Not nameless inmates, but our neighbors
Stan Moody of Manchester, a former state represent
I watched the facial expressions of legislators while I testified on Maine's Solitary Confinement bill, LD1611, and it was clear that they were struggling with how to rephrase their staid corrections mentality in the face of mounting evidence of its failure of logic and common sense.
Meanwhile, it is becoming increasingly possible that every person reading this article has known or maybe been closely associated with a felon.
In less than a month after becoming a chaplain at Maine State Prison, I discovered, to my surprise, that I knew several prisoners there.
Two of them I had known since they were about 10 years old. One had been raised near my home in an upscale professional neighborhood in Portland. He had worn a path from his back door to ours over the years.
Why did I not know what had happened to him?
The blunt fact is that, like too many other suburbanites, I was so busy with my own life that I really didn't care. His presence within that prison is a constant reminder to me of my own failure as a friend and neighbor.
At the legislative work session on the bill, several committee members repeated a rehearsed mantra, "What about the victims?" Apparently, if they demonstrate concern for basic civil rights for prisoners whose own families are paying a severe price for their crimes, they betray the people they have damaged.
I hate to break this to you, but crime is our -- the public's -- problem. In Maine, we spend $40,000 per year to keep offenders out of sight, sentenced under an Elizabethan system that believes that punishment builds character.
At any one time, about 13 percent of prisoners at the Maine State Prison are in segregation -- the same number employed in the Prison Industries Program that produces knickknacks for the prison store in Thomaston.
It is likely that more than 50 percent have been in segregation at least once during their incarceration. It is the New Age way of keeping an overcrowded prison under control.
The keepers of the prison gate are more neighbors. Some are there by the curious twists and turns of fate. Others are there because they have a fascination with police culture. A number have higher education; most have high school diplomas; some have GEDs. Some even have criminal records, I was told by a private investigator.
Interestingly, legislators who think they represent a state of vigilantes, not the general public, are cramming our prisons full of drug offenders, drunken drivers, three-time losers and shoplifters -- 60 percent of whom are destined to be imprisoned for the same offenses within two years.
The public, however, is receptive to such preventive measures as intervention in parenting and better drug treatment programs, except, of course, for sex offenders, rapists and gruesome murderers, when hard labor is the lightest punishment they think is appropriate.
My college professor son was out for a late-night walk in his South Carolina neighborhood a couple of weeks ago. He was hit by car driven by a young woman and was thrown up over the hood, where he smashed her windshield, before being left for dead on the side of the road.
A half-hour later, he regained consciousness and lurched from mailbox to mailbox back to his home. From there, he went to the hospital and had surgery.
Neighbors apparently saw him lurching along the street badly hurt, but instead assumed he was a drunk and pulled their curtains shut, making him a victim of law-and-order hysteria.
Legislators who puff themselves up as protectors of society are negligently cutting off alternative sentencing for non-violent crimes and threatening transfer to private prisons with their three meals a day of peanut butter sandwiches.
I would like to know how much drug and alcohol treatment and sex offender rehabilitation you might get for $40,000 a year per person, while perhaps generating enough income to offer appropriate victim compensation.
We are all in it together, folks. Rage, impulse, anger and escape from reality infect us all to one degree or another. What ever happened to, "There, but for the grace of God, go I"?
Neighbor-to-neighbor, is this really the best we can do?
Stan Moody of Manchester, a former state representative and chaplain at the Maine State Prison, is the author of "Crisis in Evangelical Scholarship" and "McChurched: 300 Million Served and Still Hungry." He is pastor at the Meeting House Church in Manchester and is a frequent speaker on social justice issues. His Web site is www.stanmoody.com
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10 COMMENTS
PeterV said...
Unbelievable.
March 18, 2010 at 8:20 AM Report abuse
stopthismess said...
Sorry, but some of your neighbors stole 2 chainsaws from a friend of mine this summer and the family had to spend money they really couldn't spare to buy heating oil because of this punk. PLEASE keep better control of YOUR neighbors.
March 18, 2010 at 8:37 AM Report abuse
OldClarkie said...
Problem with criminals is they commit crimes and most know better and have better choices. Often they are above normal intelligence and have favorable social skills. Problem is making bad choices in life. Chaplains are in the forgiving business. I am not without faith. However, criminals do break laws and while prison life may appear to harsh it also provides a chance to get out in cases and even educate. Temptation is also in blame as it may appear an easy road to riches to steal, rob or even scam someone then to work. Kill or harm someone instead of working it out. Some people are best kept from the general public. I do think hard labor camp is best where they can be used to pay their own prison terms. If it costs us 40k a year for an inmate then make the inmate debt his later with a 10% garnishment for life until he pays of his debt.
March 18, 2010 at 11:22 AM Report abuse
GranTorino said...
Thanks Stan, you undercover progressive investigator you. I for once would like people to stop lamenteting about "look what happened to that person" and tell it like it really is......a person is responsible for their choices. Don't do the crime if you can't do the time.
March 18, 2010 at 12:16 PM Report abuse
stan1 said...
For those taxpayers who object to spending $1,000 per family, headed toward $2,000 in 8 years, to house shoplifters and probation violators, please take an objective look at the problem by visiting my web site, www.stanmoody.com...
March 18, 2010 at 1:32 PM Report abuse
Pinecone said...
What is the color of the sky in your world? Holy smokes! Perhaps we should just abolish all the laws and just let everyone do what they want. No one will take advantage of anyone in that situation... Apparently you are under the mistaken impression that everyone has the capacity for rehabilitation. That is a sentiment that I and many others do not share. Until we make the laws punitive enough, people will continue to act like animals raping and killing etc. Even then some will continue because they are sociopathic in nature and don't care a lick about anyone but themselves. While I can admire your calling and optimistic view of humanity, I think you are a little out of touch with REALITY.
March 18, 2010 at 4:06 PM Report abuse
fluffers said...
I don't think this man is saying that offenders shouldn't do their time, nor is he excusing them. He's saying that it's in our best interests to assist them with what they need to be a help to their communities while they're inside rather than make them worse. Read his essay again since it doesn't take much time to understand it. This is a win for all of us who pay the bills and will keep us safer. Martha
March 18, 2010 at 8:36 PM Report abuse
HesterPrynne said...
Stan, thank you for a very common sense look at an issue which wastes millions of dollars each year to house non-violent prisoners. The one thing you didn't mention; one purpose of sending people to jail is to help those OUTSIDE jail think a problem has been solved. It lets them off the hook of having to come up with something that DOES work...and that ain't jail. The only thing a prisoner learns in jail is how to be a better criminal. And we pay dearly for that education. Plus, not only are we supporting the prisoner, but usually his family as well, TANF ($500), food stamps $250), MaineCare (priceless), maybe housing ($12,000). All this while making a person on a bad road go even faster down that slippery slope. Yessire, prison is the way to go.
March 18, 2010 at 8:41 PM Report abuse
Myview said...
What about the basic civil rights of the victims. We are not talking about shoplifters, we are talking about prisoners who have raped or molested little children, and murdered their neighbors.I see no need to treat them differently than they treated their victims. We should pay what it cost to keep them locked up.
March 20, 2010 at 6:48 PM Report abuse
PJ said...
But then Mr. Moody IS talking about shoplifters and OUI and probation violators (often for having a few drinks) who are crowding prisons. Drying them out locked up doesn't solve their problems... or ours. Too often this just complicates their lives when they get out and they resort to old habits. I don't see where Mr. Moody asked for leniency for anyone.
March 21, 2010 at 7:32 AM Report abuse