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When someone commits a crime in Chicago, everybody pays -- literally:
Taxpayers have shelled out an estimated $5.3 billion in the past decade just to incarcerate Chicago citizens who have been convicted of felony offenses, a vast majority of which are non-violent crimes, a new analysis by NBC 5 Investigates and The Chicago Reporter reveals.
The investigation also reveals that a disproportionate amount of that money goes to incarcerate Chicagoans who hail from a small fraction of the city’s blocks. These are frequently people who repeatedly cycle in and out of prison, and who -- because they are convicted felons -- have few options to find legitimate work when they return to their already-depressed neighborhoods.
Faced with this staggering cost of repeatedly incarcerating a relatively small number of the city’s residents, a growing number of experts are now pushing for a different way to spend -- and possibly save -- some of this money.
Take the Austin neighborhood, on Chicago’s far west side. This once-middle-class community is now one of the most impoverished and crime-ridden areas of the city. Yet it’s also one of the priciest: The Chicago Reporter / NBC 5 analysis found that taxpayers spent an estimated $644 million to house convicted criminals, just from Austin, in prison since 2000. That’s 11 percent of prison money, spent on a neighborhood that makes up just 3.5 percent of the city’s population.
"Every time the police looked at you wrong -- penitentiary, penitentiary, penitentiary," says Michael Flowers, a resident of Austin who has gone to prison seven times in the past ten years.
See more investigative reports from NBCChicago.com
Like other ex-cons, Flowers says whatever job training and education he received in prison simply wasn’t enough to make a difference when he got out. Many of the storefronts lining Austin’s streets are boarded up and the surviving businesses aren’t necessarily clamoring to hire convicted felons.
As a result, these ex-cons often see a life of crime as the only real way to make any money.
"These guys are going to come back to the neighborhood," said Angela Caputo, who spearheaded the NBC 5 / Chicago Reporter’s block-by-block analysis of prison costs in Chicago. "They don’t want to spend their whole lives looking over their shoulders, but there’s really nothing for them to do."
"They need to see other options," said David Olson, a professor of criminal justice at Loyola University in Chicago. "But they also need to be provided with the skills and the tools in order to achieve those options."
Olson said that over the past 30 years, too much money has been spent incarcerating the (often non-violent) criminals from neighborhoods like Austin. A smarter use of that money, he says, would be to give these convicted felons a new direction when they get out of prison.
"They’ll continue cycling in and out of these correctional facilities, usually until either they age out of their criminal activity, or when the types of services that they really need are provided to them," he said.
That’s where people like Pastor Reginald Bachus have begun to step in. Bachus, whose Friendship Baptist Church is located in the midst of Austin’s crime-riddled neighborhood, decided if regular businesses wouldn’t hire ex-cons and felons, he would.
Bachus formed the Friendship Community Development Corporation, which pays some of Austin’s ex-cons to maintain 28 bank-owned homes in the neighborhood that are currently going through foreclosure.
That means someone like Darnell Horton, an Austin resident who served 21 years behind bars on four convictions, can now receive a weekly paycheck. He spends his days shoveling snow around the bank-owned homes with his friend, Bruno Carter, a fellow Austin ex-con who also works for Pastor Bachus’ corporation.
"It keeps me motivated to get up in the morning and do an honest day’s pay and take care of my family," said Carter.
"They show up every day, on time, and get the job done," said Pastor Bachus. "We’ve had no complaints. There are a lot of good people out there who are willing to do [this kind of work] -- if they have the opportunity.”
The same goes for Flowers, who now lives in transitional housing in Austin, and who says he’s done with his previous life of "penitentiary, penitentiary, penitentiary."
Flowers hopes to convince local banks, along with city officials, to hire ex-cons to not just maintain Austin’s foreclosed homes, but to actually rehabilitate them. To many, that’s a much smarter way to spend Chicago taxpayers’ money.
For more information on the NBC5/Chicago Reporter investigation, read Angela Caputo's "Cell Blocks" story, as well as her story on the financial effects of Illinois' newly enhanced drug laws, in the March/April issue of The Chicago Reporter.
