Jean

Jean, the leader of the Arkansas Citizens United for Rehabilitation of Errants (CURE), is a pillar in the fight against Arkansas’ overly punitive, ineffective and disempowering criminal justice system. Watch as Jean discusses her experience in Arkansas’ criminal justice system. Here are some of the most poignant points from our conversation:

1. The poor should be afforded the same quality of legal representation as the well-to-do, whose privately funded attorneys are granted special privileges not afforded to public defenders;
2. Municipal jails have to improve their treatment of the mentally ill as some people intentionally hide their infirmities so as to avoid the harsh treatment meted out to the mentally ill in jail; and
3. The State has to remove the obstacles that make it burdensome for Arkansans to support their incarcerated loved ones.

Jean’s story stands in stark contrast to Kenny’s story. Where Kenny was too poor to afford an attorney and to pay his fine, Jean was able to pay an attorney and her fine. Where Kenny’s public defender had to represent multiple clients in one court session and didn’t provide adequate counsel, Jean’s attorney took priority in the courtroom and was afforded the time to explain her relatively lite plea deal to Jean. Where Kenny is still labeled a “convicted felon,” Jean’s charges are expunged. Both had never been convicted a felony before, both were accused of nonviolent crimes, one had resources, the other didn’t.

Still, Jean had to spend a brief stint in jail before she could bond out. Once she was jailed, Jean noticed the women in jail had a perverse incentive to hide their mental illnesses. There are several negative mental health outcomes amongst the incarcerated population. Prison has become the “institution of last resort...for the confinement of the mentally ill.” There are three times as many seriously mentally ill people in correctional institutions than there are in inpatient mental institutions. Many, if not most, of these mentally ill incarcerated people are given inadequate mental health treatment as they are overmedicated, under-medicated or not medicated at all. However, the non-mentally ill incarcerated population does not fare much better. Prisons are characterized by extreme social isolation due to strict limits on visitation and communication with family and friends at home.

Jean’s husband is currently incarcerated in an Arkansas state prison. The families of people incarcerated during the Arkansas Incarceration Crisis suffer mentally, financially and socially during their loved one’s incarceration. In addition to losing a loved one, families of the incarcerated also lose significant income when their loved one is incarcerated. In fact, expenses increase when a family member is incarcerated. Families have to pay exorbitant phone fees, court fees, restitution fees, outstanding legal fees, money for commissary, costs of travel to secluded correctional facilities, etc. Children often try to earn money to pick up the slack. The lost income combined with the increased expenses places the families at an increased risk of homelessness.

Private corporations see prisons as markets where they can establish a monopoly and engage in price gouging for profit. For example, Securus Technologies, which provides telephone services to people incarcerated in Arkansas prisons, made a $114.6 million in profit in 2014, which is up from their $87 million in profits in 2013. Similar price-gauging behavior can be seen in the price of items in the prison stores known as commissaries. Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz describes rent seeking behavior, such as this, as actions taken by corporations in search of private rewards that “do not align with social returns.” Such is the behavior incentivized by the Arkansas Incarceration Crisis.