The number of Americans under criminal justice supervision totaled 7 million people in 2003, according to Mark Brenner in his lecture, “The Real Cost of Prisons: A Talk about the Economics of the Prison Industrial Complex,” sponsored by the Wesleyan Prisoner Resource and Education Project (WesPREP).
“There are two million people incarcerated, but the important thing to realize is that prisons and jails are only one part of the system,” Brenner said. “Another three-quarters of a million people are on parole and four million are on probation.”
Brenner, a professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts—Amherst, and a workshop presenter with The Real Cost of Prisons Project, spoke about the prison system and the war on drugs, and how institutions of race in society affect this.
“For most of the twentieth century, incarceration was a stable phenomenon,” Brenner said. “There was a spike during the Great Depression, and during the war period the level comes down, but in 1973 the rate keeps doubling each decade until flattening around 2000. This shows an enormous structural change. This is not, however, a reflection of a random process.”
According to Brenner, in 1950, 65 percent of incarcerated people were white, but by 2003 only 34 percent were white. He attributes this significant change in racial composition to the war on drugs.
“You cannot understand the prison population without looking at the war on drugs,” he said. “It started at the state level with Nelson Rockefeller in New York passing some of the most infamous drug laws. This took off and became federal policy. The war on drugs is supposed to target Don Corleone and Scarface, and people at the top of the food chain, but seven out of 10 people arrested are at the bottom of the food chain.”
Brenner said he believes there are discrete decisions made regarding areas patrolled for drug use. He shared stories emphasizing the idea that the police looking for drug activity based on a location’s economic status and race. The type of illegal drug found in a community correlates with the population.
There are different sentences for different substances. For example, according to Brenner a person must have 600 times the amount of powder cocaine than rock cocaine to get the same prison sentence.
When asked how this war on drugs began and subsequently increased the prison population, Brenner explained the certain aspects of American society that came together in the 1960’s and 1970’s. He noted that there were not only hippies using drugs, but Vietnam veterans as well. He said he thinks one major cause was the political realignment within the Republican Party.
“This was centered around Barry Goldwater,” Brenner said. “He was thinking about how to get white-collared men out of the Democratic Party. They realized there were ways to talk about race without outwardly saying it. When you hear the words ‘welfare’ and ‘crime,’ you have a racialized image. Combine this with the industrialization of the 70’s and 80’s and the high unemployment rate, and politics shifted right. Reagan came in and he was ready to fund whatever they wanted.”
Brenner said that people at the local level are fighting back by amending policies, treating addicts, forming police accountability boards, and pushing for the closure of new prison facilities.
“I think that if you shed light on what’s going on with the prison system, people won’t support it,” he said. “We have to educate, and inform, and then do something about it. My goal is to minimize the damage done to individuals and to society.”
Brenner’s lecture was delivered as a part of the Prison Series sponsored by WESPREP.
“We created the Prison Series because we wanted to bring to the greater Wesleyan community things we think are important,” said event organizer Sidney Russell ’07. “We want to discuss how things are linked to prison system, like how race is related, and how capitalism is related, show people why there is a huge group of people at Wesleyan fighting for this issue.”
Over fifty students attended the lecture, asking questions and sharing information they’ve learned about the prison system.
“An interesting concept Brenner talked about was the idea that the prison system, in many ways, is hidden from view,” Russell said. “In terms of locations of prison, you don’t necessarily see them and they are located in places obscured from public. If you don’t know about them, you’re not forced to know about them. In terms of financing them, a lot of it is done behind closed doors or not really talked about in state or federal policy discussions.”
The next lecture in the Prison Series will be held on May 5, where Tina Reynolds will speak about prison and motherhood.
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