Common Ground

Life on the inside

State prison’s world has six levels of custody

By Martin Brodsky and Sean Breslin 
Prague 2007: Common Ground

The Montana State Prison is tucked five miles away from the center of Deer Lodge, Mont., a community of some 3,300 people. Guard towers rise high above fences lined with seemingly endless strands of razor wire surrounding the complex.

The prison houses more than 1,400 adult male inmates, convicted of crimes ranging from writing bad checks to robbery to murder. American Indians make up 18.4 percent of the inmate population.

The prison has six levels of custody that prison officials group inmates into. To determine what custody level each inmate belongs in, prison officials use factors such as their crime, their sentence length, special needs, and the amount of risk they pose to other inmates and to general security at the facility. The lower the custody level is, the more personal freedom allowed.

From meth to grant writing: Joshua Butterfly says prison was a rescue

Inmate gets another chance to rediscover his traditions

By Martin Brodsky and Vendula Krizova 
Prague 2007: Common Ground

“Hi, I am Butterfly,” a six-foot tall and muscular Indian with calm, nice eyes said as he shakes our hands. He wears glasses and his ponytail sometimes hides under his blue jacket.

His white T-shirt and blue jacket are the clothes that inmates in the low-custody section of Montana State Prison in Deer Lodge usually wear. Joshua Butterfly is one of those inmates.

His youthful forays into illegal drugs and crime eventually led Butterfly, 29, to the prison, where he is currently serving 20 years for sexual intercourse without consent. He’s been at the prison for about five years, he said.

Police crisis said to undercut Blackfoot economy

Flathead Reservation banks on diversified economy

By Martin Brodsky and Sean Breslin 
Prague 2007: Common Ground

The Blackfeet Reservation is in the midst of a crisis. Recently, the Bureau of Indian Affairs took over control of law enforcement on the reservation, and its arrival hasn’t been welcomed by many in the community.

“They provide spotty—sometimes thuggish—law enforcement,” said John McGill, editor of the Glacier Reporter, a weekly paper based in Browning, Mont.

Aside from the obvious dangers of having an inadequate police force on the reservation, the lack of security has only added to the economic problems of the area.

“They (business owners) don’t bring businesses here because we don’t have a police force,” said Marlene Augare, an advertising representative with the Glacier Reporter.

Czech Roma citizens live in worst of both worlds

The Czechs say the Roma are lazy;
Romas see discrimination at every turn

By Martin Brodsky and Sean Breslin
Prague 2007: Common Ground

In a Czech city that traces its roots back to the thirteenth century, the Úřad Práce (Unemployment Office) building in Plzen seems uncharacteristically modern, with its automatic doors and steely grey exterior. A glass-enclosed bulletin board just outside the entrance is covered with job listings, and similar flyers cling to the walls of the hallways inside.

Jan Andrlík, a department head at the office, deals with about 700 Roma people looking for work. While the overall unemployment rate for the Czech Republic at the beginning of the millennium hovered around eight or nine percent, Roma experienced unemployment rates topping 45 percent for the same time period. Although high, it’s one of the lowest Roma unemployment rates in the region. Hungary’s 56 percent and Slovakia’s is 84 percent.

Searching for economic solutions

Government programs offer assistance, but come up short on ideas, programs

By Martin Brodsky 
Prague 2007: Common Ground

Several funds sponsored by the European Union support the long-term unemployed. Such programs are not just about paying money to individuals and families, but about helping people to improve their job skills or  to overcome disabilities that have kept them out of the workplace. There is one special program for people from the Roma community.

Some companies take unfair advantage of government efforts to encourage hiring of the Roma.  In the Czech Republic it’s not unusual for a business to fire a Roma employee after only one year so that it can hire another Roma and get the government benefit all over again.

Education is the key

Only better schooling can fix Roma economic situation

By Martin Brodsky
Prague 2007: Common Ground

Most inhabitants in the Czech Republic have strong negative feelings about Roma people. They see them as a group with incompatible lifestyle habits, unable to integrate. Czechs generally see the Roma population as a non-working community with high criminality, misusing the state social system. Is this generalization based on facts, or are nearly all the people in the Czech Republic racists?

Certainly we must be careful to avoid stereotyping. Not all people are the same. But the number of integrated and educated Roma is so low that there is some basis for that generalization.

Living in poverty

American photojournalist Julie Denesha recounts her experiences with the Roma

By Martin Brodsky and Sean Breslin
Prague 2007: Common Ground

Julie Denesha, an American photojournalist, has lived and worked in some of the poorest Roma villages in the Slovak Republic. While living with the Roma families, she had a chance to explore their culture and habits. 

Some 500,000 Roma live in Slovakia. About 25 percent of them are living in ghettos outside the majority society, without access to safe drinking water or basic sanitation.