NBC5Investigates and The Chicago Reporter team up occasionally to bring you investigative stories about poverty and race in the Chicago area. To find more Chicago Reporter stories, visit their website.
Leave a Comment:
Oh suuure, I bet you had nothing to do with going to prison seven times in the past ten years. Clearly the police are just out to frame you and only you, Michael Flowers.
Remember who is choosing which comments to publish out of dozens they obtained. They'll pick the most idiotic, wrongheaded comment if it supports their agenda that prisons are filled with victims of police injustice.
This statement is wrong in many ways.
It’s no coincidence that the incarceration rates have been going up, especially for minorities, over the past 30 years. This is exactly when our criminal government decided they can educate our children in their public school indoctrination camps better than private schools.
This is not just a Chicago problem, even though it is the poster child for our ineffective government system, it is a national disgrace.
44 million adults in the U.S. can't read well enough to read a simple story to a child.
Approximately 50 percent of the nation's unemployed youth age 16-21 are functional illiterate, with virtually no prospects of obtaining good jobs.
60 percent of America's prison inmates are illiterate and 85% of all juvenile offenders have reading problems.
Over one million children drop out of school each year, costing the nation over $240 billion in lost earnings, forgone tax revenues, and expenditures for social services.
More than 20 percent of adults read at or below a fifth-grade level - far below the level needed to earn a reasonable wage.
More than three out of four of those on welfare, 85% of unwed mothers and 68% of those arrested are illiterate. About three in five of America's prison inmates are illiterate.
Nearly half of America's adults are poor readers, or "functionally illiterate." They can't carry out simply tasks like balancing check books, reading drug labels or writing essays for a job.
21 million Americans can't read at all, 45 million are marginally illiterate and one-fifth of high school graduates can't read their diplomas.
50 percent of American adults are unable to read an eighth grade level book.
When the State of Arizona projects how many prison beds it will need, it factors in the number of kids who read well in fourth grade.
Now these are the numbers nationally. The individuals in the article are at a bigger disadvantage if current education statistics are any reflection of how they were educated.
The Chicago Public Schools 11th Graders Meeting College Readiness Benchmarks are: 21% in Reading, 19% in Math, 11% in Science, 38% in English!!!!!
Now before any of you begin with the “we need more money and more teachers”, realize this.
The United States pays more for education, per student, than any nation, other than Switzerland, and our children rank in the bottom 1/3 of other OECD nations in math, science and reading.
WE SPEND MORE THAN ENOUGH ON EDUCATION!!!!!
The problem is HOW we spend it.
During the 2006–2007 school year, a private school in Chicago founded by Marva Collins to teach low income minority students charged $5,500 for tuition, and parents said that the school did a much better job than the Chicago public school system. However, Collins' school was forced to close in 2008 due to lack of sufficient enrollment and funding. Meanwhile, during the 2007–2008 year, Chicago public school officials claimed that their budget of $11,300 per student was not enough. I’ll wager if Ms. Collins got $2,000 more per student those children would have a better education and taxpayers would have saved some money.
According to a 2006 study by the Goldwater Institute, Arizona's public schools spend 50% more per student than Arizona's private schools. The study also says that while teachers constitute 72% of the employees at private schools, they make up less than half of the staff at public schools. According to the study, if Arizona's public schools wanted to be like private schools, they would have to hire approximately 25,000 more teachers, and eliminate 21,210 administration employees.
Our criminal teachers unions are an anchor on our children’s ability to receive the education they need to be competitive in the 21st century economy. When our schools are bloated bureaucracies of administrators who consume the money we need to be providing teachers for our children, the problem is obvious.
Mr. Flowers, Mr. Horton, Mr. Carter and others are unfortunately victims of their own government. The government that is responsible to protect their Rights of Life, Liberty and Pursuit of Happiness. They have been denied their most important tool to succeed in our great Republic, a good education.
