Alan Elsner, national correspondent for Reuters News Service and author of Gates of Injustice, a new book about America's overloaded prisons, gave the keynote address at the Consortium on Justice & Society. Elsner, who has written extensively on the conditions in jails and prisons throughout the country, said that the growth in the number of incarcerations has increased 3.5 percent from 1995 to 2004 with the number of women being jailed rising at a rate almost twice that of men.

Figures regarding race, although not surprising, also were distressing: 12 percent of black males as compared to 1.7 percent of white males spend time behind bars.

Elsner said the US leads all other nations in the number of incarcerations per 100,000 persons: 726 per 100,000 as compared to England, with 142 per 100,000, China, with 118 per 100,000 and France, with 91 per 100,000 people. The incarceration rate is 7 to 10 times greater in the US than in any other country and the cost is a staggering $57 billion dollars a year at last count.

Elsner said mandatory sentencing in drug arrests would seem to be largely responsible for the rapid growth in the US prison population. For instance, the nation is fighting a war on marijuana at a time when the purity of the drug has increased and the cost declined, so naturally its use has increased-and consequently the arrests and incarcerations have increased. At the same time, many more damaging behaviors than drug possession go unpunished, remarked Elsner. He posed the questions, "Did the nation really need mandatory sentencing laws? Couldn't sentencing for drug crimes, as well as for any other crimes, be left to the discretion of our judges?"

Drug courts are an encouraging innovation; they are set up outside the general court system and they do work. Recidivism from drug courts is only 16 percent as compared to 43 percent from regular courts; drug courts make treatment available as part of their program and if the offender does not re-offend, his or her record is expunged.

Commission on Abuse Reveals Frightening Facts

Elsner recently attended the Commission on Abuse where inmates spoke about their experiences in prison. One witness, a police detective (wrongly accused) had spent five years in prison before DNA evidence found him not guilty. He said beatings are common (inmates often hear the screams of other inmates), as is sleep deprivation and isolation; some of the "supermax" (super maximum security) prisons keep prisoners in solitary confinement for years on end in rooms the size of bathrooms, with no windows, no TV, no radio, very little reading or writing materials. They never go outside and the exercise room might be the size of a dining room or den. Said Elsner, "If people aren't crazy to begin with, they will be by the time they're released-if they ever are released."

Furthermore, no one knows how many inmates are raped, have AIDS or hepatitis or diabetes. There often seems to be no clear accountability. "We should begin to hold the states accountable, as we hold the schools accountable in the 'No Child Left Behind' program," said Elsner. He also reminded the audience that the prisons belong to all citizens-yet most people, including investigative reporters, who want to look around, are denied access. "Trying to get into a supermax prison is like trying to get into North Korea," he said. The United States judges other prison systems in 196 countries around the world and issues a report about their justice systems-yet, to its shame, doesn't monitor itself very well....

Getting Out - a Lose-Lose Situation

Getting out of prison is often a lose-lose situation. While in prison, most inmates can't afford to stay in touch with their families, since all calls must be made collect and the prisoners are charged extraordinarily high fees (such as a $3.50 fee paid every 10 minutes). As for family visits, many families live too far away to be consistent in their visiting-and the expense is often prohibitive, too.

When an inmate is released, he or she finds that 59 professions are banned to ex-convicts-some quite illogically, Elsner said. Ex-inmates also are denied access to several educational grants. When inmates are allowed to get a college education while in prison, they rarely return to prison. As Victor Hugo says, "He who opens a school door, closes a prison."

Elsner urged participants to become involved in learning more about their prison systems and in helping to change them. "Pennsylvania has a statute that anyone anytime can go into the prisons to see what's happening. Every state should grant the same freedom," he said. "Remember, this is our country, these are our prisons-and these people are our fellow-citizens."

Gates of Injustice published by Prentice Hall is available at bookstores.

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