Jonathan Simon

Jonathan Simon Notes Social Costs of U.S. Prison System

The New York Times, June 10, 2009 by Jim Lewis
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/14/magazine/14prisons-t.html?_r=1

As Jonathan Simon, a law professor at Berkeley, pointed out to me, convicts tend to come from cities; guards do not. Culture clashes inevitably arise. Skilled labor — doctors, psychologists and the like — is harder to find in rural areas, and so are the volunteers who work in the many rehabilitation programs. The families of working-class and poor convicts often can’t afford to travel a few hundred miles to visit their relatives. As a result, prisoners have a harder time maintaining ties with the lives they left behind.

Jonathan Simon Says Life Sentence for Murder is a Powerful Deterrent

Oakland Tribune, May 26, 2009 by Paul T. Rosynsky
http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/localnews/oakland-homicides-2008/ci_12452840

“The good news is we have always known that murderers have a low rate of recidivism,” Simon said. “There is something that gets their attention after they are convicted to a life sentence.” These prisoners often mentor others while sharing a jail cell, Simon said…. “People have this extraordinary ability to be optimistic, while they are aware of the large amount of people that are denied parole, they believe that if they can get that college degree, or complete that one program, they are going to get lucky,” he said.

Jonathan Simon Explains Pros and Cons of Gentrification

The Sacramento Bee, May 12, 2009 by Stan Oklobdzija
http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/Stock%20News/2322125/

“As a neighborhood gentrifies, affluent people are more demanding consumers. They demand security,” said Dr. Jonathan Simon, an associate dean at UC Berkeley’s Boalt School of Law…. While gentrification might do great things for crime rates and land values, lower-income residents can be pushed into poorer parts of town, said Simon.

Jonathan Simon Deplores Failings of “Tough on Crime” Rhetoric

UC Berkeley NewsCenter, May 7, 2009 by Cathy Cockrell
http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2009/05/07_crime2.shtml

“When we say that we want government to be tough on crime, we mean that we want prison sentences to be long and the rhetoric to be sharp. But we don’t actually hold government accountable for reducing crime. If we did, we wouldn’t put up with prisons that produce 70 percent recidivism rates. We would long ago have said ‘Why are we building and supporting these prisons if they’re failing most of the time?’ Instead we’ve been satisfied with the rhetoric of toughness, and an emotional appeal to solidarity with the victim and disparaging disdain for the offender. We’ve taken government off the hook.”

Jonathan Simon Thinks California’s Parole Problem Due to Overcrowded Prisons

KQED, Forum with Michael Krasny, March 26, 2009 Host Scott Shafer
http://www.kqed.org/epArchive/R903260900

“We sent too many people to prison to begin with. We don’t do much with them while they’re there. Half of all prisoners coming out of the system haven’t done any programming because there’s no incentive. Often we just can’t provide it for them given the current state of our prisons, which were designed very badly; they’re chronically overcrowded. They have about twice as many people in them as they should, so when they’re coming out on parole there’s been very little effort to get them ready for that.”