It’s time we end our incompetent Public School system. Any alternative including charters, vouchers and others is better than the embarrassment we have now.
Yep, Mr. Progressive Emanuel is getting about the same results in Chicago as Mr. Progressive Obama is getting in D.C. And Emanuel is thinking about a Progressive Presidential run in 2016 ? Hillary ain't gonna like that.
Really liked the way Emanuel went about getting funding for support the cost of the prisons in Cheeeecago.....TAX all Illinois.
Two birds of the same feather makes a nasty nest.
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I can't wait for the next Progressive "managed crisis" to hit D.C. again. Mr. Obama, and his surrogates, are going to "ramp up" the BLAME REPUBLICANS meter.
Certainly hope he has Air Force 1 and Marine 1 in their hangars for extended maintenance....for maybe 3 1/2 years of maintenance.
You liberals better do something about this. These felons can't vote yet most of them are probably on the government dole. How's that helping you stay in power?
What liberal-rag msnbc painfully and obviously avoided saying in this article is that 100% of the people they're talking about are black. Now I wonder why that is?
Oh wait, am I now a racist because I stated the truth out loud?
You can forget about educating these people, or getting them any skills they can parlay into a career until they're willing to change and accept that help, which is never ever ever ever ever ever going to happen.
Ido, zz, carry, & forkchops.......
As much as I know your words are sincere, I would venture a bet that none of you were born into a neighborhood like Austin. I would also bet that none of you went to a 4 year college and majored in Criminal Justice, as I did. However, I would also bet that you would be the first people to complain about wasted taxpayer dollars. Here is a story about just that, wasting taxpayer dollars. Look up the term "recidivism rate." It refers to the rate at which offenders will reoffend when they exit prison. When I was in school back in 2005, it was 2/3. That means that 2 out of every 3 people released from prison will reoffend and go back. You may not like these people, but you probably hate paying for them more. It's time we either work on getting these people back to being productive citizens, or put them down. There really is no other options other than maintaining the current system of wasting resources and taxpayer money. Although, if you are a privately owned prison corp, you probably don't mind getting paid for each repeat offender.
forkchops....
I imagine you are also unaware that it is legal for police to search a group of people that are standing in a location known as a crime hotspot, or in this case, the entire neighborhood. If the police were to find anything illegal on any of the people in the group searched, it is also legal for them to charge each of those persons with possession of that substance, gun, etc. That means 1 criminal can create 6, but its not to diminish the fact that a criminal is indeed among the group.
I assume that the maintenance jobs provided are union wage scale and benefit level to keep up with Chicago's lofty Progressive philosophies.
A rope is not very expensive and trees are a natural resource, put the two together and for very little money none of them will do the revolving door dance.
Start putting people to eternal sleep for lesser crimes than murder and repeat offenders. Most in prison cannot be rehabilitated, nor do they want to be; crime is their life. It is ridiculous for our tax dollars to support these low-lifes for years or a lifetime.
Forkchops -- I live in Chicago, and some of this stuff the kids are being picked up for is petty. All they need to do is put a house monitor on them or fine them....for example, possession of marijuana -- fine them! Luckily the police and the mayor have decided that pot arrests aren't worth the money. Some of these guys haven't killed people, those are the folks that need to be locked up. Some of these guys are psychos, meaning they need psyche help. We need to separate out the SERIOUS offenders from the NON-SERIOUS.
Or -- we need to have a three stikes and you're out. Versus recycling them through the criminal justice system.
You can't force skills and tools on someone, they have to want them.
I'm assuming Chicago has public schools where these people as kids made a decision of what they want and it usually descends to the lowest level of how easy can I have it. Before a person becomes a felon and goes to jail he has a choice of do I want to work hard for money or steal from those who made that choice to work hard for their money.
5.3 billion?
they need to start doing less jail time for non violent crimes and start doing more community service same for misdemenors
the violent ones should just be put down.
Consider it reparations money.
When you do that we will go back to the type of schools we had before forced bussing destroyed the quality of public schools.
