Making Connections

As my blogging stint at the Nation draws to a close, I think it is important to draw some connections between the issues I've been writing about. In the last few weeks I have blogged about two studies that came out recently, the first about the rate of incarceration in the United States and the second about the rate of STD cases in teenage girls. Activists and organizers recognize the complexities of the issues and campaigns we work on. In order to build stronger movements we have to talk between sectors and build alliances that further push our theories of change and our collective agenda.

Sounds like idealistic talk for those that are not part of the movement for social change, but as someone who spends day in and day out working with people on these issues, I see how talking each other about our differences is sometimes the only way to make connections between our issues. Specifically, the feminist movement and the anti-incarceration movement need to be talking to each other. Thanks to a reader, who saw my article on STDs and on prisons, I was sent a study that came out years ago on the connections between rate of STD cases and the rate of incarceration. The conclusion? Women in communities with higher rates of incarceration are more susceptible to high rates of STD exposure, even when they are engaging in low risk behavior.

An op-ed in the Washington Post titled, "An Epidemic No One wants to Talk About," elaborates,

A decade ago, the National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine published a landmark report, "The Hidden Epidemic," examining sexually transmitted diseases in the United States. In 1995, the report noted, STDs accounted for 87 percent of cases of the 10 most frequently reported diseases in the nation. Despite the huge costs that such infections imposed on our health-care system, awareness of their importance was all but absent from the public consciousness. We fear that this latest study will have its 15 minutes in the spotlight and also fade from view.

Sadly, our national silence may be related to our difficulty in discussing the roles that race and poverty play in these trends. In 2005, for example, the rate of gonorrhea (a curable STD) among African Americans was 18 times greater than the rate among whites. The contrast in rates for HIV-AIDS, syphilis and chlamydial infection among blacks and whites is only slightly less dramatic. These diseases cost tens of billions of dollars each year, but with the exception of HIV infection, STDs remain the elephant in the room when it comes to the national conversation about health and health care.

One obvious reason is that conversations about sexual behavior, race and sexually transmitted infections remain taboo. Another is that the incidence of many STDs, particularly HIV, is concentrated in poor, segregated neighborhoods that are characterized by high rates of incarceration. Inner-city populations of African Americans and Latinos account for almost two-thirds of the 2.2 million Americans in prison nationwide, and two disturbing trends are increasingly present in these communities.

To take this even further, STDs are also spread in prisons where rape is prevalent and health needs are neglected, well beyond the usual problems of distribution of condoms. The shame functions on two levels, the first is homophobia leading high risk behaviors underground and the shame of being sexually assaulted and the questions that brings up around masculinity, again creating a wall of silence as to the actual conditions for incarcerated populations and rape. Finally, the op-ed concludes that concurrent sexual partnerships are one of the main factors fueling the spread of STDs.

One is the shift in the patterns of marriage and courtship that result when so many men are removed from a community. The other is an increase in the number of "multiple concurrent sexual partnerships," in which individuals are engaged in sexual relationships with more than one person at a time. In many communities, when one sexual partner is imprisoned, the person left behind chooses another partner. When widespread, this behavior creates an efficient, effective pattern for introducing and maintaining an STD through a network of sexual relationships.

Concurrent sexual partnerships, our research indicates, are a more effective engine for transmitting STDs than sequential partnerships. In the latter case, an infected individual is more likely to be diagnosed before a new partner is infected. In the former, an individual infected by one partner can immediately pass the infection on to another, potentially spreading it quickly through the network. As people move in and out of relationships and in and out of communities, such infections become almost impossible to treat efficiently. Movement in and out of prison aggravates these trends.

While this is true, given that the rate of incarceration for men is much higher, this finding potentially blames this high-risk behavior on women that are being left behind by their male partners who are being incarcerated. Obviously, the op-ed doesn't say that, but I will say that it is a variety of factors that lead to the spreading of STDs and men are more often carriers than women.

High rates of incarceration has such deleterious side effects that we have only begun to understand. Beyond dismantling and shaming entire communities, the onslaught of emasculating practices via police has created greater threats to masculinity, which backfire in the form of unsafe sexual practices, multiple partners and in its extreme form, rape.

