page 4 - The Behrend College Collegian. Thursday, February 12, 1998 The Behrend College Collegian published weekly by the students of Penn State Erie, The Behrend College Features Editor Kristi McKim Layout Editor Nathan Mitchell Business Manager Dana Greenhouse Office Manager Gina Gasket/ The Collegian is published weekly by the students encourages letters to the editor on of Penn State Erie, The Behrend news coverage, editorial content and College; First Floor, The J. Elmer University affairs. Letters should he Reed Union Building, Station Road, no longer than 400 words. Letters Erie, PA 16563. The Collegian can should include the address, phone be reached by calling (814) 898-6488 number, semester standing and major or (814) 898-6019 (FAX). ISSN of the writer. Writers can mail their 1071-9288. letters to behrcoll2@aol.com. Nma For the first time in the history of Behrend, there is going to be a musi cal. Tony Elliot, our one man theater department, has made an ambitious choice with the Pirates of Penzance. With the enrollment at Behrend ex pected to reach 4000 students in the next few years the pool of talent and ambition is growing. It is phenom enal that a school with limited music and theater classes will be able to per form such a multifaceted production In a similar light, Behrend's men's and women's basketball teams are both having incredibly successful sea sons in their first seasons of play in the new AMCC. Behrend sports are growing and improving with the men's and women's soccer teams winning the AMCC and other teams finishing with impressive records. Crime and punishment --and treatment, too By Joseph A. Califano Jr.=Special to The Washington Post It's time to open -- in the nation's - a second front in the war on prisons - For two decades we have been fill ing prisons with drug and alcohol abusers and addicts and, without treat ment or training, returning them to society to resume the criminal activ ity spawned by their substance abuse. This is public policy crafted in the the ater of the absurd. Individuals who commit serious of fenses such as drug dealing and vio lent and property crimes belong in prison. But it is just as much in the in terest of public safety to rehabilitate those who can be redeemed as it is to keep incorrigibles locked up. More than 1.7 million people are behind bars in America: 1.6 million in state prisons and local jails, 100,000 in federal prisons. Eighty percent -- 1.4 million inmates -- either violated drug or alcohol laws, were high at the time of their offense, stole property to buy drugs, have histories of drug and al cohol abuse and addiction, or share some mix of these characteristics. Among these 1.4 million inmates are the parents of 2.4 million children. Two hundred thousand of these pris oners dealt drugs but don't use them. The remaining 1.2 million are drug and alcohol abusers and addicts. Some would have committed their crimes regardless of their substance abuse. But hundreds of thousands are indi viduals whose core problem is the abuse and addiction that prompted their criminal activity. They would be law-abiding, taxpaying citizens and responsible parents if they lived sober lives. The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University estimates that for an addi tional $6,500 a year, an inmate could be given intensive treatment, educa tion and job training. Upon release, each one who worked at the average wage of a high school graduate for a year would provide a return on invest ment of $68,800 in reduced criminal activity, savings on the costs of arrest, prosecution, incarceration and health care, and benefit to the economy. If all 1.2 million inmates with drug and al cohol problems got such treatment and training (cost: $7.8 billion) and only 10 percent became sober, working citi zens (benefits $8.256 billion), the in- Editor in Chief Andrea M biffino Managing Editor Anne M. Rajotte Sports Editor Dylan Stewart Associate Editor Bruin Ashbaugh Advertising Manager RJ Frelsn Photography Editor Jason Blake Advisors Alan Parker Robert Speel L tt•r Poll The examples of the theater pro gram and the sports teams represent two of the many notable acheivements that the students of the Behrend Col lege should be proud of, if not want to take part in themselves. Yet there seems to be only a small number of students making these sort of acheivements possible. Many stu dents are not involved in activities of any kind on campus. In addition to their apathy, these are the same stu dents who complain that there is noth ing to do and that their activity fee money is being wasted. More students are getting involved, as shown by the musical. However, many groups suffer from lack of in terest and support. Hopefully. with the rising enrollment, involvement and enthusiasm will grow. vestment would pay for itself