There are many successful older people who are the product of the public school system from the '50s and '60s, and before teachers had to contend with non English speaking children who can't be disciplined because it isn't PC.
sleuth23 and Sally in Chicago,
I really don't disagree with the substance of what you're saying. However, it doesn't seem in your posts that you understood or addressed what I was saying. For someone to have been in prison 7 times in the past 10 years... they are making very poor decisions that only THEY can own up to and fix within themselves. There needs to be an element of personal responsibility mixed in here, which is the quality perhaps most lacking in those re-offenders who ensconce themselves in the penal system. I think that's just plain reason and common sense and I'm not sure how anyone can debate that.
I may not have been born into a poor disadvantaged neighborhood, but let's not disrespect the MANY good people who were and who manage not to offend or re-offend.
Michael Flowers, in particular, is making extremely poor CHOICES if he's managed to land himself behind bars 7 times in the past 10 years.
I don't care about these scumbags. That pastor in Austin is pissing on a forest fire. That Flowers is a scumbag. Let their families put them up and give them money. Black on black genocide is the only solution.
I always propose "Free Ammo Weekends". The idea is you block off the problem area on Friday night, say, once a month. Then you air-drop cases of all types of ammo and let the boys have their fun. Monday morning, call in the front-end loaders to clean up the debris. The problem eventually becomes self-correcting.
These people did it to themselves. They had the same opportunity to better themselves like anyone else but threw it away. They don't deserve any sympathy let alone any welfare. They continue to procreate like rats.
They had no opportunity, the place is a war zone SHole. Hopefully you can be reincarnated there for some fun in the next life........
No they didn't! The man did it to them!
You're right, they had to have committed a first crime to have the problem of repeatedly being jailed and an unemplyed former felon. I get tired of people blaming others for their own actions and not taking the blame they deserve. But that said, people who make mistakes deserve another chance and no matter how sorry he is and how much he regrets his mistakes he can't get a chance and that must really feel awful. WHat if he committed a minor crime at 18 and got arrested. If he was a white kid he would be viewed as a good kid who screwed up and his parents would be allowed to pick him up and scold him. Then if he got in trouble again he'd be arrested. If a black 18 year old gets in trouble he's viewed as revealing his true criminla nature at a young age and he gets booked for that first mistake. Now he has a record and the downward spiral begins. And most of these crimes are for minor drug charges like possession of marijuana, things that are not even close to being indicators of a real criminal mind. Walk on the Harvard campus and you'll see those kids smoking a doobie any time they want, no one's arresting them. I think there should be businesses, like Homeboy Bakery in LA, that are run by and for rehabilated felons. Homeboy is self-supporting and instills pride in their workers, giving them a source of legitimate income and good work to do. And they don't need to worry about not being hired.
Chris, which man, Rahm?
Here is a suggestion. Give them a bus ride to North Dakota. They can find work there.
Hell no, Aspen is already doing that. We already have enough miscreants that have moved up here that are ruining the state. Ya it may have not been much before, but 5 years ago you could go down the road and not see a single piece of trash in the ditch or not see a hooker on just about every street corner. Past 2 years I've had 5 home break ins, one when I was home.
Our state that was once beautiful is now a @!$%# hole.
Unforunately the incarceration system is broken. As soon as a person is convicted of a crime the person's record is tainted. Even if a person serves time and is truly sorry for having committed a crime they can no longer redeem themselves in this society. When they go to apply for a job they have to list that they have been convicted of a crime. Even though there are these BS laws which state that you cannot discriminate against people based on whatever, anyone who has been convicted is most likely immediately removed from consideration for the work. So it becomes difficult to find any real work. This can and most likely leads to desperation and a relapse into criminal activity. Everyone has a need to support themselves and their families. I think the whole system is messed up and needs a real change. A person should not have to disclose that they had committed a crime until perhaps after the person has been awarded a job not during the application process where it would greatly hinder equal opportunity.
