Late last month, police in Manchester arrested a 43-year-old man for allegedly stealing a number of unattended purses, wallets, checkbooks and credit cards from several homes and businesses. A brief article about the arrest posted on the Union Leader’s Web site spurred a short chain of comments from readers.

“And it’s one, two, three strikes he’s out!” wrote Rob, of Manchester.

“Lock him up and throw away the key!” added Jim, also of Manchester.

According to Cesar Rebellon, a professor of sociology at the University of New Hampshire, these sorts of reactions are prevalent. When a person is convicted of a crime—or, in this case, simply charged with a crime—the public’s first impulse is to throw the defendant behind bars for as long as possible. The common perception is that the threat of enhanced penalties and longer sentences will deter potential criminals and keep society safe.

But maybe not. Rebellon, whose primary research focus is juvenile delinquency and criminology, doesn’t think it’s that simple. During an educational panel at UNH on Feb. 5, he brought up an unusual but fitting analogy: Surfers in New Hampshire wear wetsuits to keep warm in the frigid water. When they first submerge themselves in the ocean, the cold liquid can be painful and shocking. But, as time passes, their bodies become acclimated and they get used to it.

Jail time can be the same way. The longer an inmate is incarcerated, the more he or she becomes accustomed to the lifestyle. Threatening criminals with a few more years of incarceration, therefore, is not necessarily a solution. “They’re probably not thinking 10 years out, let alone 20 or 30 years out,” Rebellon said.

What’s more, studies have found that one of the most surefire ways to increase a person’s criminal tendencies is to expose that person to other criminals. There is a hierarchy of inmates within most prison populations that is often based on the severity of the crimes they commit. The person who commits the most heinous crime is usually at the top of the pecking order.

“There is some positive reinforcement for engaging in worse and worse and worse behavior,” Rebellon said. “Rehabilitation really doesn’t seem to be the panacea many of us hope it would be.”

The professor’s points enter the heart of the topic of the 19th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration at UNH. The panel discussion on Feb. 5 was the final event in a two-week program titled “One in 100: Dismantling a Prison Nation,” featuring keynote speaker Angela Davis. The program raised questions about a prison system that currently incarcerates about 2.5 million people—or close to one out of every 100 U.S. citizens. That’s the highest rate of incarceration of any nation in the world.

Titled “Are Prisons Obsolete? Exploring the Growing Prison Nation in N.H.,” the discussion featured three panelists. Joining Rebellon were Jake Collins, education counseling and computer director at the Strafford County Department of Corrections; and Annette Escalante, a counselor and case manager at the N.H. State Prison for Women and administrator of female programs at the N.H. Department of Corrections. Although the panelists had different areas of expertise, all three agreed that we must do more to keep free people out of prison and help current inmates get out.

According to Jake Collins, the single biggest societal issue affecting prison populations is substance abuse. Drugs or alcohol are factors in approximately 90 percent of crimes, he said. The most direct examples include selling or possessing illicit drugs, driving under the influence or engaging in disorderly behavior because of intoxication. But there are also a variety of less obvious links between drug abuse and other crimes. For example, many drug addicts commit thefts to support their habits, and alcoholism often contributes to domestic violence.

“Those are the offenders that are clogging our system,” Collins said, adding that drugs and alcohol are becoming prevalent among a younger demographic. “If we can address those issues, we really can get people back on track.”

Another common factor in criminal activity is mental illness. People admitted into jails and prisons often suffer from a variety of conditions ranging from mild learning disabilities to severe schizophrenia. In fact, Collins said, around 60 percent of Strafford County jail inmates are on some kind of mental health medication.

With these statistics in mind, it stands to reason that increasing the availability of substance abuse counseling and mental health treatment outside the justice system would dramatically decrease the number of people clogging the courts. Collins said people suffering from mental illness, unable to get the treatment they need, often roam the streets until they commit a criminal offense that lands them in jail.

“There they sit until there can be some kind of treatment,” Collins said. “Unfortunately, jails are the new mental institutions.”

Jeffrey Lyons, public information officer for the N.H. Department of Corrections, said the same is true of state and federal prisons across the nation. He said 65 percent of inmates have mental health issues, and most of them are integrated within the general prison population. A staggering number of people are able to find better mental health care in prison than they can on the outside.

“We are essentially the largest mental health provider in the state of New Hampshire,” Lyons said.

