Archive: Jun 2007

paris hilton sent home early

Chris Uggen on June 7, 2007

as i’m sure you’ve heard, paris has left the building.

ms. paris hilton was reassigned to home confinement, 3 days into a 23-day jail sentence. a few observations from a sociological criminologist:

1. yes, in my experience, this sort of thing is pretty unusual.

2. indeed, people are going to be very pissed about the whole equal-Justice-is-a-sham aspects of this case.

3. i believe that the los angeles county sheriff’s office must have anticipated the outrage that this move would spark. based on the remarks by sheriff baca’s spokesperson steve whitmore, the office appears to be medicalizing and, hence, normalizing ms. hilton’s treatment. they seem to be suggesting that sending inmates home for medical reasons is standard operating procedure in the l.a. county jail.

4. i’m not so cynical that i dismiss the possibility that ms. hilton was reassigned based on legitimate medical or humanitarian grounds, rather than (or in addition to) naked discrimination based on her race, gender, celebrity, or wealth. trust me, any young inmate’s first couple days behind bars are rough. about half of all jail suicides occur during the inmate’s first week in custody, with the highest suicide rate among inmates under the age of 18.

5. of course, thousands of poor and anonymous inmates, many with debilitating mental health problems, will also be struggling to survive this night in jail. and few of them will be sent home or reassigned to house arrest.

quiet riots

Michelle Inderbitzin on June 5, 2007

the seattle times reports that barack obama is warning of “quiet riots” among blacks after the disaster of hurricane katrina and the current administration’s poor treatment of new orleans’ residents in its afttermath.

“This administration was colorblind in its incompetence,” Obama said at a conference of black clergy, “but the poverty and the hopelessness was there long before the hurricane…All the hurricane did was to pull the curtain back for all the world to see,” he said.

“Those ‘quiet riots’ that take place every day are born from the same place as the fires and the destruction and the police decked out in riot gear and the deaths,” Obama said. “They happen when a sense of disconnect settles in and hope dissipates. Despair takes hold and young people all across this country look at the way the world is and believe that things are never going to get any better.”

chris and i (with co-authors kelly fawcett and kristin bates) have a chapter coming out about race and voter disenfranchisement in the south, with particular focus on new orleans after hurricane katrina. the problems are enormous. will we find the political will to address them before the potential “quiet riots” erupt into further devastation?

ceo compensation and the sting of public disdain

Chris Uggen on June 5, 2007

we’ve all read how the ratio of CEO pay to worker pay has risen in recent years. in minnesota, compensation for executives from northwest airlines and united healthcare spark frequent editorials of the “oh, come on! you cannot be serious” variety.

big-time CEOs such as warren buffet have also decried such compensation packages, railing “that a mediocre-or-worse CEO – aided by his handpicked VP of human relations and a consultant from the ever-accommodating firm of Ratchet, Ratchet and Bingo – all too often receives gobs of money from an ill-designed compensation arrangement.”

but it really takes charles denny, the respected former chair and CEO of ADC telecommunications, to show us how bad things have gotten for former executives. this week, mr. denny slipped an astonishing parenthetical admisson into his fine strib piece on CEO compensation:

Public opinion is turning against business leaders. Poll after poll reflects growing public distrust in executives. The Harris Poll showed a drop in public confidence in major business leaders from 28 percent approval in 2000 to 13 percent today. Only organized labor, Congress and lawyers received lower rankings.

(As a former CEO, I feel the sting of public disdain. When my grandchildren ask me what I did at work, I tell them I was the company librarian.)

nice. what do you think they’re paying the ADC librarians these days?

gallows humor…literally

Michelle Inderbitzin on June 4, 2007

an inmate on death row in texas is seeking jokes so that he can select the funniest one and offer it as his last statement before his execution on june 26. to read the full story from the AP, click here.

the short version is this: patrick knight is on death row for shooting his neighbors to death 16 years ago. he claims that his idea to offer humorous last words is not intended to disrespect his victims; instead, he says: “I’m not trying to say I don’t care what’s going on. I’m about to die. I’m not going to sit here and whine and cry and moan and everything like that when I’m facing the punishment I’ve been given.”

knight got the idea for a joke as his last statement after a friend was executed earlier this year and laughed from the death chamber gurney: “Where’s a stunt double when you need one?”

for many inmates, the use of humor is an important survival strategy in prison. is it taking it too far for a condemned inmate to tell a joke before being executed, or should the individual be allowed to express whatever last sentiment s/he chooses?

punishment, Justice, and hope

Michelle Inderbitzin on June 1, 2007

the Salem Statesman Journal reports:

Oregon has begun a new effort to increase the odds of success for inmates when they leave prison — and decrease the likelihood they will return for longer and more expensive stays. Gov. Ted Kulongoski has created a 19-member council to oversee the efforts of government and nonprofit agencies. He said it will be good not only for inmates — 4,000 of whom are released annually from state prisons — but for the public and the tax-supported general fund.

“Criminal Justice has to be about more than punishment; it’s also about hope,” Kulongoski said Friday. “People who have served their time need an opportunity to turn their lives around — a job, a place to live, a chance for a new start. “

Max Williams, the state corrections director, said the council’s aim is to draw together all the government and nonprofit agencies working on employment, housing, medical and mental health services, alcohol and drug treatment, and personal skills to help those inmates succeed out of prison.

the council seems like a positive step, but perhaps even more important is the need to educate the public about the realities of reentry. the article offers useful information and statistics, including the facts that oregon’s prison system now holds a record 13,500 inmates, and the proposed budget of the department of corrections for the next two years is $1.35 billion, triple its level of more than a decade ago. currently there are about 34,000 inmates under post-prison supervision.
unfortunately, the editor who wrote the title of the article misunderstood the concept of reentry, apparently confusing reentry with recidivism. the title: “New panel aims to make inmate re-entry less likely” is definitely contrary to the goal of the council…

not just the premise for a television show

Michelle Inderbitzin on June 1, 2007

from today’s seattle times:

For four months, Federal Way police sent two undercover detectives — a 29-year-old woman and a 33-year-old man — to infiltrate an area of increasing drug use:

High schools.

Officials provided few details Thursday on how the detectives, well out of their teens, were able to pass themselves off as students, but their undercover operation succeeded to an alarming extent.

With little difficulty, they purchased a cornucopia of illicit drugs — including marijuana, Ecstasy, cocaine and the prescription drug oxycodone — as well as rifles and semiautomatic handguns.

The investigation culminated Thursday with criminal charges filed against 12 students, ranging in age from 13 to 18, and against two adults not associated with Federal Way schools.