Crime and Justice

 

It’s early into the twenty-first century and criminal justice policy has made a further turn to the political center. State governments, all across the country, have a policy first initiated in the state of Washington. The premise appears simple. If you commit three violent felonies, you’ll spend the rest of your life in prison.

As futurists know, changes do not occur in a vacuum. Rather, events and circumstances trigger other changes in the larger society.

In the 90’s there four and one-half million people monitored in some way by the law enforcement sector and one-half million in prison; the United States lead the developed world in incarcerating offenders.

In looking back at the future, crime surged in the 60’s and 70’s, and plateaud at a high level in the 80’s and 90’s. However as overall crime leveled toward the 21st century, juvenile crime increased. By the late 90’s with  a new baby boom, crime accelerated again, particularly when large increases occurred in and among various disenfranchised minorities. Crime became more random and more violent. Each crime related injury cost on average $41,000.00

The inner cities and older suburbs provided the cultural stimuli for continued crime.

Both Republicans and Democrats demanded a “three and out” policy. Although Liberals  asked for money towards intervention and prevention, monies were not available to any large extent.

As prisons became overcrowded, offenders were no longer given shortened sentences but were sent to “para-communities.” These communities were camps that housed thousands of inmates. Liberals began to support this policy as long as ‘offenders were provided with clean and sanitary conditions.

So what was the rest of the story? The future played itself out in this way. *Prison capitalism   Prisons produced everything from licensed plates to office furniture. With major increases in inmates, this sector continued to expand. As the facilities increased from public monies, the corporate capitalist sector took note that there was a large population that would work for 60 cents an hour and not have collective bargaining rights. This meant that “prisonomics” provided a worker pool that was competitive with Mexico and Asia. Prison industries help defray the cost of housing an offender which $30,000 to $35,000 a year. *Social genetics  There was an ongoing debate about how much violent behavior was learned or was genetic. Conservative criminologist contended that offending populations, had imbalances of serotonin, norepinphrine, and dopamine. Thus violent offenders were likely to seek recreational drugs as well as violence because of their psych-biological origins. Liberal criminologist supported the theories that aggression and violence were learned from dysfunctional families, inadeqauate bonding, role modeling and crimnogenic neighborhoods. However, this debate was lessened because increasing numbers of offenders were not be allowed to procreate. Especially since conjugal visits were not permitted and many offenders were mandated to have vasectomies during their second offense. Numerous studies had shown that career offenders came from families that had other career offenders. When the camps become even more inclusive, offenders were no longer able to contribute to the reproduction pool genetically or leave behind socially high risk families. *Psychopharmocology   To keep these large populations relatively compliant, large doses of anti-depressants and tranquilizers were needed. Generic versions of Valium (diazapem) and Prosac provided  a more manageable population. However, the anti-depressant Impramine was much cheaper and also had sedational properties. Corrections personnel knew that the medications were addictive, but that was not the issue as the residents were  in prison for the rest of their lifes. Further, if inmates were disobedient, the immediate removal of the drugs from the prisoner induced violent seizures as well as severe depression. Additionally, the caffeine industries of colas and coffees knew that mixtures of Valium and caffeine  provided a comfortable  "rush." Liberals, accepted that a population removed from the population but treated with medications that lessened the suffering was the most viable strategy. *Niche marketing  As two inmates were situated in a small secured room, cable television was available. Television was a powerful tool for control. As each set became a window to the world and a way to avoid the monotony of the prison, removal of the television became an ultimate punishment. Prisoners complied, because they knew that they would not lose their rights to television. Thus a whole new market appeared for merchandisers from soft pornography to junk food. Liberals  came to tolerate this as television was comforting in an unpleasant environment. Thus, the camps were more "humane", then say those in China. *The law enforcement-military-industrial complex  As "three and out" became necessary, whole new communities emerged that provided services for the camps. From medical personnel to corrections practioners, all were provided with a viable income. Military bases that were to close, were now reopened as camps that fought the "enemy from within." Monies that would have gone for schools, bridges, and highways were diverted to these new camps. Taxpayers indicated that they would rather pay for punishment and the certainty of punishment then prevention and intervention which they did not trust nor want. Additionally, a new jobs program was introduced and some defense personnel were converted to corrections. Community colleges provided for the education and retraining. In the 21st century, nearly two out three African-Americans were middle income. This was up from the 50 that were below the poverty line in the 1950's when segregation was the law or custom depending on what part of the country one analyzed. Statistics were similar for other people of color. The success story that came from the civil rights struggle was that some people of color did not succeed in the 21st century and struggled to survive in an information society. Conservatives provided the ideology and the rationale for the camps. Liberals work to see that the camps were clean, well ordered, and humane as one could define that term. As the "paracommunites" became institutionalized, the rest of the population looked upon them with ambivalence. Nearly all that were outside the camps, wondered what became of the democratic experiment in the USA?  However public safety took precedent over other alternatives. In the end, it was not be the best or the worst of times for those who were free as crime continued in a diminished form outside the gates.