But the societal factors leading to incarceration stretch far beyond drugs and mental health. Even issues of substance abuse can be traced back to their root causes, which could involve an array of economic, educational or family stressors. And still other societal factors could be responsible for race and class disparities within the nation’s prison populace.

Issues of race and class recently sprang up in New Hampshire during two highly publicized capital murder trials late last year. Michael Addison, a young black man from Boston, was convicted of murdering a Manchester police officer. John Brooks, a wealthy white businessman from New Hampshire, was convicted of killing a Derry handyman in a murder-for-hire scheme. Both men were eligible for the death penalty. Addison was sentenced to death while Brooks was sentenced to life in prison.

Rebellon said the cases of Addison and Brooks are so different that it would be impossible to determine whether class and race affected the juries’ decisions. Typically, the most compelling factors determining the severity of a sentence are the defendant’s prior record and current offense. Addison had a much lengthier criminal record than Brooks, and he was convicted of killing a highly respected police officer.

But national statistics do reflect noticeable disparities involving class and race. “On average, yeah, there is a disparity throughout the United States,” Rebellon said.

Even well-intentioned jurors and judges sometimes exhibit subconscious prejudices, he said. Black men often receive harsher sentences than white men with the same criminal records and offenses. Issues of race and gender can influence a juror’s decision without the juror even realizing it. “Oftentimes, they don’t even know that they’re doing it,” Rebellon said.

Also, defendants with more money are able to afford better legal representation and often have the resources to avoid getting caught to begin with. Rebellon said white-collar criminals cause about $100 billion per year of financial damage across the country, while other offenders total about $20 billion. Nevertheless, white-collar criminals are much less likely to get caught and convicted. 

Even among crimes like drug possession, there are striking class disparities. For the most part, drugs are just as prevalent in upper and middle class areas as they are in poor areas, Rebellon said. But poorer areas are generally policed more heavily, and people living in those areas are therefore more likely to accumulate criminal records. “People start out in very, very different places from the day that they’re born,” Rebellon said.

Whatever the cause of a person’s criminal activity, the key to curbing those behaviors is intervening at a young age, Rebellon said. That means putting money into resources that can help people before they land in prison; resources like substance abuse treatment, mental health care and education. If money is not allocated toward those resources outside the correctional system, taxpayers still wind up funding them on the inside.

According to Collins, the average cost of incarcerating a single inmate for one year is $44,000. “It’s cheaper to go to Harvard for a year,” he said.

There are just shy of 2,600 inmates in New Hampshire’s four state prisons, plus more than 200 in the state’s three halfway houses and psychiatric unit. Each of New Hampshire’s 10 counties also has a jail, run by the county and not the state. The prisons are for people convicted of felonies with sentences exceeding one year; the jails are for people convicted of misdemeanors or felonies with sentences of up to one year.

Three of the state’s four prison facilities are currently over capacity. There are 1,539 inmates at the State Prison for Men in Concord, which has a maximum capacity of 954. According to Jeffrey Lyons, of the N.H. Department of Corrections, the prison makes space by doubling up and tripling up and quadrupling up the cells.

There are 551 inmates at the Northern N.H. Correctional Facility in Berlin, which opened in 2000 and has a capacity of 500. There are 130 inmates at the State Prison for Women in Goffstown, which has a capacity of 105. An additional 26 overflow inmates are housed at the Strafford County jail.

The Lakes Region Facility in Laconia has a capacity of 400 inmates but currently only houses 345. Lyons said the old building would require substantial renovations in order to safely shelter its full capacity.

The state’s total prison population has been climbing steadily for many years. In 2000, there were just over 2,100 inmates in the prison system. By 2004, the number was up to almost 2,300. Five years later, the state is just under 2,600 total inmates—a 24 percent increase since 2000. The state’s overall civilian population increased from about 1.24 million people in 2000 to 1.31 million in 2006—an increase of only 6.4 percent.

Jake Collins said the Strafford County jail in Dover currently houses almost 400 inmates. He said the county is committed to making sure that only people who really need to remain behind bars are kept at the jail. Whenever possible, he seeks to move inmates to less restrictive environments where they can get their lives back on track.

