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INDIANAPOLIS PEACE & JUSTICE JANUARY 1992 VOLUME X NO.1 Imprisonment as a Peace Issue With the lowering of Cold War tensions, fear of crime, especially drug crime, has replaced fear of Communism as the major impetus for increasing institutions of violence as methods of social control. "Getting tough on crime" has become as much a bipartisan consensus as "opposing Communist expansion," probably with as dangerous an outcome. The dynamic of the arms race has been based on fear—build more bombs because the other side is building more bombs. The system depends on an enemy. The expansion of the prison system works in a similar way— fear of crime is assuaged by the false promise of deterrence. Communities become dependent on prison jobs in the same way many communities have been held hostage to military contracts. We end up much less secure than when we started, just as the arms race brought less, rather than more, security. Recent historical studies have suggested that wars often occur as a reaction to domestic needs, particularly the politicians' need to distract the populace from pressing domestic problems. Politicians today see the war on crime as an opportunity to distract people from the root causes of crime. War uses nationalism to dehumanize the enemy. The Russians (or Germans or Japanese or Vietnamese) can be killed with impunity because of some evil in their race or system. Similarly, prisons create a class of criminals who are perceived as less than human and so must be caged and isolated from society. Prisons are among the most racist of American institutions, with African- Americans and Native Americans being imprisoned at a rate completely out of proportion to their numbers in the population, even when considering only persons convicted of the same type of crime. While the imprisonment rate in the United States is high (recently passing the Soviet Union to move into second place behind first-place South Africa), the rate for black Americans is even higher than that of black South Africans. If truth is the first casualty of war, civil liberties are a close second. The war on drugs is producing multiple threats to our civil liberties—involuntary drug testing, military involvement in law enforcement, and erosion of the Fourth Amendment. Prison specifically contributes to the erosion of civil liberties in its concentration of power. Outside dissent over prison policies can be short-circuited by denying the public access to information about what is going on in the name of security. A recent trend in prisons, begun at Marion Federal Prison, is the use of long or indefinite periods of solitary confinement as a means of behavior modification for prisoners perceived to be threats to the smooth functioning of the institution. This "prison within a prison" is well-established at Fort Madison; one prisoner has been sentenced to 68 years of solitary. Finally and fundamentally, imprisonment is a peace issue because prisons are based on violence. Legal state kidnapping not only leads inevitably to abuses, it is abusive in its very nature. While a small percentage of those currently in prison present a physical threat to society and need to be confined, most prisoners could be rehabilitated if nonviolent, positive methods of dealing with crime were used, including restitution, treatment of drug/ alcohol abuse in settings that lead to taking responsibility, and community service. The best way to fight crime is to prevent it. Fighting poverty continued on page 5 This Month... Focus on prisons and imprisonment as a peace and justice issue. pages 4-11 A Visit to Ameriyeh Shelter page 12 U.S. Church Groups Speak Out on Israeli Settlements page 13 Visions of a Just Peace page 18
Object Description
Title | Indianapolis Peace & Justice Center Journal, v. 10, no. 01, 1992-01 |
Serial Title | Indianapolis Peace & Justice Journal |
Volume, Number | v. 10, no. 1 |
Date | 1992-01 |
Publisher | Indianapolis Peace and Justice Center |
Subject | Social justice -- Periodicals; Peace -- Periodicals; Nonviolence -- Periodicals |
Language | eng |
Type | Text |
Owning Institution | IUPUI University Library Special Collections and Archives |
Usage Rights | http://www.ulib.iupui.edu/copyright |
Digital Publisher | IUPUI University Library |
Digital Collection | Indianapolis Peace & Justice Center Journal |
Digital Date | 2016-05-24 |
Digital Specifications | Scanner: Bookeye 4V1, Archive view: 400 dpi tiff; Full view: 400 dpi jpg 2000 |
Description
Title | page1 |
Item ID | IPJCJ1992-01-001_page1.tif |
Digital Collection | Indianapolis Peace & Justice Center Journal |
Transcript | INDIANAPOLIS PEACE & JUSTICE JANUARY 1992 VOLUME X NO.1 Imprisonment as a Peace Issue With the lowering of Cold War tensions, fear of crime, especially drug crime, has replaced fear of Communism as the major impetus for increasing institutions of violence as methods of social control. "Getting tough on crime" has become as much a bipartisan consensus as "opposing Communist expansion," probably with as dangerous an outcome. The dynamic of the arms race has been based on fear—build more bombs because the other side is building more bombs. The system depends on an enemy. The expansion of the prison system works in a similar way— fear of crime is assuaged by the false promise of deterrence. Communities become dependent on prison jobs in the same way many communities have been held hostage to military contracts. We end up much less secure than when we started, just as the arms race brought less, rather than more, security. Recent historical studies have suggested that wars often occur as a reaction to domestic needs, particularly the politicians' need to distract the populace from pressing domestic problems. Politicians today see the war on crime as an opportunity to distract people from the root causes of crime. War uses nationalism to dehumanize the enemy. The Russians (or Germans or Japanese or Vietnamese) can be killed with impunity because of some evil in their race or system. Similarly, prisons create a class of criminals who are perceived as less than human and so must be caged and isolated from society. Prisons are among the most racist of American institutions, with African- Americans and Native Americans being imprisoned at a rate completely out of proportion to their numbers in the population, even when considering only persons convicted of the same type of crime. While the imprisonment rate in the United States is high (recently passing the Soviet Union to move into second place behind first-place South Africa), the rate for black Americans is even higher than that of black South Africans. If truth is the first casualty of war, civil liberties are a close second. The war on drugs is producing multiple threats to our civil liberties—involuntary drug testing, military involvement in law enforcement, and erosion of the Fourth Amendment. Prison specifically contributes to the erosion of civil liberties in its concentration of power. Outside dissent over prison policies can be short-circuited by denying the public access to information about what is going on in the name of security. A recent trend in prisons, begun at Marion Federal Prison, is the use of long or indefinite periods of solitary confinement as a means of behavior modification for prisoners perceived to be threats to the smooth functioning of the institution. This "prison within a prison" is well-established at Fort Madison; one prisoner has been sentenced to 68 years of solitary. Finally and fundamentally, imprisonment is a peace issue because prisons are based on violence. Legal state kidnapping not only leads inevitably to abuses, it is abusive in its very nature. While a small percentage of those currently in prison present a physical threat to society and need to be confined, most prisoners could be rehabilitated if nonviolent, positive methods of dealing with crime were used, including restitution, treatment of drug/ alcohol abuse in settings that lead to taking responsibility, and community service. The best way to fight crime is to prevent it. Fighting poverty continued on page 5 This Month... Focus on prisons and imprisonment as a peace and justice issue. pages 4-11 A Visit to Ameriyeh Shelter page 12 U.S. Church Groups Speak Out on Israeli Settlements page 13 Visions of a Just Peace page 18 |
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