Our Views: A new fight over prisons

The soon-to-be-closed prison at DeQuincy in southwest Louisiana is named for the late C. Paul Phelps, the state’s longtime head of corrections and a fervent advocate of rehabilitation.

If inmates are not given skills and education in prison, of course, they are prone to return to criminal activity once their sentences are over.

The DeQuincy prison was a low- to medium-security facility that pushed rehabilitation and job training for its inmates. By order of Gov. Bobby Jindal, the facility will be closed in November. Inmates will be moved to either the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola or Elayn Hunt Correctional Center in St. Gabriel.

Legislators and other public officials in Calcasieu Parish are furious, saying they had little notice of the idea of closing Phelps, and lawmakers approved funding for the prison this summer. It is part of a steadily deteriorating relationship between the governor and the Legislature, hitherto basically supine when it comes to challenging Jindal.

Jindal said the move will save money, but we wonder if a facility that has at least a reasonable chance of discharging inmates with job skills does not save the state more money than warehousing prisoners at a lower per-day cost.

Louisiana is tops in the nation in incarceration, and probably no large province in the civilized world matches our rate per capita. Across the political spectrum, there is a rising concern, not about the per-day cost of gruel in state prisons, but the long-term costs of failing to save those prisoners who can be saved, and having them enter the work force better able to function and thus contribute to society.

That might be the real long-term cost of the Phelps closure, and that of other smaller prisons in the state.

Comments

1) Comment by DMJ - 28/09/2012

Ha! I wish... Sadly, it's pro-bono...just like you, my fellow troll.

2) Comment by 8point6 - 27/09/2012

Thank you, "our views" .....It's all Jindal's/Bush's fault for this! Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. Bush wasn't mentioned at all in this article. Here's an idea. Let's tax anyone who earns less that $12k a year to help pay for their relatives' in prison! Oh, and dmj, how much are you paid by this medium for your rants? A nickle per rant? A dime for the really good anti-Conservative rants? IMO, you are "working" for this medium. And slayer.......you must be dmj! Let the name calling begin!

3) Comment by DMJ - 27/09/2012

No, I do not back our current system. It doesn't work. It doesn't reduce recidivism. It doesn't rehabilitate. it doesn't prevent crime and .....it costs a boat load of money. Like I said, it's got its problems, but being too "liberal" isn't one of them. My point is that we lock up nonviolent offenders, mostly for drugs, and when they get out...they're convicted felons who can't get a job and who've been hanging around scumbags for years. Not exactly great job applicants. We need reform. I WISH we had a liberal justice system. It might actually work. That being said, I think we're all on the same page when it comes to violent offenders. A murderer or rapist can rot for all I care.

4) Comment by twinkie1cat - 27/09/2012

The prisons that Jindal is closing, without even a consultation with the legislators from those districts have quality programs that help rehabilitate inmates. Once again he demonstrates that he cares nothing for the lives and employment of citizens, either those incarcerated or those who watch over them. The legislature told him NO, so he went around them. Bobby would not have pulled this stunt in his first term. After all, that would have required accountability, the thing he fears most being done to him, but what he eagerly applies to those suffering under his dynasty. In other words, he would no longer be governor. Even the conservatives would have been aware of his efforts to destroy their careers and rebelled. I am beginning to think that between the destruction of the public schools, closing the hospitals and the destruction of jobs and rehabilitative prison programs, Bobby is doing more than simply polishing his image with the GOP. He may actually be trying to prepare a good cache of beat down, near slave labor for other Republican owned states, such as Texas, Arkansas and even Mississippi. It is time for a special session to neuter the King. The only way to save Louisiana is to impeach Bobby. If we don't well, maybe now there is a slight chance that our citizens, if they haven't been stripped from the voting rolls, will realize that Republicans are really bad for this state and vote for someone who cares about us AFTER we are born.

5) Comment by tradewinns - 27/09/2012

dmj: so you will back our current failed system. where are you going to be when the next criminal gets out of prison and rapes or murders someone? we need to know so you can go to the family of the victim and tell them why the prison system (society) has failed them. lots of states have the 3 and gone law not just La. that doesn't cut the mustard with our criminals as there are still plenty of repeats that roll the dice and sometimes beat the law. regardless of how prevalent sex change operations are, the fact that something like that would even be considered, much less approved, shows how screwed up our "justice" system is. it's not me that needs a grip on reality, it's you!

6) Comment by DMJ - 26/09/2012

"liberal prison system"??!? That's right folks, we liberals here in Louisiana lock up more people per capita than any other state in the nation that locks up more in total numbers than any nation on earth. Yep, we liberals have a 3 strike law that puts people in jail for a life sentence for their 3rd felony, be it homicide or possession of a gram of coke. Yep, liberal Louisiana which has among the strictest sentences for nonviolent drug offenders in the nation. Tradewins, I think you're losing it, bub. Louisiana prison system has a lot of problems, but to try and blame them on our correction system being "liberal" is laughable, man. I guess there's no problem, great or small, that we can't blame on liberals, right? And I'm sorry....but are taxpayer-funded sex change operations really that prevalent? Get a grip.

7) Comment by tradewinns - 26/09/2012

just a thought, but why do we the taxpayers have to again try and educate those who didn't try the first time? shouldn't prison be made so hard that the criminal would rather return (on his own) to gain an education while doing whatever job they can get for a brighter future? our liberal prison system has a record of failure, isn't it time to try something else? then when you hear about judges ruling the taxpayers have to pay for a sex change operation for a criminal sentenced to life in prison. throw that in with all the liberal rulings in our criminal "justice" system and i don't see any reason for the cri9minal to change their ways. the benefits of crime currently outweight the punishment.

8) Comment by [e-mail] - 26/09/2012

ScotB is correct; no matter how much effort is put into rehabilitation the group recidivism rates don't change much. I've always been a proponent of nonviolent criminals being treated differently than the others and those are usually the ones who are poster material for the rehab crowd. Closing a prison should always be for pragmatic reasons and nothing to do with whether or not the inmates and their champions prefer it or a community wants the money it generates.

9) Comment by bourbon-soda - 26/09/2012

That would involve taking on the major doctrinal division in criminology. Good luck.

10) Comment by ScotB - 26/09/2012

A good follow up to this story would be to publish statistics on the percentage of inmates from this prison that are gainfully employed and successfully reintegrated into society. If this is the goal of this institution, surely they are measuring their success? If they are being successful, then it certainly would save money in the long term over the per day cost, but I suspect that their rehabilitation results are not really very impressive.