Lyons said the Department of Corrections agrees that the state should devote more resources to treatment programs and other prison alternatives. State prison commissioner Bill Wrenn recently went before the N.H. Legislature to push for alternative sentences, such as supervised release, electric monitoring, drug courts and treatment programs, to help alleviate the state’s growing prison population.

“He’s calling on the Legislature to do a complete review of the sentencing laws to see if the sentences that were created 30 years ago are still valid today,” Lyons said. “Do we need to change the way the sentences are handed out? He’d like to see a complete review of that.”

But the Department of Corrections is also hoping to secure funding for new prison facilities. Lyons said the state’s most urgent need is more space for female inmates. The department put in a request for $37 million in its capital budget to build a new women’s prison and halfway house that would include close to 500 combined beds. The department has also requested $13 million to build two new halfway houses for male inmates, each with 64 beds.

Farther down the road, the department hopes to expand the capacity at the men’s facility in Berlin. The prison was designed with an infrastructure to support up to 1,000 inmates but currently only has 500 beds. The department will look to add $23 million to its capital budget by 2012 or 2013 to add 500 more beds, Lyons said.

But in an economic crunch, securing any funds from the state Legislature will not be easy. “All of this will depend on what the Legislature feels the priority should be,” Lyons said.

Angela Davis has firsthand knowledge of the U.S. prison system. The civil rights activist and educator spent 18 months in prison in the early 1970s after being placed on the FBI’s “Ten Most Wanted List.” Davis was charged as an accomplice to murder, kidnapping and conspiracy for her alleged involvement in an attempt to help several members of the Black Panthers escape from California’s Soledad Prison. The botched escape left three people dead, including a judge. Davis was acquitted in 1972.

Now a professor at the University of California Santa Cruz, Davis has lectured across the United States and around the world. She has authored eight books, the most recent of which include “Abolition Democracy” and “Are Prisons Obsolete?” She is close to completing another book on prisons and American history.

On Jan. 29, Davis gave a commemorative address at UNH titled “Education or Incarceration: The Future of Democracy.” In her address, she suggested that the United States should abolish its prison system and dedicate more resources to improving education. As it stands, she said, the prison system sucks money away from education, thereby producing more uneducated criminals who wind up behind bars. And so the vicious circle continues.

But if prisons are obsolete, as Davis suggests, what are the implications for New Hampshire? What would happen if the state’s correctional facilities suddenly opened their doors and thousands of convicted criminals reentered society, looking for jobs, homes and medical care?

During the panel discussion on Feb. 5, Jake Collins cited a study indicating that for every one crime that sends a person to jail, around 100 crimes committed by that same person went unsolved or undiscovered. Every person the state puts behind bars, therefore, presumably prevents hundreds of crimes from occurring. 

On the other hand, 97 percent of current inmates will be released before they die, Collins said. That means well over 2 million people who are currently incarcerated will one day integrate back into society and start their lives anew.

Of the 1,572 people who were incarcerated in New Hampshire prisons in 2007, 133 (8.5 percent) were convicted of selling or possessing drugs; 108 (6.9 percent) were convicted of violent crimes; 93 (5.9 percent) were convicted of burglary or robbery; 87 (5.5 percent) were convicted of sex offenses; and 12 (.8 percent) were convicted of homicide. But 654 (41.6 percent) were convicted of violating parole or probation, underscoring the need to prepare inmates for life after incarceration.

The female prison population is currently growing at a faster rate than the male population. At the State Prison for Women, Annette Escalante works to prepare female inmates with the treatment and training they need to make it on the outside.

“Most of them, unfortunately, wind up working at Dunkin’ Donuts or other fast food places. My job is to try to change that,” Escalante said.

While preventing crime is critical, Escalante said, there will always be a need for prisons. But steps can be taken to make rehabilitation efforts more successful. She said New Hampshire lacks a unified correctional system, instead allowing each county to make up its own rules. She has visited other New England states that have unified their correctional systems and reduced recidivism among ex-cons.

Unifying New Hampshire’s prison system will take action from the state Legislature, Escalante said, and that will require community support. Currently, however, the general public continues to advocate for locking up criminals as long as possible instead of reforming them. “That is because we don’t have any alternatives on the outside,” she said.

Collins, who lives in Rochester, said he encounters former prison inmates on a near daily basis at stores, restaurants, gas stations—virtually everywhere he goes. Whether the public likes it or not, when authorities lock someone up, they don’t usually throw away the key.