The status of the prison systems in California and in the Bay Area was the key topic discussed at the Second Annual Human Rights Summit yesterday at SF State.

A group of about 40 anthropology and behavioral and social science students gathered at the Seven Hills Conference Center on campus to listen to Loren Buddress, chief probation officer for San Mateo County, discuss the major problems in today’s prison system and the need for change – not only in California’s correctional system, but the entire nation.

“I’m not anti-prison at all, but our correctional system needs to be used cautiously and effectively,” Buddress said. “Right now it’s not being used that way.”

Buddress stated that currently the United States’ incarceration rate is 650-750 per 100,000 people. Canada, the United Kingdom, and Western Europe’s incarceration rate is a little over 100 per 100,000 people.

He also noted the failure of the probation system for not providing parolees with treatment in order to keep them from ending up back in prison.

“Right now we have 2.2 million people in prison across the nation,” Buddress said. “No country incarcerates more people than we do here in the U.S. and California leads the way with 163,939.”

After discussing the major problems in the correctional system, Buddress presented the group of students with four possible solutions to help address the issue. Buddress said if the prison system could find away to fund better drug treatments, mental health treatments, education and vocational programs and a cognitive skills program, convicts would have a better chance of being rehabilitated.

“All over the world and in this country people tend to look outward, but the reality is that it’s happening right here,” said anthropology major Claudia Santangelo.

The Human Rights Summit is in its third day of presentations. This year’s theme for the summit, Hidden Genocides, touched on topics that included genocide, gender violence, prisons and indigenous peoples’ rights.

A panel of eight students presented research papers to the audience following Buddress’ speech. The students discussed rape, racism and child abuse in the today’s prison system.

Panelist Ashley Davenport presented her research topic on the detention of unaccompanied immigrant and refugee children in U.S. prisons. She said that hundreds of children are left at the mercy of the prison system without fair representation and often without any knowledge of the language or law.

“I just felt that most people who are in prison deserve to be there,” Davenport said. “I wanted to do my research on those who were most vulnerable and the people who are innocent.”

The Human Rights Summit will continue its presentation tomorrow at the Seven Hills Conference Center at noon.