Rate of incarceration and the prison industrial complex is a feminist issue whether it appears to be on the surface or not. Prisons serve to denigrate men of color through violence and rape, along with breaking the family, hurting mental and physical health, destroying livelihoods and creating loss of hope. Furthermore, the rate of incarceration for women is increasing at a staggering rate which is having the same consequences, only sometimes worse, as women prisoners are given even less attention. The police state and prison system function to render communities powerless in the face of the legal system.

In order to effectively address this situation, we have to not only break the silence, but realize that this issue is not just for certain activists and lawyers. The prison industrial complex is part of a larger culture of violence, misogyny and militarization that is funded by tax dollars and as a result effects every single one of us.

Comments (13)

1. Ms. Mukhopadhyay, I'm sorry, but you're trying to dam the Mississippi with a teaspoon, if you're going after the "prison industrial complex".

   NO Democrat is going to push much beyond maybe dropping "three strikes" (and that is dubious). The old "soft on crime" legacy is just too strong.

   Getting rid of the dumb and useless "Drug War" will help...but it'll take a moderate-to-conservative Republican....no Dem ever will be able to.

   Posted by Mask at 03/26/2008 @ 8:32pm

2. Posted by MASK 03/26/2008 @ 8:32pm

   Mask, even if the "Drug War" ended today, the problems with sexual health will continue. Look at what happend with the AIDS epidemic. Activists, the CDC, the NIH, the WHO and many others put the word out, held needle exchange programs along with a host of other projects and yet the infection rate continues to rise. Why?

   I can say with some degree of certainty that apathy is one of the main culprits. You can't cure anything when you don't care. So, when the people start caring about themselves, that's when STD's will start to decline.

   Posted by ACook at 03/26/2008 @ 8:59pm

3. Posted by ACOOK 03/26/2008 @ 8:59pm

   Well, ACOOK, you're still quoting Jack Webb from "Dragnet-1967" on marijuana....so I'll take that post with a grain of salt.

   Posted by Mask at 03/26/2008 @ 10:24pm

4. thanks samhita for all of your great posts. i agree with what you have to say here about these heartbreaking situations. hopefully progressives make the connections you mention and many more as well. we are all affected by these problems, directly and indirectly.

   Posted by loveloki at 03/26/2008 @ 10:52pm

5. Posted by HAPPY2 03/26/2008 @ 9:00pm

   Why shouldn't we study the impacts that high rates of incarceration have? First of all, you present an alternative that's not at all mutually exclusive. Presumably, we can "fix education" the way you'd want to (which I'll get to in a moment), but why can't we do that AND looks at the impacts incarceration has. The only way you can justify ignoring those impacts is if they just can't possibly be relevant or significant, but that's clearly false. Here's one possibility: high rates of incarceration create a cycle of crime, both because the people incarcerated learn worse kinds of crime in prison and have no alternative once they get out, and because their children are left without any support system. Regardless of whether you accept this, you have to concede that whether or not this is true is worth knowing. So yes, understanding the consequences of incarceration is important to knowing whether it's actually more effective than whatever alternatives are being proposed.

   As to the "education alternatives"...some of these are dumb. Corporal punishment? Really? I guess there may be a deterrence value, but clearly maximizing deterrence isn't ever our only goal. The others...eh, I guess, maybe. Maybe paying teachers more, especially in dangerous or unpopular areas, might not be a bad idea either.

   Posted by FREIHEIT 03/26/2008 @ 9:52pm

   This is manifestly false because it assumes a utopian idea of faith. Many people become religious and still do bad actions, even if their faith is entirely sincere and informed, because we're human beings. This isn't to say that religion can't be helpful in this regard, but rather that it shouldn't be seen as a panacea.

   Also, this isn't a particularly good reason to adopt a religious system. If you do, you should do it because you believe that the religion is true, not because you think it will get you benefits in the hereafter or because you think it will create better citizens (in fact, that's kind of a dangerous corruption of religion right there...). This vein of reasoning is part of why Pascal's Wager is dumb.

   Posted by Thrawn at 03/26/2008 @ 11:36pm

6. Good article and, with the exception of 03/26/2008 @ 10:52pm, good comments too!

   Posted by Adscititious at 03/26/2008 @ 11:43pm

7. Posted by HAPPY2 03/27/2008 @ 12:30am

   I want to engage the corporal punishment stuff first, in part because I don't think either of us is really making much in the way of arguments, quite frankly. I did see something really telling, in your response, though. You say that you behaved far better IN school than OUTSIDE of school, and I think that links perfectly into my point about incentives. This doesn't actually encourage students to be good; if anything, it just encourages them to avoid getting punished within the context of the school. This seems problematic not simply because it's a bad reason to do good things, but more importantly because the only lesson people really learn is "don't get caught."

