America’s Prison Crisis
“The mood and temper of the public in regard to the treatment of crime and criminals is one of the most unfailing tests of the civilization of any country.”
-Winston Churchill
Background
If the United States is supposed to be land of the free, how do we account for the fact that we bear the distinction of having the most prisoners, and the highest rate of incarceration, in the world? About 2.2 million people are being held in prisons and jails in the U.S., which makes up 25% of the world’s prisoners in a country that holds 5% of the world’s total population. When broken down to a ratio of population, the United States imprisons nearly 740 people per 100,000; that works out to about 1 out of every 136 people (Young 2007). By contrast Libya, Zimbabwe, Saudi Arabia, China and Pakistan, countries whose rulers were rated in 2005 by Parade Magazine as the world’s worst dictators, have far lower reported rates of incarceration; the lowest is 57/100,000 in Pakistan and the highest is 207/100,000 in Libya (Fraser 2007). Other western democracies such as France, Germany, and England and Wales have 93, 98 and 140 per 100,000 respectively (Snacken 2006). The only European countries that rival America’s incarceration rates are Belarus and the Russian Federation with 554 and 595/100,000 (Snacken 2006).
America hasn’t always had such a high prison population. From the 1940s until the early 1970s, the incarceration rate in the U.S. hovered around 100/100,000 (Young 2007). Since 1973 the prison population has been growing and, despite a decrease in crime rates that began in the early 1990s, continues to rise today. A combination of factors has led to a sevenfold increase of prisoners over the past 35 years in the U.S. In the early 1970s, Richard Nixon declared war on drugs. Thinking that prison would be a deterrent to those who might consider using or selling drugs, government officials started imposing harsher sentences on drug offenders; simple possession of two joints landed people behind bars for several years. Politicians playing to the fears of the populace, due to rising crime rates, started taking a “tough on crime” stance, which led to harsher penalties and longer sentences. Anti-crime hysteria prompted many states to pass reforms like truth-in-sentencing laws, mandatory minimum sentencing, “three strikes and you’re out” laws, and re-instatement of the death penalty, leading to prison overcrowding and, eventually, construction of more prisons (Barker 2006). Some states couldn’t to afford costly prison construction, so private companies like Corrections Corporation of America and Wackenhut have stepped in (Pullman & Asquith 2006). With privatization, prisons are now becoming a profitable industry. If citizens decide to reduce the prison population by half, there could be stiff resistance by those whose livelihoods depend on the “tough on crime” approach to law enforcement.
To put it simply, we are putting more people in prison than ever before, keeping them there longer, and making it difficult for them to re-establish a normal life upon release, causing many to return.
Racial Disparities
It becomes apparent, when examining the disparity of incarceration rates between Blacks and Whites, that racism is alive and well in America. In his testimony before the Joint Economic Committee on October 4, 2007, Harvard University professor Bruce Western stated that, “young black men are now more likely to go to prison than to graduate college with a four-year degree, or to serve in the military” (2007). He goes on to say:
The large black-white disparity in incarceration is unmatched by most other social indicators. Racial disparities in unemployment (2 to 1), nonmarital childbearing (3 to 1), infant mortality (2 to 1), and wealth (1 to 5) are all significantly lower than the 7 to 1 black-white ratio in incarceration rates. (2007)
Mississippi, a state that was at the center of the civil rights struggle in the 1950s and 60s, has built no new 4-year colleges or universities in the past 50 years, yet 16 new correctional institutions have been constructed since the 1990s, six of them private (Price 2006, quoted by Pullmann & Asquith 2006). In his book, Merchandizing Prisoners: Who Really Pays for Prison Privatization, Byron Eugene Price includes a graph showing that, “by 2017, there will be more Blacks in prison (an estimated 2 million) than Blacks enslaved in 1860 (1.9 million)” (Pullman & Asquith 2006). Over 40 years have passed since Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech, and the passing of landmark civil rights legislation. But looking at the contrast in incarceration rates between Black and White Americans, we seem to have a long way to go before we become a nation that, “judges a man not by the color of his skin, but by the content of his character” (ML King 1963)
Consequences
Stratification of criminals had led to the rapid growth of a lower caste of untouchables in America who are, “somehow irretrievably evil, fundamentally different from law-abiding people” (Mallory 2007). While in prison, many inmates lose their jobs, their homes, and contact with family and friends (Shepherd 2006). Many ex-prisoners have trouble finding jobs upon release because employers are reluctant to hire them, so many of them fall back into old habits which eventually land them back into prison.
What Can We Do?
There are some things we can do now that would be a starting point for a new direction towards restorative and reductionist policies. The first is to offer treatment, instead of jail, for non-violent drug offenders and the mentally ill. The second is to establish meaningful re-socialization programs for ex-prisoners.
Drug Offenders
Four out of five drug arrests were for possession in 2005, the remaining being for sales (Webb, 2007). Treatment would keep addicts out of a punitive system, and restore them to a productive life sooner than simply locking them up. James B. Jacobs suggests that we could cut the prison population by at least 25 percent if we legalized, “mind altering drugs or perhaps just marijuana” (2007). There is also a growing movement to decriminalize, or outright legalize, marijuana in the United States which has led some states to decide to allow patients access to medical marijuana, despite being against federal law; California is the most famous example. Does it make sense to lock up doctors who are prescribing a substance that has been proven to alleviate the suffering of their patients? Should we lock up the patients too?
Mentally Ill
Starting in the 1950s, many state-run mental institutions were closed down in favor of community-based care, which was shown to be more effective. The current problem with the community-based system is that it was never adequately funded, effectively denying care for many patients, especially those who can’t afford hospitals and doctors. Now the mentally ill make up about 1 out of 6 people held in prisons across America (Frontline, 2005). If we fully commit to a community-based mental health care system, possibly as a part of the presently proposed health care reform, patients would be able to recover faster, return to a normal life sooner, and ultimately stay out of prison.
Re-socialization
A prisoner’s re-entry into society can start the moment he enters the gates, but instead it is usually carried out at the last moment as he is released and placed under the supervision of a parole officer. Attitudes and skills that help a prisoner navigate the social structure of prisons are usually not desirable traits on the “outside,” re-socialization should be a necessary part of a prisoner’s sentence if prisons want to live up to the title of “correctional facility.” Of the 780,000 current parolees, over one-third are expected to return to prison, many for technical violations (R King 2007). An effective way to reduce the prison population would be to prevent prisoners from returning by launching an effective program to prevent recidivism.
A Cause for Optimism
In a reaction to the alarming rate of incarceration, 22 states have taken steps through parole and probation policy changes, or sentencing reform legislation, to reduce their prison populations (R King 2007). The growing prison crisis also hasn’t escaped federal lawmakers. On October 4, 2007, the Joint Economic Committee held a hearing, chaired by Senator Jim Webb (D-Va.), called “Mass Incarceration in the United States: At What Cost?” which examined the growing prison population and the costs not only in dollars, but in our humanity.
Afterword
My interest in this subject started when I was arrested for drunk driving in 1998 and sentenced to 2 years probation, 80 hours of community service, a driving class, a substance abuse class and individual substance abuse counseling. After serving 8 months of my sentence, completing my community service, classes, and many hours of counseling, I was arrested for driving on a suspended license. I informed my probation officer about my arrest, and my substance abuse counselor was trying to convince her to keep me out of jail because of the great progress I had made. Our efforts failed and I was arrested at my home for violating my probation in February 1999; I served 4 weeks in jail. I will never forget what one of the guards said regarding several of us who were there on probation violations; “you guys don’t belong here.”
Works Cited
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