APP - "Prisons over schools?"

[tekkychick]

http://www.thenation.com/article/176238/will-california-choose-prisons-over-schools-again#

Last fall in California, a broad coalition of community organizations, faith-based groups, advocates and unions came together to help pass Proposition 30, Governor Jerry Brown’s bid to raise taxes to increase state revenues for schools. To sell them on the initiative, Brown told voters, “Money into our schools or money out of our schools. It’s really stark…. The California dream is built on great public schools and colleges and universities.” Prop 30’s passage was a notable victory, with more than 55 percent of voters approving the measure despite a barrage of negative advertising paid for by out-of-state anti-tax groups. For the first time in a decade, thanks to Prop 30, the State of California is likely looking at a budget surplus.

But now a move is afoot that could turn the victory on its head. To the dismay of the social justice groups that celebrated Prop 30 as a step toward eliminating the state’s infamous school-to-prison pipeline, the measure could now be perverted into a means of funneling state resources away from education and into the prison-industrial complex.

The governor and legislature have agreed on a plan to direct hundreds of millions of dollars raised by Prop 30 to relieve prison overcrowding by sending prisoners out of state and to for-profit leased facilities. And so some of the same organizations that fought for Prop 30 are taking to the streets and the Internet, organizing against the governor’s new plan.

In fact, refuting the argument that early release means dangerous criminals overrunning California’s streets, more than half the prisoners, according to a plan the governor himself proposed earlier this year, would leave for alternative lock-ups or via attrition. Yes, some would be felons returning to their home communities, but they would eventually be doing so anyway; it is a question of when, not if. The funds would be better spent not just on schools but on programs and services for those re-entering society, so that when they do—as they will—they will be better able to manage the transition, and the community will be safer for it.

Clearly, sentencing practices need reform as well. The United States incarcerates more people under the age of 21 than any other country. Children as young as 13 have been sentenced to life with no possibility of parole. In California, 45 percent of juvenile offenders locked up for life without parole in a murder case were not convicted as the killer, but because they were present at or connected with the crime. Fortunately, SB 260, a bill to end sentences of life without parole for juvenile offenders, passed the California State Assembly on September 6 and is on its way to the Senate. Similarly, last November, 69 percent of California voters chose to amend the “three strikes” law so that a low-level crime will not put someone in prison for life.

Throughout the country, states are feeling the financial and moral strain of our mania for incarceration. With only 5 percent of the world’s population, the United States has 25 percent of its prisoners. The media decry the declining quality of education in America in comparison with countries like Finland, which have soared in educational attainment. It’s worth pausing to consider that well-educated, low-crime Finland also has one of the lowest rates of incarceration—sixty prisoners per 100,000 people, as compared with the US rate of 716 per 100,000. The choice between money for prisons and money for schools is an easy one. If we really want to be tough on crime, we should be investing in educational opportunities for all our children.

Our sentencing laws suck. and investing in schools makes more sense than investing in prisons, given that our sentencing laws have put pretty low risk people into prison.