana is the world’s prison Orleans continues to lead the nation in capital. The state imprisons more homicides. of its people, per head, than any of its U.S. counterparts. First time, nearly double the national aver- among Americans means first age. Among black men from New in the world. Louisiana’s incar- in seven is either in prison, on parole or on probation. Crime rates in Louisiana times Germany’s. are relatively high, but that does not LThe hidden engine behind the state’s begin to explain the state’s No. 1 rank- well-oiled prison machine is cold, hard ing, year after year, in the percentage of cash. A majority of Louisiana inmates residents it locks up. In Louisiana, a two-time car burglar - of drug convictions can be enough to try will go bankrupt. land you at the Louisiana State Peniten- Several homegrown private pris- tiary at Angola for the rest of your life. on companies command a slice of the Almost every state lets judges decide market. But in a uniquely Louisiana when to mete out the severest punish- twist, most prison entrepreneurs are ment and when a sympathetic defen- rural sheriffs, who hold tremendous dant should have a chance at freedom sway in remote parishes like Madison, down the road. In Louisiana, murderers Avoyelles, East Carroll and Concor- automatically receive life without parole dia. A good portion of Louisiana law on the guilty votes of as few as 10 of 12 enforcement is financed with dollars jurors. legally skimmed off the top of prison The lobbying muscle of the sheriffs, operations. buttressed by a tough-on-crime elec- If the inmate count dips, sheriffs torate, keeps these harsh sentencing bleed money. Their constituents lose jobs. The prison lobby ensures this does “Something has to be done — it just not happen by thwarting nearly every has to be done — about the long sen- reform that could result in fewer people tences,” said Angola Warden Burl Cain. behind bars. “Some people you can let out of here Meanwhile, inmates subsist in bare- that won’t hurt you and can be produc- bones conditions with few programs tive citizens, and we know the ones who to give them a better shot at becom- can’t.” ing productive citizens. Each inmate is Every dollar spent on prisons is a dol- lar not spent on schools, hospitals and sheriffs trade them like horses, unload- highways. Other states are strategically ing a few extras on a colleague who has reducing their prison populations — openings. A prison system that leased using tactics known in policy circles as its convicts as plantation labor in the “smart on crime.” Compared with the national average, Louisiana has a much In the past two decades, Louisiana’s CONTINUED
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— CONTINUED — lower percentage of people incar- cerated for violent offenses and a much higher percentage behind bars for drug offenses — per- haps a signal that some nonvio- lent criminals could be dealt with differently. inmates need to be incarcerated for the interests of punishment and public safety to be served? Gov. Bobby Jindal, a conserva- tive Republican with presidential ambitions, says the answer is no. Despite locking up more people for longer periods than any other state, Louisiana has one of the highest rates of both violent and property crimes. Yet the state shows few signs of weaning itself off its prison dependence. “You have people who are so invested in maintaining the pres- ent system — not just the sher- iffs, but judges, prosecutors, oth- er people who have links to it,” said Burk Foster, a former pro- fessor at the University of Loui- siana-Lafayette and an expert on Louisiana prisons. “They don’t want to see the prison system get smaller or the number of people in custody reduced, even though the crime rate is down, because the good old boys are all linked together in the punishment net- work, which is good for them Keeping the beds full In the early 1990s, when the incarceration rate was half what it is now, Louisiana was at a crossroads. Under a federal court order to reduce overcrowd- ing, the state had two choices: Lock up fewer people or build more prisons. It achieved the latter, not with new state prisons — there was no money for that — but by encour- laws in line with those of other and commutation — and get rid aging sheriffs to foot the con- states or by putting minor offend- of people who shouldn’t be here,” struction bills in return for future ers in alternative programs. The said Richard Crane, former gen- profits. The financial incentives new sheriffs’ beds were ready eral counsel for the Louisiana were so sweet, and the correc- and waiting. Overcrowding Department of Corrections. tions jobs so sought after, that became a thing of the past, even Today, wardens make daily new prisons sprouted up all over as the inmate population multi- rounds of calls to other sheriffs’ rural Louisiana. plied rapidly. The national prison popula- “If the sheriffs hadn’t built their beds. Urban areas such as tion was expanding at a rapid those extra spaces, we’d either New Orleans and Baton Rouge clip. Louisiana’s grew even faster. have to go to the Legislature and have an excess of sentenced crim- There was no need to rein in the say,’ Give us more money,’ or inals, while prisons in remote growth by keeping sentencing we’d have to reduce the sentenc- es, make it easier to get parole CONTINUED 1
