Wednesday, December 3, 1997
USAC members capture campus opinion on tape
PRISONS:
Council’s goals included awareness of state spending
prioritiesBy Dennis Lim
Daily Bruin Contributor
Armed with two cameras, an arsenal of video tapes and a set of
four standard questions, a small group of Undergraduate Students
Association Council (USAC) representatives campaigned around campus
last Tuesday to quiz students on prison spending as compared to
education spending.
The representatives  among them USAC President Kandea
Mosley  asked students, staff, faculty and visitors what
their thoughts and ideas were about the subject.
"Do you think that crime has gone up in the last 20 years?"
Mosley asked her first interviewee. "Do you know how much prison
spending has gone up compared to education spending? If you had the
chance to be on the floor of the state legislature, would you
petition your representatives to spend money for more prisons or
for more schools?"
These questions, along with a slew of facts concerning the
current condition of schools and prisons, brought about many
similar responses.
"Of course I’d spend more money on schools," one interviewee
said. "If we spend more money on schools then maybe people could
get an education and not have the need to do crime and go to
jail."
Another interviewee agreed: "The more accessibility people have
to an education, the less likely they will have a need to commit
crime in the first place."
Others, including one university police officer interviewed,
gave a very different response.
"I’d spend more money on prisons," the officer said. "Prisons
help keep us safe. They keep those who commit crimes away from
those of us who don’t."
Though such responses disheartened the group, what was most
important to the representatives was that they made people on
campus think about the issue of prison spending.
"Our real purpose in doing this is to raise awareness on campus
and make people more educated for the elections next year," said
Albert Retana, one of the USAC organizers.
In addition to educating students, USAC officials also wanted to
educate elected officials about student opinion.
"We want to keep a record so that if we ever do have the
opportunity to present to the legislature, we will have something
that shows what people really think about the issue," he
continued.
"We also wanted a chance to talk one-on-one with students,"
Mosley added. "We wanted to let them know what was happening and
show them what student government does for the student body."
Supporters of increased prison spending, however, cite a rising
prison population, not just in California, but throughout the
nation. Also, they purport that a "get-tough" stance, which
includes longer prison sentences, decreases crime in the long run
through an increased fear of punishment.
Much of what was exchanged during the interviews were
discussions of the current policies on spending priorities. One of
the pamphlets handed out by the representatives stated that prison
spending had out-paced education spending in 1995 and has seen a 78
percent increase since then.
USAC representatives claimed the increase was due to the
establishment of longer prison sentences for less violent
crimes.
"Crime in general is going down, but our prisons are getting
overcrowded," said Cori Sheppard, USAC project coordinator for the
president’s office.
"Why? Because laws like ‘Three Strikes You’re Out’ keep
non-violent offenders in prison. Nearly 70 percent of prisoners are
in prison for non-violent offenses."