[Marxism] Victims of the Drug War and American Law

["Tony Abdo" <gojack10@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Life on the Outside
A Reporter's Account of an Ex-Prisoner's Struggle to Re-Enter Society
By ELAINE CASSEL

In 2004, an estimated 600,000 people will be released from state and federal
prisons. And in the near future, this number will increase exponentially --
as persons who began serving long prison terms in the late 1980's (for
mostly drug offenses) return to their communities.

Criminologists are poised to study the challenges and problems facing those
who attempt "reentry" into society outside prison. Meanwhile, Village Voice
staff writer Jennifer Gonnerman has put a human face on the data with her
compelling book, Life on the Outside: The Prison Odyssey of Elaine Bartlett.

Bartlett served a draconian prison sentence for a first-time offense -- and
is now trying to put her life back together. She, and others like her,
deserve our compassion and support -- and Gonnerman's book beautifully
illustrates why.

Bartlett's Plight: Sixteen Years in Prison for a Non-Violent First Offense

In November 1983, Bartlett traveled from New York City to Upstate New York
to try to make a cocaine "drop" for a dealer. She hoped to make an "easy"
$2,500 to pay some bills, and fund a big Thanksgiving dinner for her large,
extended, and impoverished family. However, the intended recipient of the
drugs was under surveillance and Bartlett was caught red-handed.

Bartlett, who was then twenty-six years old, was sentenced to twenty years
to life, despite the fact that this was her first offense. She had to leave
her children -- infants and toddlers -- behind.

Bartlett served sixteen years, during which she obtained a two-year college
degree. (That achievement would be nearly impossible today, for the federal
government has ruled that inmates cannot have access to federally-backed
college loans.) She also struggled to keep in contact with her young
children, and did so in spite of the distance between her upstate prison and
their home in New York City.

In 2000, at the age of forty-two, Bartlett was released (Governor Pataki had
reduced the sentences of some women serving long sentences for first-time
drug offenses, including Bartlett).

Surely there are more enlightened policies that would serve to punish the
likes of Bartlett while enabling them to support themselves and their
families. Who would genuinely argue that a sentence 16 years for a first
offense--when one is a mere carrier, not a dealer--is not disproportionate
to the crime?

Bartlett's Post-Trial "Reentry" and Readjustment to Society: Does Parole
Help?

Sadly, Bartlett's struggles only continued when she exited prison. And her
post-release adjustment to date is typical of what inmates face as they try
to "reenter" the society which has shunned them.

To begin, the transition from prison to freedom is itself hard.
Self-discipline is a challenge when for years you have not been able to make
many decisions for yourself. Years of being told what to eat, when to eat,
when to sleep, and when to wake up make it hard for many -- including
Bartlett -- to chart their own course after they are released, taking charge
of their own lives to get up, get dressed, and go to look for work on their
own initiative.

Probation officers are a mixed bag. Some insult and threaten the
ex-prisoner; others are helpful.

On the whole, many criminologists endorse parole -- at a minimum, it
provides some structure and a person to look out for the former inmate.

Though the federal government and many states have abolished parole, New
York still has the system. Bartlett had her share of good parole officers.
Still, nearing the end of her parole period, she got fed up.

Indeed, in a battle of wills, Bartlett threatened her parole officer to find
her in violation -- urging the officer to give her a drug test to prove that
she was, indeed, doing drugs. (Though Bartlett was no addict, she had taken
to dabbling with drugs as she saw her dreams of a new beginning fade.)

Fortunately for Bartlett, the test came up negative. But her willingness to
taunt the parole officer, and put herself at risk -- as well as her dabbling
in drugs, itself -- reveal her precarious state of mind.

Bartlett's problems are multi-faceted: mental, emotional, and financial. She
struggles -- and often fails -- to keep a job, pay the bills, and hold her
family together. (By the end of the book, two of her brothers are sentenced
to long prison terms for drug-dealing.) Meanwhile, she also struggles to
keep herself free from addiction (no mean feat, given her family and social
history).

As Gonnerman's book implies, Bartlett's plight should stir us all to push
for reforms in penal and social policies.

A Generation of Ex-Cons: How Will They Adjust When They Re-enter Society?

With the rate of incarceration continuing ,despite the decrease in violent
crime, we are becoming a "prisonized" nation. (For more details, see my
related earlier book review.) American incarcerates more people for more
crimes than any civilized country in the world.

Imagine: No country -- not Russia, not China, not even Saddam Hussein's
Iraq, while it existed -- has sent such a large proportion of its citizenry
to prison.

In President Bush's 2004 State of the Union address, he threw a bone to
these poor prisoners -- promising to ask for money to help their "reentry."
Even the President is now acknowledging this has been, and will become, a
huge social issue and problem. Can it be questioned that virtually throwing
away hundreds of thousands of citizens a year diminishes a nation?

Elaine Bartlett deserved more from our system than what she got. Her
sentence was terribly excessive and punitive. Now, she deserves help in her
struggle to put her life back together -- and others in similar situations
deserve help, too. Gonnerman's book is not only an individual's moving,
important story, but also a reminder of that societal truth.

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