Politics, Profits and Prisoners

His cool swagger on the prison yard is a confident one, not that exaggerated stride of bravado so common within the clink, that overcompensating stride that serves more often than not as a mask of fear; fear of being perceived as weak; fear of showing any inkling of vulnerability; fear of being a victim—so they victimize.

For the contrast McCoy stands out. McCoy is like a lost leader with no following; a shot caller with no gang; a CEO with no company to run. Deep mahogany brown with corresponding eyes and a snub ponytail, McCoy walks about this concrete and steel spread like most: with an agenda, an angle. Only McCoy’s agenda is larger than the simple swindle of a $.25 soup, or the con of a $.65 candy bar.

A proud father of five, with a cogent ability to synthesize people and talent, this aspiring music and entertainment promoter mends toxic racial rifts and deconstructs violent gang rivalries with live music shows he produces on the compound.

Countless times have I visited cell 221 to find McCoy arduously at work dreaming up the next event, or preparing to expand his “Badd Azz Productions” when he’s released later this year. McCoy’s success in blending and fitting jagged talent is indisputable, yet there is a re-emerging failure that closely pursues him, mutilating his long-term potential for success each time he’s paroled. That failure is driven by monstrous substance abuse problems that the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) has repeatedly neglected to address during his many short stints in prison. Blatant neglect despite the fact the majority of his arrests for the last five years have been for drug-related offenses.

And in spite of the protective brigandine that Proposition 36 offers—the drug court measure voted in by 61 percent of the voters in 2000—he doesn’t qualify. Why? Because he was on parole each time he applied. Imagine that, being denied help when most vulnerable. What he would have qualified for is Proposition 5, the Non-Violent Offender Rehabilitation Act of 2008. Sadly, the measure was defeated (No: 59.5% to Yes: 40.5%) after a barrage of misleading television ads against it paid in large part by those poised to benefit: the guards’ union.

The California Correctional Peace Officers Association (CCPOA), described by the Associated Press as “wealthy” and “influential,” rescinded a disgruntled effort to recall Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger after feeling slighted with overdue contract negotiations, and instead decided to concentrate on propitious ballot measures like Proposition 5. It was also the CCPOA that shoveled in the dough to bury Proposition 66, the ballot measure that would have amended California’s draconian and expensive Three Strikes law.

It’s apparent that the CCPOA believes in the job security of its members. It was the CCPOA that, for the most part, propelled the largest prison expansion in U.S. history, having lobbied vigorously for the construction of twenty-one new prisons since the 1990s—vigorous construction that eclipses higher learning institutions in both construction and annual budgets.

Here an old German proverb seems most appropriate: “An old error is always more popular than a new truth.”

California currently has the most pronounced recidivism rate in the nation, 69 percent. Senator Gloria Romero, a Democrat representing Los Angeles, called the chronic problem a policy of release and return, return and release—never giving parolees a real shot at freeing themselves from gripping substance use issues or the long leash of the state.

Federal Justice Thelton Henderson, of the Northern District of California, who is monitoring the CDCR to order changes within, said that California has one of the longest parole tails in America, with parolees enduring oppressive technical restrictions for up to thirty-six months as opposed to the national average of twelve months. For many, this translates into a systemic set-up-to-fail, where parolees are repeatedly cited for violating parole for the most minute transgressions.
Imagine being paroled, starting completely from scratch and successfully securing a job, an apartment and struggling against the stigmas to succeed, only to lose it all in an instant for attending a family funeral where there happened to be other parolees—a violation. Think of the vexation to finally be free, having enrolled in a local college and striving to make ends meet, only to have your life and efforts interrupted for the butt of a marijuana cigarette found in the car you borrowed—a violation. Even if it was yours, you were never offered drug rehab while in custody, where they had complete control of your life.

Meanwhile, the state of California faces an estimated $42 billion deficit. The prison budget, along

with construction has steadily increased, up a consistent $1 billion a year for the past five years; it’s $10 billion now. Last summer, just a few months ago during the first chapter of the state budget deficit, $419 million was cut from Medi-Cal, $7 million was slashed from food stamp recipients and $6 million was snatched from mental health care patients, a growing number of them ending up in prisons. Billions in other damning cuts were made as well.

Yet, there’s no talk of revisiting the potential release of some 4,000 non-violent Three Strikers languishing behind the gray suffocating walls of California’s overcrowded grottoes; no talk of releasing the scores of lifers who’ve completed their minimum sentence—trouble-free—and who statistics show only a 1 percent return to prison rate. No, for the sake of ideology and pure but despicable political showmanship. For the infamous right to toot the “tough-on-crime” clarion children and the elderly are being kicked to the curb while the state stubbornly forks over $43,000 a year to incarcerate people who don’t belong.

Indeed, according to the non-partisan Legislative Analysts Office, Proposition 5 would have saved taxpayers between $1 and $3 million a year. And the success of DeWayne McCoy and the silent but suffering scores of others his circumstances represent? Priceless.

Sources:
California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation: http://www.cdcr.ca.gov/
DeWayne McCoy, CDCR #C-40569 (FAB2-22, Box 4430, Lancaster, CA 93536)
Domanick, Joe, “Cruel Justice,” (University of California Press, Los Angeles, 2004): pp. 65, 74, 112-115, 198, 199, 214, 221
Drug Policy Institute: www.NoraYes.org/www.drugpolicy.org
Friends Committee on Legislation: July/August 2008 Newsletter (Vol. 57, No. 4)
James, Koren, “Health Programs End Up Biggest Losers,” Antelope Valley Press, September 20, 2008: A3
KPFK Radio, Noon News, October 3, 2008: http://www.kpfk.org/
KABC-7 Eyewitness News, September 26, 2008 (The monetary drain of prisons)
Schou, Solvej, “Five California Governors Oppose Drug Initiative,” Antelope Valley Press, October 31, 2008: A9