Enough sugar-coating. This is a story about black crime. Blacks make up about a third of Chicago's population, but they commit between 80% and 90% of the violent crimes. This fact explains why so many blacks are in prison. Yes, they cost white taxpayers a lot of money in prison. But we also have to be aware of the costs of NOT imprisoning dangerous career criminals: deaths, robberies, muggings, declining property values and schools, etc.. Likewise, we shouldn't forget that blacks who haven't been convicted of crimes also cost white tax payers a lot outside of prison. The same neighborhoods that provide most of the violent felons also consume most of the food stamps, Section 8 vouchers, and welfare checks in the city. Chicago Public Schools spends slightly more per-capita on black students (mainly for higher security costs) than on the 10% of students who are white, even though white Chicagoans shoulder the majority of the schools' hefty tax burden.
As the article makes clear, prison does not reform career criminals. Once a criminal, always a criminal. The sole justification of costly prisons is that they isolate dangerous criminals from their would-be law-abiding victims. This is a price that most Americans -- at least the law-abiding ones who value their own and others' safety -- are willing to pay because the alternative is even more costly. The higher imprisonment rate of blacks since the 1980s accounts for America's falling crime rate since then.
Social Critic,Once a criminal always a criminal is not true.There are those who do not re-offend.Prisoners should not be sitting in prison all day.They should be put on chain gangs doing road work so as to let the tax payers off the hook.I'm betting that there would be less crimes committed and repeat offenders if that were the case.FYI,All races have people in prisons.
Cleaning Lady - Regarding your comment, "All races have people in prisons," that may be true, but when you factor in the percentage of crimes committed relative to percentage of the total population they comprise, your point is completely without merit and nothing more than common liberal drivel.
Blacks commit an extraordinarily high percentage of crime in this country, particularly violent crime, relative to their demographic contribution to society as a whole. The sooner you unicorn-lovers on the left begin to acknowledge this the sooner we can make a collective effort to drive them out of our society rather than support them.
Luckily for the people of Chicago the vast majority of the crime is black-on-black, so where's the motivation to really want to stop it, right?
Cleaning lady, you can't reason with a fool like Social Critic. He likes to make up his statistics, and can't read. He likes creating false perceptions to justify his ignorance.
I bet he is reading the Republican Creed as we speak. Turn to your republican neighbor and repeat after me:
I
AM
Sofa
King
Stew
Pod
Ya think having 12 million illegal immigrants in the U.S., claiming they do the work other people won't do, has anything to do with it?
make everything a felony and throw away the key.. sure
now quit crying what it cost. Hey you ask for it. now you got it.
Your dog peed on my grass.. Its the slammer for you and your filthy dog..!!!!!
Lets have a strong 3 strikes and out law. But in this law, the out means a .22 round behind the ear after you have dug your grave in the local land fill.
Yes, some people think this is cruel. Well, the stupid convict didn't learn in the first two times his conduct is not wanted, nor will it be tolated anymore. Think of all the tax money those bleeding hearts could have for their pet projects instead of housing repeat cons.
I am tired of my tax money going to house repeat criminals. They get two chances, after that, if found guilty, no appeal, it's to the landfill to dig your grave. A .22 round only costs around $.05 each, and will do the job on the three time loser.
End of one 3 time loser, next please. In time, we could reduce the prison population by a huge amount, and like I said, the bleeding hearts would have more tax money to waste on other do good projects that only a few people need.
Good job, Pastor for reaching out and offering a hand up. Please be certain they hear the Gospel also.
Why not get China,India or some other country to see if they could take over the prison system and encircle rate them in their prisons for a price.
Encircle rate them????? Now what is we gone do?
Wow! Not much sympathy or caring in most of these posts. I say if you can stop the cycle than everyone wins. If crime is the only job, then that's what people will do. At least the Reverend is trying and there is something to be said about that.
California incarcerates non violent criminals at an alarming rate.Prisons are the number one industry in California due to the correctional officers and policeman's unions.If we had less crime they'd be out of jobs.It disgusts me to no end that our country imprisons more people than third world countries.If drugs were legalized and taxed many prisons in California would be empty which would free up some prime real estate.
