Social-justice news—February 2001

Social justice news
February 2001

Change your state of mind: Visit Poverty USA
NY drug offenses could lead to treatment, not jail
A felonious assault on voting rights
Illinois attempts to "fix" the death penalty
The seamless garment wears well at Catholic University
There is life after welfare—it just costs more
U.S. military buys into sweatshop labor

Change your state of mind: Visit Poverty USA
Despite the depressing fact that 32 million people live in poverty in the United States, a March 2000 Gallup poll found that only 5 percent of Americans believe poverty and homelessness are important problems for the country. Advocates at the Catholic Campaign for Human Development hope to change that public perception. In January they launched "Poverty in American Awareness Month."

As part of the campaign, the CCHD created a website that examines the facts and faces of U.S. poverty. "Poverty USA" will remain active on the web for at least a year. CCHD Spokesperson Barbara Stephenson says the agency was looking for a way to make the problem of poverty "more concrete" to the public—particularly during a a purported economic boom time that has helped diminished concern over this issue.

The enormous number of people living and working below the poverty line suggested the metaphor that the CCHD would eventually select for its multimedia campaign. "If all the people who are poor were somehow collected into one state," Stephenson explains, "only California would be bigger."

Visitors to this second-largest state in the union, Poverty USA, will find pages of statistics that describe US poverty, a survey of public opinion on poverty, a poverty quiz and multimedia gallery, and suggestions for direct actions they can take to combat poverty.

Back to page top

NY drug offenses could lead to treatment, not jail
The budget-busting costs of building and maintaining new prisons may finally be bringing a halt to nearly three decades of get-tough-on-crime legislation. In California, voters endorsed Proposition 36, which gives drug treatment priority over incarceration, and in New York Governor George Pataki has called for that state's "Rockefeller laws" to be repealed. Signed into law by then New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller in 1973, the Rockefeller laws were among the first in the nation lengthening sentences for drug possession crimes.

The current New York statutes impose mandatory minimums of 15 years to life for relatively minor first-time drug offenses. They are a major reason the state's prison population has ballooned to 70,000 from 12,000 in 1973. One-third of New York inmates have been incarcerated for drug offenses. Under the Rockefeller laws, a first-time drug courier can serve as much time as a rapist or child molester.

Now Pataki proposes reducing the minimum sentences for serious drug felonies from 15 years to life to 8 years to life for nonviolent criminals, allowing 600 of the state's 22,000 drug inmates to petition for sentence reduction, and giving judges the right to send people into treatment rather than prison for less serious crimes.

Under the proposal, an estimated 5,500 prison beds would be vacated in favor of treatment programs within four years of enactment. Experts in the field of clinical drug treatment, however, say the current system of treatment and prevention will need a massive overhaul.

Given that $9.2 million for treatment was slashed from the state budget this year, they wonder whether politicians will make the financial commitment needed to support the plan. Some critics point to the "deinstitutionalization" phase that began in the 1950s, when hordes of people released from psychiatric facilities went homeless because community-based programs could not meet their needs.

Analyst Jason Ziedenberg of the Justice Policy Institute says that while the raising costs associated with high incarceration rates may be the greatest force driving a reassessment of long imprisonments, the psychological impact of crossing the threshold of a new century with over 2 million Americans behind bars also proved "mind opening" for many politicians. President Clinton called for a reassessment of mandatory minimum sentences for drug crimes in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine. "For one in four inmates, the 450,000 of them in prison on drug charges, we're starting to see a general public consensus that this is the wrong place for them," Ziedenberg says.

Ziedenberg says the New York and California initiatives could indicate the beginning of a trend in sentencing policies, though, he warns, it is too soon to say for sure. After years of decline, crime rates nationally are beginning to creep up. If the upticks continue a new wave of public support for tougher sentencing policies could begin.

Over the past 20 years, the number of incarcerated Americans has risen by almost 400 percent, costing the country an estimated $41 billion annually. The growth has disproportionately affected the country's black male population. According to Department of Justice statistics for 1999, blacks accounted for 46 percent of all inmates serving a year or more; whites were 33 percent of the total and Hispanics 18 percent. The United States now locks up 690 people per 100,000 of its population, surpassing Russia to take second place in the world behind Rwanda. The rate for neighboring Canada in 1995 was 115 per 100,000; for Germany and Italy, it was 85.

More info:
Huge US Prison Population Social Cost
Families Against Mandatory Minimums
The Sentencing Project

Back to page top

The seamless garment wears well at the Catholic University of America
In a relatively rare example of the "Seamless Garment" approach in action, the Columbus Law School at the Catholic University of America hosted a conversation between two high-profile spokeswomen for prolife issues—one focusing on the beginning of life; the other, at the end. Acting law school dean Robert Destro said the law students who suggested the forum on the two issues wanted to bring the usually disparate discussions together and see how they were connected.

Sister Helen Prejean, S.S.J., author of the best-selling book "Dead Man Walking," and Helen Alvare, formerly the US bishops' prolife spokeswoman and now a law professor at CUA, spoke before a packed auditorium January 11, according to the Catholic News Service.

Alvare, who credited Prejean with almost single-handedly leading a change in the national attitude toward the death penalty, said that the same sense of injustice that motivates her opposition to abortion led her to understand the fight against the death penalty.

"Prolife is not an opinion, it's a way of life," Alvare said, adding that "evangelization to a way of life" is needed to battle on behalf of both life issues.

Prejean agreed, asking, "How can we develop that way of life? . . . Jesus grounded himself in the very lives of the people around him."

Alvare described her work during her last year at the bishops' conference, when she worked on an outreach project to women who have had abortions. She said post-abortion trauma, including depression, attempted suicide, and other psychological problems, was not only real but common.

Prejean discussed the many lives affected by a death sentence, from the convicted murderer, to prison employees, to jurors, to crime victims' families. "What happens when your career links you to death?" she asked the audience comprised mainly of law school students. "Some of you here today may be faced with it."

More:
Catholic University of America:
Dead Man Walking by Sister Helen Prejean
USCC Pro-life activities
From Salt of the Earth: "Would Jesus pull the switch" by Sister Helen Prejean

Back to page top