Can Other States Learn from Oregon’s Prison System?
What Can Other States Learn from Oregon’s Prison System? Convict-turned-Ph.D. Student Says Education is Just One Reason for Oregon’s Low Recidivism Rate If the measure is recidivism rates, the answer is no. More than half of convicts released from prison are rearrested within a year and more than three-fourths have been arrested again within five years, according to a National Institute of Justice report.
“Tough on crime has been confused with tough on criminals,” says Ralph Spinelli, a 74-year-old Ph.D. student at the Goldman School of Public Policy and criminal justice reform activist. “ ‘Tough on crime’ requires us to develop programs that create jobs for people who are standing on the corner selling dope, robbing, or generally committing crime.”
Spinelli is also an ex-convict who served time in the prison system with the nation’s lowest rate of recidivism — Oregon, and in a system with one of the highest, California. He details his experiences in a new book, “Prison as Punishment,” (http://www.ralphspinelli.com/).
“The book demonstrates that post-incarceration education is the most comfortable, safest and most productive place [for convicts] to experience the transition from prison to citizen.”
But educational opportunities are just one reason Oregon has a 22.8 percent recidivism rate compared to 43 percent for the nation as a whole and 57.8 percent for California – statistics from a Pew Center on the States study.
Spinelli, who works closely with the Oregon Department of Corrections, highlights other reasons for California’s poor record and Oregon’s comparative success.
• In Oregon, prison is punishment; in California, prison is for punishment.
In Oregon, prisoners lose their freedoms and are subject to the strict rules governing prison life, but that is their punishment. Otherwise, they are treated with the general civility accorded other human beings – they’re not humiliated, abused, and treated as though they’re worthless, Spinelli says.
In California, the opposite is true. Spinelli describes his bus ride to San Quentin in California.
“There was a caged holding cell inside the bus where I sat handcuffed and shackled. There were no other prisoners on the bus, just three cops with 12-gauge shotguns and two correctional officers, including the driver,” he writes. “None of the cops spoke to me. When it came time to get off, I was ordered to exit the bus backwards, still handcuffed and shackled.”
And the ride to Oregon State Penitentiary:
“There were three of us convicts and none of us were handcuffed or shackle, seated in the back of a van. There was just one cop, the driver. He spoke with us, respectfully, without shouting orders. He even asked what our preference in music was, then tuned the radio to a station that played it. He treated us like people.”
• California spends 90 percent of its prison budget on payroll.
In 2012, California spent $11.5 billion on corrections – a sum many observers believe goes to coddled prisoners. Not true, Spinelli says.
“Ninety percent was payroll,” he says. “We’re not coddling the prisoners; we’re coddling the prison guards. In California, entry level pay for a correctional officer is $85,000. With guaranteed benefits, the pay can be as high as $115,000. Academic requirement for this position: GED.”
Oregon corrections officers start at just under $39,000 with the same minimum academic requirement. However, officers have an incentive to earn a bachelor’s degree, which helps qualify them to also work at Oregon’s federal facilities.
“If we require correctional officers to have or be earning some level of advanced education, society would receive a more positive result from the people being released from prison.”
• In Oregon, parole violations do not mean an automatic return to prison.
Max Williams, former director of the Oregon Department of Corrections, instituted a policy that prohibited parole officers from sending ex-convicts back to prison for parole violations. They only returned for new crimes.
“But the parole officers can send them to county jail for up to 90 days, and anyone will tell you, county jails are a much worse place to do time,” Spinelli says. “Plus, the parole officer has to visit the person in jail every day and work with them to develop a plan for after their release.”
About Ralph Spinelli
In 1969, Ralph Spinelli was sentenced to four concurrent 10-year terms in Oregon State Penitentiary. After 11 months, he was transferred to a university program where he spent six years being educated before being released. Twenty years later, he was sentenced to prison in California. He compares and contrasts the two systems in his new book, “Prison as Punishment,” (www.ralphspinelli.com). Spinelli holds a bachelor’s degree and a Master of Fine Arts, and is currently working on his Ph.D. at the University of California Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy. He teaches at St. Mary’s College in California.