If they didn't do drugs in the first place, they wouldn't be in jail, lady. If you are unhappy in life, drink booze or find solace in eating. They are legal and a lot cheaper and you don't risk jail!
If you don't have a HS degree and can't read at a 9th grade level, you are useless to society and should be incarcerated for life if you commit a crime. Ignorant people in the US are little more than dumb dolphins!
I'm happy your dumb ass isn't in charge of anything.
We must ban prisons. If there weren't any prisons, people will hire the criminals and therefore there will be no need for prisons. Seriously, what I just wrote makes the same amount of sense as banning high capacity magazines.
Chris. Can you turn to your neighbor and read the following:
I
Am
Sofa
King
Stew
Pod
Prison and ex-prison labor is a goldmine waiting for a capitalist to exploit. Captive labor, if you will.
You can pay prisoners pennies or nickels an hour-then the lowest possible wage for prison labor: or even part-time 'em. Or make them independent contractors too, to save money.
what do you mean ??,, that sh*t is already going on in some states,,,,
And it's tax payer funded labor for the corporations that use them.
Did you realize that Dick Cheney invested millions of his own money to privatize prisons in a company called Vanguard, Inc.? Privatizing prisons provides an incentive for removing expenses like education, rehabilitation, counseling and job and skill training. Since they make money off of jailing them, why not make them perpetual prisoners?
Furthermore, efforts to educate from an early age, such as Head Start, need to be increased but because the wealthy are not paying their fair share and we have engaged in wars and nation building instead of worrying about our own problems, the conditions are getting worse in the big cities. Poor economy, poor housing with no incentive to establish ownership, poor schools, and an influx of drugs and gangs and guns as the main forms of employment, contribute to this worsening.
The fascist and racist attitudes expressed here, which are a simplistic approach, show how ripe our country is to the Police State takeover, which was the response to the False Flags of 9/11 and the anthrax scare - both of which are obviously inside jobs.
the 5.3 billion is not the total cost the cost of cops courts and victims would probably be triple the 5 bill- the problem could be resolved in a hurry if we would alter our sentencing laws build prisons that are less humane and make the suckers work for their keep-
Tough sell for a program like this given that little is done to help people who through no fault of their own have lost everything and still did not commit a vicious crime.
Quick execution by lethal injection for criminals who commit violent crimes that lead to death or permanent disability of innocent citizens. Mass murderers serial killers and gang bangers who commit vicious murders will never be able to fit into society. There are children who go hungry in this country whose parents are working but can not earn enough to pay for the high cost of food and shelter yet we spend billions on thugs who think they should be housed and clothed by the very people they have preyed upon. This is just wrong.
Criminals should have to work for their food either by growing it or other work that can be sold. Unless physically unable to work they should be required to work for their subsistence. The message should be if you want to eat you work for it.
Law abiding homeless citizens should be given first opportunities at training. Many of these people have lost work due to poor health or industrial mechanization. Criminals should have to earn the right to opportunities and that proving themselves worthy should take place in the prison.
Chicago is messed up
Well, it's Bozobamatown, run by his buddy, so what else would you expect? The shining jewel of demlib stupidity.
It is no more about justice, prison has become a big business now days.
There is big money in crime, they do not care about intervention, corporations are making billions in this market.
It is not just in Chicago, it is state wide, corporations are the giants making a killing in the prison industry.
Google " Chicago gangs"--notice anything???
Louis Farrakhan, the controversial leader of the Nation of Islam, spoke to
thousands of followers in Chicago Sunday, addressing gun control, praising
President Barak Obama's re-election, and outlining a proposal to enlist the
city's warring gangs to "protect" the Islamic organization.
Not all felonious Chicagoans cycle in and out of prison. Somer go on to achieve political greatness. Look at O.
Finally, a church which is actually behaving in a Christian fashion! It's truly a miracle.
Only in Obamas America do convicted felons get a house.
I say release them all back inot the community as long as they stay in Chicago. Thats what obama just did for the criminal illegal immigrants.