within a year of work. Each subsequent year would provide billions more in savings and economic benefits. The potential crime reduction is also big league. Expert estimates of crimes committed by the average drug addict range from 89 to 191 a year. At the conservative end, successfully treating and training just 10,000 drug addicts would eliminate 1 million crimes a year. After three years studying the rela tionship between prison inmates and substance abuse, I am convinced that the present system of prison and pun ishment only is insane public policy. Despite tougher sentencing laws, on average inmates are released in 18 months to four years. Even those con victed of such violent crimes as aggra vated assault and robbery get out in three to four years. Releasing drug and alcohol addicts and abusers without treatment or train ing is tantamount to visiting criminals on society. Releasing drug addicts is a government price support program for the illegal drug market. Temporarily housing such prisoners without treat ing and training them is a profligate use of public funds and the greatest missed opportunity to cut crime fur ther. One of every 144 Americans is be hind bars, one of every 60 men, one of every 14 black men. If we don't deal with alcohol and drug abuse and re vamp our system of crime and pun ishment, one of every 20 Americans born in 1997 will spend some time in jail, including one of every 11 men and one of every foublack men. Politicians camouflage the failure of their costly punishment-only prison policy by snorting tough rhetoric. They talk and act as though the only people in prison are violent black crack ad dicts and incorrigible psychopaths like James Cagney in "Public Enemy," as though treatment doesn't work and addiction is a moral failing that any individual can easily change. The first step toward sensible crimi nal justice policy is to face reality. Pris ons are wall to wall with drug and al cohol addicts and abusers. Appropri ate substance abuse treatment has a higher success rate than many cancer therapies. (It could certainly help 20 percent of this population: That's a quarter of a million criminals who could be turned into law-abiding citi zens and good parents.) The hidden dangers of caffeine How many people do you know who say they just "can't get going" without their morning cup of coffee? Caffeine has become the drug of choice among Americans, sometimes as a quick pick-me-up, sometimes as a substitute for sleep itself. Lack of sleep is a common com plaint heard from students. Many rou tinely stay up late desperately cram ming for the next day's exam. A re cent study of Cornell and Stanford University students found that only about one percent are fully awake all day. In an attempt to gain back their awareness, many turn to coffee for that quick jolt of caffeine. Coffee bars are a great example of how so many have come to rely on caffeine. Still others The Colle resort to over-the-counter "alertness aids" like Vivarin, No-Doz, or Stay Awake. What many fail to realize is that these are drugs and they do have ef fects. While billed as "safe as coffee," that may not be the case. While they may supply the same amount of caf feine as coffee, drugs hit your system all at once whereas the body would be exposed to the caffeine in coffee more slowly because of its being in gested. In effect, these drugs throw your whole system into overdrive. Your blood pressure increases, your heart beat quickens, and anxiety lev els also increase significantly. Users can even experience mild mood swings. While the drugs may give you that quick pick-me-up, there's another bad side. When the initial effects wear off, you "crash" hard, often ending up even more tired. People who continu ally take these drugs can and in fact do become addicted to them. Many people rely on caffeine for alertness Can immigrants go home again? By Sam Quinones=Special to the Los Angeles Times Nothing quite illustrates some ba sic truths about immigration to the United States, in general, and Mexi can emigration, in particular, like Jaripo and its houses. Jaripo is a village in the northern part of Michoacan, a state in central Mexico that is a major supplier of immigrants to the United States, es pecially California. Emigration in this region is a well-established tradition. People have been leaving Jaripo in large numbers since the "bracero" program in the 19405. Entering the town, the houses are one of the first things you notice. Many are newly painted two-story structures, with marble floors, satel lite dishes, sliding glass windows, tiled driveways, ornate arches and gates. Inside, there's plush furniture. One house has an external winding staircase. These are the homes of people who work in the United States. The next thing you notice is that more houses are under