   Your point about money just doesn't seem responsive. I'm not saying that we should just throw more money at the schools in general, and that will solve everything; I think the case of the DC public schools pretty clearly proves that this approach won't work. What I am defending, specifically, is that giving teachers a pay raise for working in more dangerous or less popular communities is an important step to actually improving the quality of those schools because it allows them to have better teachers who can, in turn, give disadvantaged children a better chance to benefit from an education.

   Finally, when I responded to the argument of yours that most directly dealt with Samhita's post ("there's no reason to study the implications of incarceration"), my analysis seems to have gone virtually uncontested. The only exception to that seems to be your blithe claim that "families of imprisoned people totally have a support system through the giant government, so no one is starving." This is clearly false. There are a number of people who are starving, contrary to your claim here, if you've ever seen a poor community. Moreover, this isn't responsive to the bigger picture. The effects of imprisonment matter because they can show whether or not the system actually works, a subject which is certainly a matter for legitimate debate. If it's really the case that our system creates a cycle of crime both for the ex-convict and for members of an ex-convict's family, this is probably something we need to devote substantial attention to. Though I will almost certainly disagree with Samhita on what types of policies this implies, I think it's just absurd to suggest that these questions don't even matter.

   Posted by Thrawn at 03/27/2008 @ 08:29am

8. Interesting, but I notice no mention of a belief in God and morality as a solution. True faith would render these two issues moot

   there is no evidence to support this conclusion, whatsoever.

   Posted by darladoon at 03/27/2008 @ 10:08pm

9. I have often said that, "if you want to know how much a society values certain parts of its populations look at its prison population". The rate of incarceration of blacks, overwhelmingly above the general population, is indicative of how much America values black folks. Obama is delusional if he thinks he can unify the country with the institutional racist attitudes this country possess. All I can say is, "God dam America"!

   Posted by Blome at 03/27/2008 @ 11:44pm

10. Posted by HAPPY2 03/28/2008 @ 12:08am

    Since I'm an atheist, you be doing me a favor...GOD DAM you followers!

    Posted by Blome at 03/28/2008 @ 12:36am

11. Just say it again, still topping "worst monetary expenditures for a failed war" is the "Drug War" (though Lord knows, the neo-cons are trying to send Iraq up the charts with a bullet).

    End the Drug War...tax it...but the money into treatment (which works)....and the prisons will halve their populations and we'll be rolling in more dough than Scrooge McDuck (enough for tax cuts or social programs or whatever you want).

    Posted by Mask at 03/28/2008 @ 12:57pm

12. Posted by RIO BRAVO 03/28/2008 @ 10:44pm

    Hey RIO chill out, I've seen you misspell words on these posts. But, considering your name, I can see why you would hate a dam!

    Posted by Blome at 03/29/2008 @ 05:04am

13. Yeah, so are we interpreting the bible now? Cause that thing is more contradictory then the Complete Hitchhikers Guide. Not a bad place to put your faith in by any means. But seriously, the stories in it were compiled over the series of thousands of years. You come up with a statement saying god doesn't damn anyone from the New Testament, I counter with the example of Saddam. Some nice holy smiting goes on in that part of the bible. It's a fruitless argument.

    For once, I'd have to find myself agreeing at least tangentially with Happy, never thought that would happen. A total revamp of our education system is required in order to end a lot of the inequality. But at the root of it, we need to change how we pay for our schools. The way it's set up right now, with local property taxes going towards local schools, favors richer neighborhoods because they're richer, and screws poorer neighborhoods because they have no money.

    This is only of course part of the problem. The poorer neighborhoods need well, money. I'm not talking gentrification. I'm talking a system that provides options for poor black youth once they graduate. Few people go through high school because they enjoy high school, people attain top marks in high school because it will get them somewhere later on in life. Make it so slinging drugs isn't the most money they're ever likely to see.

    Posted by shadow master at 04/01/2008 @ 6:39pm