Because they’re better than you
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
One of the underlying themes of the tough-on-crime movement is that there are two classes of people: “us” and “them”. “We” are good people who would never commit crimes and if “we” do, we are deserving of sympathy and understanding and it is because “we” have a substance abuse problem.
“They” are just bad people who will murder your babies, rape your mothers, castrate your brothers and eat them all alive in a cannibalistic stew.
It is this fundamentally narrow-minded approach that has landed us in the hot soup we are in vis-a-vis prison overcrowding and poverty and the endless cycle of prison families.
A recent example of this divide between “us” and “them” is this story from the Courant chronicling the special treatment given a former state legislator who is serving 4 months for DUI.
Because “we” have a substance abuse problem.
Top state officials including Democratic Comptroller Nancy Wyman, Environmental Protection Commissioner Gina McCarthy, and several legislators have been allowed special access to visit [former State Rep. Jessie] Stratton at the York Correctional Institution in Niantic.
Stratton’s list contains 15 approved visitors’ names, more than twice the maximum of seven names that York officials say are allowed for any inmate. The correction department’s central “public information” office wouldn’t confirm that the maximum is seven, but regulations allow no more than 10 “active” visitors’ names on any inmate’s list.
Although regulations permit an inmate to receive only three visits per week, visits by seven of the people on Stratton’s list do not count against her weekly allotment.
As per DOC’s regulations, these “special visits” are for people traveling from out of state or those meeting with inmates to prepare them for their release. None of her visitors fulfilled either requirement.
Sometimes, while applications and background checks are pending for prospective visitors during the first couple of weeks of an inmate’s sentence, members of his or her immediate family are allowed in to visit. But Stratton is nine weeks into her sentence, and three visitors said Thursday that they never had to file the normally required request, or undergo any check that they knew of.
Another “consideration” given her is entry into a heavily demanded substance abuse problem, for which there is a long waiting list.
Not long after starting her sentence at York, Stratton was moved into the prison’s widely recognized Marilyn Baker residential treatment unit for substance abusers. Sources say there is a waiting list for that program. Banevicius would not respond to questions of whether there’s a waiting list and whether Stratton got special treatment to get in. The Baker program normally lasts six months.
“We” have a substance abuse problem. “They” are substance abusers. Let’s ignore the fact that so many of our clients actually need some treatment in prison, because they aren’t getting any when they get out. Let’s also ignore the fact that because these people don’t get treatment, they are considered dangers to society when they are released and placed on strict probationary conditions. The system grows them, like plants or vegetables, feeds on them, then releases them as manure to fertilize the field and the cycle continues.
Whether this state rep herself asked for and received special consideration is uknown, but the point still remains. There is a divide and until there is a divide we will never be able to honestly address the problems that plague our society and bring about a reduction in crime. We will never get to the root of these problems and actually help people if we keep thinking we are better than them.
If nothing else, I hope that the good Rep. Stratton and the Honorable Comptroller have come out of this experience with a deeper understanding of how people end up where they are and that looking beyond the criminal act is a better approach to our criminal justice problem.
