A few takeaways from yesterday evening’s forum in Boston regarding death and dying in prisons and jails:
1) Higher percentages of the black and Hispanic populations die in prison than whites.
2) Suicide is a leading cause of death.
3) Inadequate healthcare is another major problem. Heart disease, Hepatitis C, cancer, and AIDS are major causes of death.
4) 50 years old is considered geriatric if you’re in prison. This is due to the stress and strain and the lack of quality healthcare that being incarcerated bestows upon prisoners.
5) In 1974 there were around 300,000 people incarcerated in the U.S. Today there are over 2.2 million. The U.S. makes up 5% of the world’s population but has 25% of the world’s incarcerated population (“The Land of the Free”).
6) A substantial amount of those who have died have no conviction. They we either in the pre-trial or trial phases.
7) Their has been an increase recently in the incarceration of those over 50. These are new arrests over older individuals, not simply people who have aged while incarcerated.
There was quite a bit more that was shared, but the question of the night was “What can we do about it?”
All of the panelists – two prison lawyers, the former Commissioner of Corrections for Massachusetts, and a former prisoner – stressed the importance of contacting those who make decisions: local, state, and federal legislators. Let your voice be heard that you care about the people our country incarcerates. They need to hear your voice. If they don’t hear from you then they won’t know. Corrections isn’t a popular political issue for many politicians.
Also, speak up in your community, to your friends, coworkers, fellow parishioners, and family. We need to end the common mentality about prisoners, the one that has the mindset that we should just “lock them up and throw away the key.” I used to believe this.
Nelson Mandela, who was himself a prisoner for nearly 20 years, said that you judge a society not by how it treats those who make it, the rich, the “successful.” You can tell the character of a society by how it treats its prisoners. Don’t look at the nice neighborhoods, the golf courses, and city plazas. Look at the city or county jail. Look at the prisons.
Mass incarceration, a result of our country’s failed War on Drugs, has not stopped crime. It has created criminals, disproportionately impacting communities of color. This is society’s great sin. Are there enough citizens out there who can search their hearts and souls to see the shared humanity we have with those we have locked up in cages? I’m asking you! Will you turn a blind eye to human beings that we, as a society, treat in an inhumane way?