construction. Like hundreds of small Mexican vil lages in regions of heavy emigration to the United States, Jaripo has an un finished look. Over the years, return ing immigrants add on to their houses, while others lay foundations for new ones. But what's most remarkable about these houses is that they remain vacant at least 10 months a year. The common denominator among inmates is not race; it's drug and alco hol abuse. Though blacks are dispro portionately represented in prison, es sentially the same proportion (61 to 65 percent) of black, white and Hispanic inmates are regular drug users. Alco hol is more tightly linked with violent crime than crack cocaine: In state pris ons, 21 percent of violent criminals were high on alcohol alone at the time of their offenses; only 3 percent were high on crack or cocaine alone. Each year the government builds more prisons and hires more prison guards. In effect, governors, presidents and legislators keep saying, "If all the king's horses and all the king's men can't put Humpty Dumpty back to gether again, then give us more horses and give us more men." Editorial because their body has simply become that used to it. As with any drug, there are even withdrawal symptoms: irri tability, headaches, sometimes even mild depression. College students specifically need to be aware of the potential dangers in alertness aids. The main reason why is because the companies that produce them single out students as their tar get customers. On the Vivarin home page, you can find a scholarship com petition for students, with the winner receiving a ten thousand dollar schol arship. In an effort to attract teens, there are even romance and personal ity quizzes, like those found in popu lar teen magazines such as "YM" and "Seventeen." Even worse, the marketing is also They are occupied for only a few weeks when Jaripo's native children return from Chicago, Dallas, Los An geles and, primarily, Stockton, Calif., where since the 19605, they have formed the backbone of the state ag riculture industry, working in the fields and canneries. The houses are, in effect, retirement homes, to which their owners believe they will return someday to live permanently. That's their dream, anyway. We like to believe that the immi grants' dream is to go to the United States, make new lives for them selves, assimilate and become Ameri cans. But judging from the Jaripo ex perience, this may be misleading. Jaripo, and thousands of Mexican vil lages like it, are standing proof that, for immigrants who travel north seek ing economic advancement, the real American dream is to earn money and return home to Mexico so they can show friends and family that they, too, made it in the U.S.A. Most immigrants from around the world have always wanted to go home -- rich. It's quite natural. Mexicans are different only in that they are among the few groups in history who have been able to realize the immigrants' American dream: They can go home again. Unlike China, Vietnam, Italy, Russia and other sending countries, Mexico, during the time its people have emigrated to America, has com bined geographic proximity with rela tive political peace and consistent poverty. For Mexicans, going home has al ways been quick, relatively safe and cheap. But it also has meant that, un like other immigrants, Mexicans have never had to perform the excruciat ingly emotional surgery of severing ties to their native land. In some sense, this may be good. Jaripenos, for example, have done an admirable job of making sure their American-born children know Mexico and Spanish. Plus, taken to gether, immigrant families' small in vestments in their home towns amount to a potent engine of private sector urban renewain much of de pressed rural Mexico. In Michoacan, one scholar has estimated that immi grant investment in houses and busi nesses outstrips that of local, state and federal governments combined. Without such investment, villages geared at an even younger audience. At the bottom of the Vivarin page there is a cheery heading proclaiming, "Free Vivarin For Everyone!" In parenthe ses, underneath this, it says, "Must be at least 12." Regardless of what it is, no company should be offering to send free samples of any drug to a twelve year old child— that is terribly irre sponsible. Imagine what a tragedy it would be if a twelve year old with a pre-existing heart condition ordered his free sample unknown to his par ents. Such a scenario is hardly un likely. The alternatives to drugs like this and caffeine in general should be con sidered. Short naps during the day half an hour between classes, for ex am le, can refresh someone well. like Jaripo would have died years ago. Some permanent residents' only con sistent work is when the immigrants return and begin adding on to their homes. "You have to