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By Pat Nolan|Published Date: May 26, 2011
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The Supreme Court has decided that California’s prisons are so overstressed that they are unconstitutionally holding prisoners without providing appropriate medical and mental health care.
Justice Kennedy, writing for the majority in Brown v. Plata, notes that, “As many as 54 prisoners may share a single toilet.” And suicides average one a week, he says. The Court cited a lower court’s finding that an inmate dies unnecessarily every 6 to 7 days. This is very disturbing. Even one of the dissenting votes, Justice Alito, acknowledged “particular prisoners received shockingly deficient medical care,” though he ended up opposing the Court’s final order.
When the government takes someone into its custody it also takes on the responsibility of providing medical care. To deprive inmates of adequate medical care is indeed cruel and unusual punishment. It means that someone in prison for a short sentence for a low level crime might die from lack of proper medical attention, turning a short sentence into a sentence of death.
Whether or not the Courts are the appropriate place to establish prison policies, it is undeniable that the political system in California has failed in its responsibility to manage prisons. These lawsuits were filed 20 years ago! And the legislature and a succession of governors did nothing to address the appalling conditions in California’s prisons for all those years.
These conditions are not the fault of prison officials. They don’t choose who to hold in prison. They take the prisoners sentenced under state law, and try to house them as best as possible with the dollars given them in the budget. The fault lies at the feet of politicians who have tried to have it both ways—adding years and years to sentences to appear tough on crime, but not appropriating the money needed to build prisons to hold the extra prisoners those policies have locked up.
However, laying blame doesn’t help. We now have to find ways to comply with the Court’s order without putting the public at risk. No one wants the state to release inmates who are unprepared to abide by the law when they are released. The problem is that California and most other states do not have the money to do this preparation. Fortunately, faith-based and community groups have been stepping up to do this work at no cost to the government!
In fact, when the Court released their opinion, I was at an Out4Life conference in San Diego, at which hundreds of leaders from faith-based and community groups met with corrections officials and law enforcement leaders to build local coalitions to provide reentry services both before and after release. Inside prisons, volunteers will work with inmates on preparing a life plan, writing a resume, arranging for housing, repairing their relationships with family members and other skills necessary to make a successful transition to the free world. After prison, these volunteer coalitions will coordinate job placement, housing, drug treatment, medical care and match them with a mentor to hold them accountable while giving them practical advice on staying on the straight and narrow. In short, these volunteers will help them become good neighbors.
This combination of accountability and assistance has been proven effective at changing the lives of offenders and lowering recidivism. That means safer communities, fewer victims and less cost to the state taxpayers.
This is a vision that Chuck Colson and I laid out in “Prescription for Safer Communities” which was published by the Notre Dame Law School. I think you will find that given this Court decision and legislative successes Justice Fellowship has experienced in the past several years, what we wrote is even more relevant now than when we wrote it.
My hat is off to Matt Cate, California’s Secretary of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Long before the Court’s order, Matt was working with Prison Fellowship to plan this Out4Life conference. This far-sighted leadership will lead to thousands of volunteers being welcomed inside prisons to do the work the state just cannot afford to do on its own. And these volunteers will provide something that government employees cannot: love. Dr. King said, “To change someone, you must first love them, and they must know that you love them.”
You can read more about the importance of Out4Life and how California’s CDCR, Prison Fellowship and the other groups will work to dramatically increase the programs available for inmates in an op-ed Matt and I wrote. Thank you, Mr. Cate, for recognizing that faith-based and community groups can work in partnership with you and your department to change offenders’ lives and make our communities safer. You are a fine example of a courageous public servant.
In His service,
Pat Nolan
Vice President, Prison Fellowship
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