A federal appeals court recently ordered the state of California to reduce its prison population by 40,000 people. Many other states are also finding that the prison systems they operate are unsustainable and waste billions in taxpayer resources by confining too many offenders for too long.
I’m used to these news reports that showcase the problems individual states are having with funding their prison systems. I’m more surprised to have seen that Eric Holder, our country’s top law enforcement officer, talk about the importance of being smart on crime rather than tough on crime.
One place Mr. Holder can start is by installing a director of the BOP who embraces the enlightened approach of this new administration. Those who run the BOP continue the tired old policies of “isolate and punish,” demanding that prisoners serve as much time as possible inside costly prisons. I’m in my 23rd year of confinement for a nonviolent offense, and prison administrators persist in refusing me 13 days of good time that my sentence authorizes me to receive.
I’d welcome reforms to our federal prison system and to sentencing policies in the United States. Taxpayers have spent too much confining me already, and another four years serves no purpose but “to preserve the institution of corrections,” as BOP personnel are determined to do, consequences and costs to taxpayers or citizens be damned.
Four more years to go at most, and I’ll use every minute of that time preparing to triumph over the obstacles that accompany a quarter century in prison. This morning I woke at 1:37 to resume my writing of chapter eight for Earning Freedom. I advanced the manuscript to page 364.
I ran 10 miles in the morning, bringing my tally to 2,218 miles over the past 250 consecutive days.
Wednesday, 19 August 2009
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