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parishes must import inmates charges such as drug pos- to survive. session, burglary or writing The more empty beds, the bad checks. State prisons are more an operation sinks into reserved for the worst of the the red. With maximum occu- worst. pancy and a thrifty touch with Yet it is the murderers, rap - expenses, a sheriff can divert ists and other long-termers - who learn trades like weld- - ing, auto mechanics, air-condi- ties with new squad cars, guns tioning repair and plumbing. and laptops. Inmates spend Angola’s Bible college offers - the only chance for Louisiana mitories with nothing to do and inmates to earn an undergrad- few educational opportunities uate degree. before being released into soci- Such opportunities are not available to the 52 percent Fred Schoonover, deputy serving their time in local pris- warden of the 522-bed Ten- ons. In a cruel irony, those sas Parish Detention Center who could benefit most are in northeast Louisiana, says unable to better themselves, he does not view inmates as a while men who will die in pris- “commodity.” But he acknowl- edges that the prison’s busi- ness model is built on head Louisiana specializes in counts. Like other wardens in incarceration on the cheap, this part of the state, he wheels allocating by far the least mon- and deals to maintain his tal- ey per inmate of any state. ly of human beings. His boss, - Tensas Parish Sheriff Rickey eral times lower than what Jones, relies on him to keep Angola and other state-run the numbers up. prisons spend — even before “We struggle. I stay on the the sheriff takes his share. All phone a lot, calling all over the local wardens can offer is GED state, trying to hustle a few,” classes and perhaps an inmate- Schoonover said. led support group such as Some sheriffs, and even a Alcoholics Anonymous. Their few small towns, lease their facilities are cramped and air- prison rights to private com- less compared with the spa- panies. LaSalle Corrections, cious grounds of state prisons, based in Ruston, plays a role in where inmates walk along out- housing one of seven Louisiana door breezeways and stay busy prisoners. LCS Corrections with jobs or classes. Services, another homegrown - company, runs three Louisiana prisons and is a major donor about half of the state’s ex-con- to political campaigns, includ- victs end up behind bars again. ing those of urban sheriffs Gregory Barber has seen who supply rural prisons with the contrast between state inmates. Incarceration on the cheap began a four-year sentence Ask anyone who has done for burglary at the state-run time in Louisiana whether Phelps Correctional Center — he or she would rather be in a stroke of luck for someone a state-run prison or a local with a relatively short sentence sheriff-run prison. The answer on a nonviolent charge who is invariably state prison. might easily have ended up in a Inmates in local prisons are sheriff ’s custody. typically serving sentences of With only six months to go, 10 years or less on nonviolent the New Orleans native was 1
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transferred to Richwood Correc- the very institutions that could up in a drug sweep than, say, an tional Center, a LaSalle-run pris- help young people stay out of Uptown college student with a on near Monroe. He had hoped trouble, giving rise to a vicious sideline marijuana business. to end his time in a work-release cycle. Louisiana spends about With so many people lost to program to up his chances of get- either prison or violence, fray- ting a good job. But the 11th- secure and provide medical care ing neighborhoods enter a down- hour transfer rendered him ineli- ward spiral. As the incarceration gible. At Phelps, he took a weld- rate climbs, more children grow ing class. Now, he whiles away - up with fathers, brothers, grand- the hours lying in his bunk for er run by sheriffs or private fathers and uncles in prison, put- lack of anything better to do. The companies. ting them at increased risk of only relief from the monotony is “Clearly, the more that Louisi- repeating the cycle themselves. an occasional substance-abuse ana invests in large-scale incarcer- ‘Don’t feel no pity’ rehab meeting. ation, the less money is available Angola is home to scores of old “In DOC camps, you’d go to for everything from preschools men who cannot get out of bed, the yard every day, go to work,” to community policing that could let alone commit a crime. Some- said Barber, 50, of state-run pris- help to reduce the prison popula- one who made a terrible mis- ons. “Here, you just lay down, tion,” said Marc Mauer, execu- take in his youth and has trans- or go to meetings. It makes time tive director of The Sentencing formed himself after decades in pass a little slower.” Project, a national criminal justice prison has little to no chance at Downward spiral reform group. “You almost institu- freedom. While Louisiana tops the pris- tionalize the high rate of incarcer- Louisiana has a higher percent- on rankings, it consistently vies ation, and it’s even harder to get age of inmates serving life with- with Mississippi — the state with out of that situation.” out parole than any other state. the second-highest incarceration Louisiana’s prison epidemic Its justice system is unstintingly rate — for the worst schools, the disproportionately affects neigh- tough on petty offenders as well most poverty, the highest infant borhoods already devastated by as violent criminals. In more than mortality. One in three Louisi- crime and poverty. In some parts four years in office, Jindal has of New Orleans, a stint behind only pardoned one inmate. grade level. The vast majority bars is a rite of passage for young “Louisiana don’t feel no pity. did not complete high school. The men. I feel like everybody deserves - About 5,000 black men from a second chance,” said Preston ing is all too tempting when the New Orleans are doing state Russell, a Lower 9th Ward native alternative is a low-wage, dead- who received life without parole end job. white men from the city. Because for a string of burglaries and a More money spent on locking police concentrate resources on crack charge. “I feel like dudes up an ever-growing number of high-crime areas, minor law- get all this education ... under prisoners means less money for breakers there are more likely to be stopped and frisked or caught CONTINUED
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