Criminal ‘culture’ hard to change
Gov. Hutchinson hopes to “change the culture of criminals” with his prison reforms.
After his felony drug conviction, my own son struggles to stay clear of the “culture of criminals.”
Where we live methamphetamine and prescription drug abuse breaks families who were the backbone of our mountain communities. Kids born of honest, self-reliant stock falter in school, neighbors’ truck batteries disappear, gas tanks are mysteriously emptied, that old iron bedstead stored in the barn is quietly scrapped by who knows who, and empty houses burn up or get condemned. All the while young ones come together, have babies, break up, go to prison and reassemble what’s left. Before you now it, they have histories of arrests, no traction in life, and are grandparents! There are whole sections of county road known for this kind of living.
The reforms parole the nonviolent drug offender. Train him for jobs? What jobs, especially for felons? There’s a job/car problem for felons. How to get one without the other? Car insurance? By the time of arrest, driving records are usually wrecked even if the car isn’t. Insurers often refuse felons.
Buy a cell phone, buy minutes, buy gas. Get to work, see your parole officer, pay fines, pay fees, buy clothes, shoes, haircut, buy more gas. Buy! buy! buy! Even free counseling costs what he doesn’t have. Was he married? Have children? Government subsidies are over for his family if he stays with them. If he eats more than three meals a week with them they lose their eligibility for food and housing [assistance].
So the felon returns to the only place that understands what he faces — that bad part of town or bad section of the county, a job that is bad and with people that are — not all bad, but like him, shut out.
Listen to something Brenda Zedlitz, director of Children’s Services with the EOA, at a recent summit about “Children Living in Poverty in Arkansas,” said: “A child who has been exposed to childhood stress through the effects of poverty or abuse or neglect … food insecurity … not knowing where you’re going to be or who you’re going to be with … you’re probably not going to be able to read on third-grade level when you get to third grade. And we figure out how many prison beds we’re going to need in 20 years based on this year’s third-grade reading level.”
“Engaged communities, engaged individuals, engaged families — these will reduce the effects of poverty in our children of Northwest Arkansas. They need an economic way out. They also need an emotional way out. Churches, organizations, businesses, groups. We’re all important on this journey.”
If we don’t embrace the complexity and try to “change the culture of criminals” on the cheap without knowing or caring about them, well, Ms. Zedlitz shows us how we can count the prison beds 20 years in advance.
MAEVE COURTEAU
Elkins