Campaigning behind bars

Operating on a shoestring budget in an election where her party is struggling to maintain official status, Green Party gubernatorial candidate Diane Benson has spent much of her time talking with Alaskans who aren't allowed to vote.

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Benson, an Alaska Native who lives in Chugiak, visited the Lemon Creek Correctional Center in Juneau on Tuesday to speak with Native inmates about disparities in Alaska's prison system. During the election season, Benson also has visited the Fairbanks Correctional Center and spoken with prisoners in Palmer by phone.

Benson said privatizing prisons and shipping inmates to out-of-state facilities in Arizona inadequately addresses the problem of overcrowding.

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"The thing we are not addressing is why do we have so many people in prison, and what are we going to do about it?" Benson said.

She added that the state's Native population is incarcerated at a disproportionate rate compared to other groups.

"When (the Native) population doesn't make up even 20 percent of the total population but can make up anywhere from 40 to 50 to 70 percent of correctional facilities, we have a huge problem," Benson said.

During her Tuesday visit to Lemon Creek, Superintendent Dan Carothers said the prison's inmate population is about 40 percent Native.

Lemon Creek, which has an emergency cap of 170 prisoners, is overcrowded, Carothers said. He said more than anything else, overcrowding leads to violence in prisons.

"I don't care if it's a private or public prison, I don't want to see it overcrowded," Carothers said.

Gary Kidd, assistant superintendent at Lemon Creek, said the facility is more vulnerable to overcrowding because it acts as a prison as well as a pretrial facility for those awaiting a court hearing in Juneau.

"You could have a drug bust downtown, and the troopers could bring us 50 people," Kidd said.

Bruce Richards of Alaska's Department of Corrections said 4,623 Alaskans are incarcerated. About 38 percent of those are Native. Richards said 612 inmates are housed in a facility in Florence, Ariz., a 1,600-bed private prison made up mostly of inmates from Alaska and Hawaii.

Benson said housing inmates outside of Alaska and the state's unwillingness to work with tribal courts hampers efforts to rehabilitate prisoners.

A bill in the last legislative session that attempted to address the issue of overcrowding would have approved building a private prison in Whittier. The bill passed the House but did not make it to a floor vote in the Senate. Previous attempts to build a private prison in-state have been unsuccessful.

Benson said she opposes private prisons because they create a situation where convicts are incarcerated for profit.

She argues the problem of prison overpopulation should be addressed through rehabilitation instead of creating more beds.

"It's sort of to me like a Catch-22; (private prisons) create a need but we're not addressing the real problem of these overfilled prisons," Benson said. "As a country we incarcerate more people than any other advanced nation, if not more than any nation. Why are we doing that? California, for example, spends more money on prisons than they do on higher education. Is that where we want to go?"

Benson said high recidivism rates in Alaska's Native population largely stem from the geography of the state.

A convict from a village on the Yukon River who serves his time in Fairbanks, for example, must remain in Fairbanks to report to his parole officer and fulfill community service requirements, Benson said.

"He doesn't have his family, and he doesn't have his home, and he doesn't have any support," Benson said. "I think we need to care about what it takes to reintroduce that person into the community."

On Tuesday, Benson met with six Native inmates at Lemon Creek, all convicted of crimes relating to drugs or alcohol.

"I'm not here for your vote," Benson said, noting she has five weeks before the Nov. 5 general election to voice the concerns of inmates to the public.

"Am I saying that you did the crime and you shouldn't do the time? No," she said. "But there are disparities in the prison system that should be addressed."

The inmates voiced their frustrations on the inability to acquire health care benefits, the expensive phone system prisoners are required to use, and the transition from prison life to society.

Kevin Frank, a 44-year-old inmate who has been in and out of the prison system for decades, said Alaska Natives, even those in prison, should be eligible for health care through the SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium.

William Shades, 28, noted prisoners are prohibited from using inexpensive telephone cards to make calls. Instead, they are required to use a phone system called Evercom, which can cost up to $60 for a 30-minute phone call.

Henry Adams, a 22-year-old inmate, said he has been in and out of the prison system four or five times. He said he'd rather stay on the street than at the halfway houses and group homes offered by the state. This led him to break parole and be sent back into the prison system.

David Waits, a 38-year-old inmate, agreed.

"I'd rather be on the streets than under the thumb of someone else," he said, suggesting prisoners spend the last few months of their term in alternative housing to ease the transition back into society.

Benson emphasized the importance of prisoners being allowed to practice their Native traditions and spirituality while in prison. She said she would take the issues up with the Alaska Federation of Natives at its annual convention Oct. 24 in Anchorage.

Timothy Inklebarger can be reached at timothyi@juneauempire.com.