work while they're all here," says Enrique Yepes, a construction worker. "When they leave, there's nothing." Yet, in many ways, this living con nection to Mexico has impeded im migrants' progress in America. It cer tainly has slowed their political inte gration into the United States, where they spend most of their lives and where their children go to school. Jaripenos only recently _ and only when faced with the threat of Propo sition 187 and the possibility of simi lar measures nationally _ began to naturalize and earn the right to vote. Their wages don't allow them to invest in the United States and Mexico. So the choice, for many, is obvious. In Stockton, many Jaripeno families rent houses in the city's toughest neighborhoods _ notorious for gangs, drugs and the worst schools _ while maintaining stunning, but vacant houses back home. Jaripo's immigrants, and their American children, return to occupy these houses in December and Janu ary. The last week of every January, they throw themselves one of the best parties in Mexico, with fireworks, dances, bands in the town plaza and nightly pilgrimages to church. Jaripo fills up. As it does, a subtle social competition becomes apparent. The houses get more elaborate every year. "It's the most common thing we see in these villages," says Gustavo Lopez Castro, a professor at the Colegio de Michoacan in the city of Zamora nearby, who has studied Michoacan immigration for 12 years. "The first investment is in the house in the village. They have to demon strate that they've had success." But success also is reflected in the shiny cars and trucks, from which powerful stereos blast as they roll into town for the party. Some people even cart in sleek motorcycles that are vir tually useless on Jaripo's bumpy, nar row streets. Women come to the plaza each night in elegant evening gowns. Teen-agers bring their best Nike gear and Starters jackets. Young couples return to get married, in weddings that cost thousands of dollars. For most families, the return repre- Also, even if you can't get that eight hours of sleep, try to maintain a steady sleep schedule—even if it is only that six hours. At the current time, we as a society consider those who suffer from lack of sleep as weak, and this only in creases the demand for drugs like Vivarin. In a recent issue of "Parade" magazine, home goddess Martha Stewart, who's idolized by millions as the perfect woman, is said to have only four hours of sleep a night. Unfortu nately, not all of us are superhuman, so the rest of us need to reconsider our waking moments. I wonder if Martha takes Vivarin... The Other Side appears every three weeks in The Collegian sents a year of hard work and sacri fice in the United States. Often, an entire year's savings is spent in a month. No one wants to come home a miser. Omar Fonseca, a sociologist who co-wrote a book on Jaripo, re members one farm-worker family who would not come home if they didn't have at least $3,000 to spend. This same family, Fonseca says, would pull the children out of school in order to work the fields and make the nut for the trip every January. Thus, some Jaripeno youths are sec ond-generation field workers in Stockton. Many others have avoided the fields, but have not gone to col lege. The immigrants' return also affects Jaripo. Many townspeople faintly re sent their returning brethren. "Some of them come back with rented suits, so they can show off to those of us who don't leave," says one local busi nessman. They complain also that the children return from the United States disrespectful and brash. And while the town does continue on, its sole rea son for existence seems more and more to be simply that of a stage for the January party. The children who have yet to jour ney north see the returning immi grants wearing fancy clothes and ten nis shoes and driving trucks with state-of-the-art stereos; they see houses going up; they see money flashed about. They hear stories about the United States - and they can't wait to leave. Because Jaripo's first emigrants are reaching retirement age, they soon will have the opportunity to act on their dream of returning home to a nice house, a quiet Mexican village and a dollar-dominated pension. Yet, their dream may, imperceptibly, have changed just as they are able, for the firstime, to make a home of the house they labored so hard to build. Years of living in the United States have likely made Mexico more appealing to them as a tourist destination rather than as a final resting place. They may be hard-pressed to leave their grand children in the states. And Jaripo will likely remain a town of extravagant ghost houses. Quinones, a correspondent for Pacific News Service, is the recipient of an Alicia Patterson fellowship for 1998.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers