Phoenix, Arizona is, on first encounter, a really strange place. Of course, we have heard the stories about Sheriff Joe, the tent cities for prisoners and the hounding of overstayers. We know that the city is plonked in the middle of a desert. Flying there from Los Angeles is to travel mainly over what appears to be the southern part of the Mojave Desert, a yellow, barren expanse of endless rock. But we did not know that, on arrival, the large airport would be deserted or that the city centre itself would be apparently devoid of people.
I was there for a conference on the children of prisoners. While the traumatic effect of parental imprisonment is an important issue everywhere, it is particularly so in the United States where mass incarceration has devastated families and communities, particularly people of colour. In Arizona, the rate of incarceration is six times what it is here, at 1200 per 100,000 of population. The main reasons for this are the ‘war on drugs’ and also the length of sentences given, often for quite minor crimes. Women are also jailed for prostitution, which increases the female numbers.
You would think that with all these people in prison, the streets would be full of law-abiding persons of good character. What I saw there, on my little tiki tour on the buses, was a burden of poverty, hopelessness, physical and mental disorders, alcoholism and other problems that really shocked me. And my travels were into the East and North of the city, not the West and South where all the gang and violence problems apparently reside.
I was assaulted, too, by a very drunk man who plonked himself down next to me and proceeded to knead my thigh under the guide of scratching himself. He was asked twice to stop, so then I leapt up and he groped at me. I was furious and told him off loudly. When I got off at the next stop, he chased after me and tried to put his hand between my legs before pushing me. A couple of young black women came to my aid and we shouted him off, but I scuttled back to the hotel with one eye on what was behind me.
If sad idiots like that are roaming the streets, then goodness knows who is behind bars. How does the richest country in the world get to be like that, with untreated problems rampant, people showing no respect for others and basically economic collapse? I lost count of the number of people who asked me for a ‘bus fare’ on my travels. Mind you, perhaps what I experienced was simply post-Trumpist male behaviour over there – remember Trump claimed he could grab any lady’s bits that he wanted.
It is estimated that there are around 2.7 million children in the United States with a parent in prison at any one time. The figure here is estimated to be about 23,000. Most of these children have difficult lives, living in benefit-led families, often with unmet health and education needs and, unfortunately, suffering stigma and discrimination. Some are lucky, get good support and counselling and do really well. At worst, these children are at increased risk of themselves ending up in prison.
A lot of talk at the conference was about what the justice system – police, prisons and courts – is able do to make a difference for the families and children. In one system, the family of every person who enters a prison for the first time is contacted with information onto where the prisoner is, how to get in touch with them, what they should expect, whether they need any help with visiting and so on. Such as simple process but far from what we offer here. Some of the clients of the charity Pillars often call with frantic please to help find where their loved ones are.
In general, though, it is fair to say that those working with the families of prisoners in the United States are bowed down by the scale of the job. While the UK system is moving ahead quite quickly with family friendly services, the rest of us are far behind. In the UK, the finding last year in a report to Parliament that the ‘golden thread’ to preventing recidivism is maintaining strong family relationships has galvanised that country into reviewing the prison system.
But I digress. I have returned safely from Phoenix which, for several reasons, I now think of as the land of the zombie apocalypse. I saw the Grand Canyon, and it was amazing. I ate Mexican food in a Navaho restaurant. Papers given, book released, all tasks complete. It is good to be home.
Dr Liz Gordon began her working life as a university lecturer at Massey and the Canterbury universities. She spent six years as an Alliance MP, before starting her own research company, Pukeko Research. Her work is in the fields of justice, law, education and sociology (poverty and inequality). She is the president of Pillars, a charity that works for the children of prisoners, a prison volunteer, and is on the board of several other organisations. Her mission is to see New Zealand freed from the shackles of neo-liberalism before she dies (hopefully well before!).
this a justice industry looking for profits on the taxpayer.
Yes.
I suppose the trauma to the children depends on the nature of the father who is incarcerated – in many instances the child might be better off without the dad being around.
A fundamental problem in the US is the breakdown of the family unit. I recently read that 74% of black Americans are born out of wedlock, so for the majority, the fathers imprisonment is irrelevant.
“I recently read that 74% of black Americans are born out of wedlock, so for the majority, the fathers imprisonment is irrelevant.”
What do you mean, Andrew, “born out of wedlock”??? Do you take into account long term de facto relationships? Civil unions?
And where did you get that figure of 74% from? What is the source?
If having the father around is “irrelevent”, why do you make such a big deal about it?
Liz Gordon has painted a bleak picture of a capitalist society where justice is divirced from a harsh leegal and incarceration system. You make no effort to comment on that, preferring instead to address the SYMPTOMS, rather than the causes of a degraded society. Is it that hard for you to look beyond the immediate and consider what the causes might be.?
“in many instances the child might be better off without the dad being around.”
To make a statement like that shows your ignorance of the situation and therefore lack of compassion.
Quit pretending you care about the child. It’s obvious your don’t.
In fact it was 77% blacks and 49% for hispanics
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/77-black-births-to-single-moms-49-for-hispanic-immigrants
Regardless of your 19th century Marxist thoughts about ‘Capitalism’, the real corrosiveness in our society is absentee fathers.
Boys without a dad in the home are vastly more likely to turn to gangs for role models. A massive amount of research has been done in this area to prove it.
So the ‘progressive’ policies pursued in NZ for the last few decades have actually been regressive.
Thus, let us remember at least Clarke Gayford will be a good father. Sometimes make mistakes, but even real life good fathers do that too.
‘absentee fathers’
And then we have society telling women with no male in the household, (and supported by insulting profiling by WINZ against these women), that they do not deserve our respect for this difficult role of parenting; this attitude then filters down to the children and they start showing disrespect towards their mother, who is doing the job of two people.
Respect is everything. Creeps like Trump and the NZ misogynist pony tail puller Key are perfect examples of people in influential positions ignoring women’s rights and encouraging lack of respect for the job they do as mothers.
As long as the self-interested breed of Andrewo’s little machismo world continues to hold sway, mothers will always be treated like second-class citizens, with or without a male in the house.
“How does the richest country in the world get to be like that”
Because the word ‘country’ doesn’t really apply here. A country is a place where people recognise the existence of the common good. The USA is just a whole lot of people with private property rights living in the same place at the same time. Not really a country apart from having a border and armed forces.
The U$A is a literal mental asylum without the comforts of an actual asylum.
Trump should build a wall around ‘merica to keep him and them in.
The psychiatric illness that is lusting after money and the power it can buy has driven those most sociopathic ever more insane for lusting after it, and the most vulnerable into hopelessness.
What can we learn from that? That was supposed to be a rhetorical question.
Was it not little mike hoskings who went around saying “ Greed is good”?
This is an interesting documentary for those with the stomach for it.
The 13Th.
It’s a kind of map on how some others sate their appetite for sadism and greed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/13th_(film)
What you wrote above @ Dr Gordon, terrified me. The U$A could be described as being the Devil on the Earth and I’m no God botherer.
I had a friend who used to travel there as a mental health professional doing the seminar circuit and loathed the U$A in a general sort of way but specifically in how the ‘Normals’ had gained a foothold in the humanity there. The Pink and Cleaners, the ‘Rolleston, Town Of The Future’ types.
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