Statement on prisons
By Carlos Alvarez for Governor Campaign, Peace & Freedom Party
From San Quentin News Gubernatorial Questionnaire on Prisoner Rights
Below are your questions reproduced, followed by the responses of Carlos Alvarez, Peace & Freedom Party Candidate for Governor.
1. Senator James Webb of Virginia noted that the United States has five percent of the world’s population and 25 percent of the world’s prisoners. He concluded that either Americans are five times as evil as people in the rest of the world or there’s something wrong with our criminal justice system. Which of those two possibilities do you believe is correct and why?
Something is dead wrong with the U.S. criminal justice system. I view the “justice” system as a system of oppression targeting working people, especially those from oppressed communities. Black, Latino, Native and Asian people are disproportionately sentenced to longer prison terms for “crimes” equivalent to their white counterparts. Poor whites are also sentenced to long prison terms. The failure of capitalism to employ millions of workers combined with the profit driven prison-industrial complex has lead to the mass incarceration of working people while actual criminals—Wall Street bankers and Pentagon warmongers—operate with impunity.
2. It costs California’s taxpayers more than 45K per year to keep one person in prison. That 45K would cover the state’s share of educating about 15 elementary school students. Do you believe this should be changed and why?
Yes, it must be changed immediately. In the midst of the worse economic crisis in more than 70 years, California politicians pushed the crisis onto the backs of working families. They have eliminated thousands of jobs, attacked unions, slashed benefits, expanded class sizes and threatened public education on every level. Instead of long prison sentences, there should be rehabilitation and millions of jobs should be created. Most so-called crimes result from the attempts of people to survive. The money spent on prisons in California should be put to use for quality public education and the creation of jobs.
3. The Three Strikes Law results in numerous non-violent felons sentenced to life in prison. Numerous two-strike non-violent offenders also receive long prison terms. This costs hundreds of millions of dollars a year. What is your opinion of this situation, and what do you believe should be done about it, if anything?
I will put an immediate moratorium on the Three Strikes Law if I am elected Governor. It is a racist law that only further oppresses working and poor people, especially people of color. Right now, Three Strikes feeds into the prison-industrial complex’s wish to continue expanding, and its collaboration with corporations to force prisoners to work at slave wages. This law itself is truly criminal. As a proud member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation (www.PSLweb.org), I must say that Three Strikes is an example of why I believe prisons are modern-day “concentration camps” for the poor.
4. Describe the qualities of a person you would appoint for the head of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR).
I would appoint a class-conscious person who had experienced time in prison or jail to head the CDCR. My campaign is about putting working and poor people’s needs first. This would guide my decision. The new CDCR head would have to focus on job placement, and would immediately raise the wages of prison laborers to be equivalent to their “free” counterparts. The right to unionize would be extended to all prisoners. The ultimate goal of my administration’s CDCR head would be to tear down the prison walls!
5. CDCR is, by its legal title, supposed to embody both punishment (Corrections) and Rehabilitation leading to the offender’s re-entry into society. Recent governors have over-ruled the vast majority of paroles granted after long study and extensive hearings by the state’s official parole board. What is your opinion of this practice and what changes, if any, would you support?
I would grant paroles, commute sentences and pardon all political prisoners. The practice of denying parole is unconscionable. It furthers the stigmatization of prisoners as “violent” and “unemployable.” Prison conditions today are a product of divide-and-conquer tactics. Guards perpetuate racism and employ violence to control a potentially revolutionary population. With new job placement and educational opportunities, reduced sentences, humane conditions and dignified wages, the workers in prison will be well prepared to re-enter society. I believe working people should run society. Only then will we be free. The people who should be in prison are those who exploit our labor.
