Pubdate: Sat, 30 Aug 2008
Source: Ottawa Citizen (CN ON)
Copyright: 2008 The Ottawa Citizen
Contact: http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/letters.html
Website: http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/326
Author: Dan Gardner, The Ottawa Citizen
Note: Dan Gardner writes Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.

TOUGH ON CRIME CAN BE PRETTY TOUGH ON CHILDREN

How would Canada's criminal justice system look if conservatives 
fully transformed it? And more importantly, what would those changes 
do to Canadian society? With the Harper government pushing more 
tough-on-crime legislation, and preparing to dismiss the statistics 
and campaign on crime in the next election, these are important questions.

We got one answer this week.

The United States Bureau of Justice Statistics reported that as of 
2007, 1.7 million American children younger than 18 had a parent in a 
state or federal prison. That's 2.3 per cent of all American children.

"Since 1991, the number of children with a mother in prison has more 
than doubled, up 131 per cent," the bureau states. "The number of 
children with a father in prison has grown by 77 per cent."

But even these numbers do not tell the whole story of what right-wing 
justice policies are doing to American families and neighbourhoods. 
For one thing, these statistics exclude county jails, which house 
one-quarter of America's 2.2 million prison population. They also 
obscure the fact that incarceration is concentrated in certain communities.

Hispanic children were more than two-and-a-half times more likely 
than white children to have a parent in prison.

Black children were seven-and-a-half times more likely to have an 
incarcerated parent: Almost seven per cent of all black children have 
a parent in state or federal prison. Add in county jails and that 
figure is likely around 10 per cent.

Just try to fathom that. One in 10 black children has a parent behind 
bars at this moment. And how many had a parent locked up in the past? 
How many in the future? How many boys and girls will know what it 
feels like to talk to a mother or father through a plexiglass shield?

It is wonderful that a black man is now a serious contender for the 
presidency. It is horrifying that incarceration is as much a part of 
black childhoods as birthday cakes.

Of course we rarely think of prisoners as people, much less mothers 
and fathers. We think of them as criminals.

And we think of criminals as violent, anti-social, drugged-out, 
altogether nasty creatures.

As appalling as it may be to imagine all those children losing 
parents to prison, it's tempting to conclude it may be for the best. 
Imagine the harm these loathsome people could do to their children if 
they weren't safely locked away.

Every prisoner is different, of course, and there are undoubtedly 
cases in which this reasoning holds. But for the most part, it's 
nonsense built on nothing more than crude stereotypes and ignorance.

More than half of American prisoners with children were incarcerated 
for non-violent crimes. And plenty of incarcerated parents are not 
the deadbeats we may imagine.

One-third of fathers and almost two-thirds of mothers reported living 
with their children prior to being imprisoned. Three-quarters of 
incarcerated parents reported being employed at the time of their 
arrest and one-half of parents were the primary source of support for 
their children.

Seventy per cent exchanged letters with their children while in 
prison. Half spoke on the telephone.

Four in 10 had personal visits -- a figure which would undoubtedly be 
higher if it weren't for the widespread adoption of right-wing 
policies restricting prison visits and the construction of prisons in 
distant rural regions, which makes it hard for poor family members to 
see their loved ones.

And remember, all these numbers are skewed because county jails, 
which generally hold less-serious offenders, are excluded.

Of course, convicted criminals, whatever their crimes, are far from 
ideal parents. But mothers and fathers don't have to be June and Ward 
Cleaver to contribute to the development of a child. And even the 
loss of flawed parents can damage children in ways that last a lifetime.

One widely cited study found that the children of incarcerated 
parents are six times more likely to be incarcerated. Granted, there 
are many factors involved in that conclusion other than the 
incarceration of the parent. But we have to realize that an 
incarcerated parent means a child who has lost a parent -- and that 
loss may be even more traumatizing than other forms of parental loss 
because it also comes with the deep stigma of having your mother or 
father declared a criminal.

Incarceration must always be a last resort; sentences must always be 
as short as justice and safety permit. If we go beyond these limits, 
if we embrace incarceration, if we see prisons as a magic cure for 
crime, if we make a fetish of punishment --as the United States has 
done over the last 30 years -- the damage to children and communities 
will be profound.

The transformation of Canadian justice sought by conservatives in 
this country comes entirely from the American playbook. If we want a 
country in which one in 10 aboriginal children has a parent in prison 
- -- if we like the idea of more aboriginal children staring at mothers 
and fathers through plexiglass shields -- then we should copy that playbook.

If not, we must toss it aside and write our own.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake