Mirror Sites:
CSUDH Habermas UWP

California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Created: April 30, 2001
Latest update: April 30, 2001
jeannecurran@habermas.org

On Monday, April 30, 2001, Beverly Myers wrote:

The term "Structural Context," according to Henry & Milovanovic, is referring to institutional expectation and roles that help make up what we are. When people are incarcerated, thereby establishing a prison (or jail) record, they are labeled by society and law enforcement as being "bad people."

According to the California Department of Corrections (CDC), there are approximately 79 prisons, with inmate population over 300,000 men women. The cost per inmate is $25, 607, their budget for year 2000-2001 is $4.8 billion. CDC staff over 47, 172 employees. The characteristics: Male 89.2%; Female: 10.8%; Race: 30.3% White; 26% Black; 39% Hispanic; 4.7% other.

The prisons in California are called correctional departments, which is where prisoners will pay for committing crime (s) by serving time and making restitution. This is supposed to be corrective and should not involve taking punitive measures while the prisoner is institutionalized. The California Department of Corrections prisons use excessive force, although the convicts in California prisons are no more difficult or violent than those in New York, Florida, Texas or serving in the Federal System.

California Department of Corrections require that the prisoners (inmates) live in segregated units, which creates racial problems, this has led to hundreds of fights and some killings between the inmates. This situation has created a perfect cover for the CDC officers and administrators to stage fights among the inmates, and give them the right to use deadly force against the prisoners (sometimes killing the inmates).

So far as the CDC is concerned, prisoners (inmates) have no rights, they are treated as less than human, regardless of their crime (not that anyone should be treated less than human). There are some prisoners that should not be instituationalized in the CDC prison facilities, and quite often will become criminals due to the environment.

The California government and society has failed some innocent human beings who ae falsely labeled, and thrown away in the CDC Prison system. Our justice system as we know, should be investigated concerning their injustice decisions that affect another human being.

On Monday, April 30, 2001, jeanne responded:

Good first draft, Beverly. I appreciate your attempt to focus on a single issue and keep the essay short.

Link on the number of the comment to find the spot in the essay referred to. Link on the BACK button of your Browser to return to the comment.

1. You start off with a definition of "structural context" from Henry and Milovanovic. Good source identification, since Henry and Milovanovic are explained on the site. But I think you make an intellectual leap that may not be supported when you end the paragraph with the label of "bad people." I think more accurately those imprisoned are seen as owing some sort of retribution for the harm they have caused others. Now that's the technical explanation. Of course, many people in their prejudice, do see them as "criminals" and "bad."

   I think it is precisely the split in the criminal justice system over whether we need to focus more on retribution or more on prevention of future harm that disturbs you. Even though we want a relatively short piece, I think we need to bring out these points clearly, if, in fact, I'm right about them.

2. Good to provide a short data set like this, since most readers will not have such data right at hand. If you're having difficulty with space, you might put these figures into a footnote. That might also be less disruptive of your thought.

3. When you say that California Prisons use excessive force, you offer no evidence. I would rather see a data set at this point, so that I could conclude whether the figures mean "excessive force" to me.

   This is a standard dilemma when you are trying to keep an essay short. How much and which data do you actually include? One way we can solve this dilemma in our process texts and essay exams is by having several people who are interested in the same topic, take different bits and pieces to discuss. Then we can put all those essays together, and collectively, they will provide the data we need, yet avoid long and didactice sections.

What I would like to propose at this point is that we establish a workshop piece for this topic, and that several of us work together on it, since it is an important topic that fits right into our concerns.

Thank you for getting this done early, Beverly, so that we have the time to organize this work group. love and peace, jeanne