I'm afraid. The state budget crisis is sending numerous state agencies to the dogs, and the latest item on the chopping block is our prison system.
Terry Stewart, Director of the Arizona Department of Corrections, announced on National Public Radio last week that budget cuts have resulted in the Arizona prison system losing $300 million dollars over the last three years.
NPR reported that budget cuts this year will result in loss of prisoner programs. This makes me afraid, because programs keep prisoners busy, which is definitely a good thing.
Stewart also said that due to overcrowding and understaffing, for every prisoner that comes in the system, one may have to leave. So not only is there a lack of monetary support for the prisons, there is simply no space to house prisoners.
This makes me even more afraid, because it means we don't have the luxury of even arguing about whether prison is about rehabilitation or punishment. If there isn't a place to put an inmate, correctional institutes can't rehabilitate or punish, period. If there is no way to enforce prison sentences, our justice system could soon go down a dangerous slippery slope.
For example, will judges who know of this problem issue lenient sentences for certain offenders to help "fix" the overcrowding? It's common knowledge that although prisoners are sentenced to a specific number of years, they often never complete their prison sentences in full. Now, add in more budget cuts and a lack of housing. A prisoner who was sentenced to 8 years may have realistically served 6 or 7 years. Will that prisoner now only serve 4 or 5 years?
What happens to the morale of police officers and prosecutors who work in the justice system and consistently witness prisoners getting out earlier and earlier? What happens to the families of victims who pray for justice and may only experience some form of relief when they know that prisoners are behind bars?
Oddly enough, I think I can understand such a scenario. For some extra money, I work at a place that boards dogs and cats, and I've learned a lot working there. I'd always had the nagging suspicion that dogs are, in many ways, like human beings, but working at a pet boarding shelter confirmed this. And my place of work seems eerily similar to Arizona's correctional institutes.
When owners bring their dogs to be boarded, the dogs are often anxious, bark and howl a lot, and get easily agitated by people and other dogs. They are put in small rooms where the comforts of home are next to non-existent. It shouldn't come as a huge surprise that they are stressed in this environment. I can only imagine that if you put people in small, unfamiliar spaces and give them no purpose beyond just inhabiting a cell, they too are stressed.
The place where I work tries to keep the dogs busy and distracted. This seems similar to the function of programs in prison. When there aren't ways to distract or occupy time, you have one of Stewart's concerns. Agitated dogs, probably like agitated human beings, need more attention and can even be dangerous. Just as the animals boarded need to be busy to prevent them from being agitated, programs need to be in place to keep prisons running smoothly. When the amount of staff required increases to support such programs but money doesn't exist to pay the staff, you've got a significant problem. The staff may be in danger.
I don't know exactly what can be done to solve this problem, but I do have a few ideas. Perhaps I could start a petition to stop budget cuts in the prison system. I could write letters to my legislators to alert them of the gravity of the situation. Or I could make lots of fake money and donate it to the prison system. Although I might get caught, I won't have to do anything while in prison and heck, it'd only be a few years, right?
What Terry Stewart said makes me afraid. But it is my experience working with the animals in a boarding shelter that forecasts what just might happen. It looks like the Arizona prison system could be going to the dogs.
Rosie McSweeney is a social work graduate student. Reach her at rosie.m@asu.edu.
