Doing Time on the Outside: Incarceration and Family Life in Urban America

Chapter 1. A Public Debate

Chapter 1 A Public Debate This strange public demonstration took place early in my ‹eldwork and provided a striking introduction to both local city politics and the increasingly complex politics of incarceration. It was followed by ‹ve public hearings,1 the last two of which were open for comments from the general public. But even at the ‹rst hearing, the divergent perspectives within the community were quite clear. The proposal that the CCA was presenting seemed, at least on the surface, to be an easy sell. Ward Eight is a community with the highest unemployment rate in the District, one where many families of prisoners lived. A large new correctional facility not only would provide hundreds of well-paying, recession-proof jobs to local residents but would keep prisoners closer to home, where family, counselors, and clergy could help with their rehabilitation. The proposed prison would be state-of-the-art, including a host of educational and job-training programs for inmates—in fact, the proposed programs were so extensive that some residents complained that they were “better than what we get out here,”2 and CCA promptly added community scholarships and neighborhood job-training programs to the proposed package. To top it off, CCA noted, there were plenty of other communities around the country that would be happy to have the facility if the residents of Ward Eight refused it. Marion Barry, the former mayor, who prided himself on having a broad constituency in Ward Eight, made all these points in his testimony on the ‹rst day of the hearings: Other states are trying to get the District to send their prisoners to their states so that jobs can be maintained in those states. In fact, in Youngstown, the Congressman there wants an addition of 2,500 beds built because of the economics of 450 jobs. And Ward Eight has the highest unemployment rate of any in the city: some thirteen percent among adults, and some sixty percent among teenagers. We need these jobs in Ward Eight.3 Despite the chanting and cat calls from the ‹rst meeting, a few family members returned to testify for the proposal when public comment was ‹nally allowed six months later. One mother spoke, generalizing from her concern about her own child to that of all the “wayward children ” in prison: I am here today to pledge my strong support for the proposed correctional rehabilitation facility in Ward Eight. I was brought up to believe that we are responsible for every child, and that we are mothers and fathers to every one of them. We cannot toss our children aside when they are sick and in need of help. If we do not help them, then who will? Are we so insensitive as a society that we do not care about our children and their cries for help? Let us work together and make a productive people of our children and help those who need help the most. God said, “When you help the least of my people, you help me.” Let me leave you with this ‹nal thought. What if it was your child? What type of help would you want to offer your child? I happen to know ‹rst hand. And I earnestly believe, that I would want to have available the assistance that this proposed correctional facility has to offer. What about you?4 Her comments touched not only on the feelings that many families of prisoners have about the lack of rehabilitation programs in most correctional settings but also on the responsibility of the community to take care of its own. Over the course of the ‹ve hearings, however, it became clear that the opposition to the prison was overwhelming. The current mayor, Anthony Williams, the city council, and the local area neighborhood commissions all voiced strong opposition to the project,5 as did the major and minor newspapers and nearly all the citizens’ organizations in the District.* If the proposed prison would provide Ward Eight with Doing Time on the Outside 16 * The exception was the citizens’ group organized with the express purpose of supporting the proposal. valuable economic opportunity and an increased chance of rehabilitation for local residents involved in the criminal justice system, why were so many in Ward Eight opposed to it? Opponents cited a variety of complaints, but a central theme that ran through the most poignant and persuasive arguments was that...