Prison reality--USA

No other nation has more people locked up than the USA.
Our prison/incarceration policy results in the destruction of families and neighborhoods.

Our policies cost us a fortune annually, funds that should be invested in education, job skills training, health care, public safety, housing. . .the list goes on and on.

I found this chart very useful in putting the entire picture in perspective.

Thoughts?

From a Koch brother: Sane prison policy and poverty

[Possibly things can change for the better!  After you read this, tell me what you think.]

The Overcriminalization of America

How to reduce poverty and improve race relations by rethinking our justice system.

By CHARLES G. KOCH and MARK V. HOLDEN

January 07, 2015

        

As Americans, we like to believe the rule of law in our country is respected and fairly applied, and that only those who commit crimes of fraud or violence are punished and imprisoned.  But the reality is often different. It is surprisingly easy for otherwise law-abiding citizens to run afoul of the overwhelming number of federal and state criminal laws. This proliferation is sometimes referred to as “overcriminalization,”which affects us all, but most profoundly harms our disadvantaged citizens.

 

Overcriminalization has led to the mass incarceration of those ensnared by our criminal justice system, even though such imprisonment does not always enhance public safety.  Indeed, more than half of federal inmates are nonviolent drug offenders.  Enforcing so many victimless crimes inevitably leads to conflict between our citizens and law enforcement.  As we have seen all too often, it can place our police officers in harm’s way, leading to tragic consequences for all involved.

How did we get in this situation?  It began with well-intentioned lawmakers who went overboard trying to solve perceived or actual problems.  Congress creates, on average, more than 50 new criminal laws each year.  Over  time, this has translated into more than 4,500 federal criminal laws spread across 27,000 pages of the United States federal code.  (This number does not include the thousands of criminal penalties in federal regulations.)  As a result, the United States is the world’s largest jailer — first in the world for total number imprisoned and first among industrialized nations in the rate of incarceration.  The United States represents about 5 percent of the world's population, but houses around 25 percent of the world's prisoners.

We have paid a heavy price for mass incarceration and could benefit by reversing this trend.  It has been estimated that at least 53 percent of those entering prison were living at or below the U.S. poverty line when their sentence began. Incarceration leads to a 40 percent decrease in annual earnings, reduced job tenure and higher unemployment.  A Pew Charitable Trust study revealed that two-thirds of former inmates with earnings in the bottom fifth upon release in 1986, remained at or below that level 20 years later. A Villanova University study concluded that “had mass incarceration not occurred, poverty would have decreased by more than 20 percent, or about 2.8 percentage points” and “several million fewer people would have been in poverty in recent years.”

Read the entire article here. 

Attacking the failure of our prison policies

Recently, my good friend and former CitySquare team member, Jeremy Gregg spoke at the TEDXSMU 2012 Conference on the moral challenge of prison policy in the United States and in Texas.  Jeremy works with the very effective Prison Entrepreneurial Program.

Powerful words from a visionary leader in our community.

Check it out!

Bad, bad policy

Editor's note: Bryan Stevenson is executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, an Alabama-based nonprofit that provides legal representation for indigent defendants and for people it believes have been denied justice in the courts. He is a professor of clinical law at New York University Law School. Stevenson spoke at the TED2012 conference this month in Long Beach, California. TED is a nonprofit dedicated to "Ideas worth spreading," which it makes available through talks posted on its website.

Montgomery, Alabama (CNN) -- I'm an attorney and I represent incarcerated people, both in my home state of Alabama and across the United States.

I spend every day with people who are poor, disadvantaged, condemned and marginalized. I am persuaded that we can and should do better to create more hopeful and encouraging solutions to poverty, crime and inequality in this country.

In the last 40 years, our society has witnessed unprecedented technological change, incredible innovation and a great deal of promise and success in many areas.

We have also seen growing inequality, increased levels of poverty and unprecedented rates of imprisonment. I have come to believe that, for all the things we have accomplished, injustice, poverty and mass incarceration are stains on our society. They cannot be ignored.

Bryan Stevenson

In 1970 there were roughly 350,000 people in our jails and prisons. Today there are more than 2.2 million. That's not counting the nearly 5 million people who are on probation or parole. One in every 31 Americans is subject to some form of correctional control.

This policy of mass incarceration did not come out of nowhere. It was born out of a politics of fear and anger based on now discredited theories. It was our response to problems in our society that we were not creative enough -- or perhaps not courageous enough -- to solve. Public safety is a legitimate priority for any nation, but it does not explain the fact that the United States now has the highest rate of incarceration in the world.

To read on click here.

Spending cuts--what will be the payoff?

As the Texas legislature targets a wide range of potential programs and departments for the budget knife, some program cuts could cost more than the cuts save, while making our communities less healthy, productive and safe for everyone.  Take funding for programs that engage ex-inmates. 

Budget cuts slice programs for ex-inmates

In some states, the number of people committing new felonies while on probation or parole has inched up, in part because of cuts to programs that helped former inmates stay out of prison

USA TODAY
By Kevin Johnson
February 10, 2011

NATIONAL — Cuts in probation and parole programs to reconcile state budget deficits could undermine recent successes in shrinking bloated prison populations, criminal justice officials say.

In some states, the number of people committing new felonies while on probation or parole has inched up, in part because of cuts to programs that helped former inmates stay out of prison. Other states are weighing substantial budget cuts to all parts of their criminal justice systems, including probation and parole programs.

Adam Gelb, director of the Pew Center's Public Safety Performance Project, says some of the most successful criminal justice programs launched in recent years are at risk. "The (financial) hole is so deep," says Gelb, whose non-partisan group has helped develop state programs for managing offenders outside prison. "Programs for convicted felons are an easy target."

Carl Wicklund, executive director of the American Probation and Parole Association, says the fiscal crisis is "pushing more people out of prison" with fewer people to supervise them and fewer dollars to support drug treatment, housing and job assistance. "We're setting these people up for failure," Wicklund says.

A report Tuesday by the Council of State Governments Justice Center, a bipartisan group that promotes public safety policy, urged lawmakers to spare programs that have been effective in reducing prison costs.

In Kansas, where officials just two years ago were spotlighting the success of the state's probation and parole strategy in reducing high prison costs, an additional 322 probationers returned to prison for committing new offenses in fiscal year 2010.

Overall, the portion of Kansas probationers who successfully completed their terms dropped to 54% in 2010 from 61% in fiscal year 2008, according to a January state report.

Roger Werholtz, Kansas' former corrections secretary, says the losses are "a casualty of the economic crisis" and stricter sentencing policies that added mandatory prison time for more offenses.

In the past two years, state records show, $10.1 million has been cut from four separate funds that support post-release rehabilitation efforts, including offender re-entry programs that match inmates with jobs, housing,
and substance abuse treatment. An additional $7.2 million in cuts have been proposed for fiscal year 2012, starting July 1.

"I had been getting invited to talk (to corrections officials in other states) about what we did right. Now I spend just as much time talking about what we could have done better," Werholtz says.

In Florida, the number of offenders who committed new felonies while on probation jumped from 7,164 in fiscal year 2007 to 9,000 in fiscal year 2009. The number declined slightly in fiscal year 2010 to 8,440. But Florida Department of Corrections spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger says there is concern that expected cuts to plug a $3.5 billion state budget shortfall could threaten those slight gains.

Among the most closely-watched budget battles, Gelb says, will be in Texas, as the state tries to close a deficit of up to $27 billion. Republican state Rep. Jerry Madden of Plano says cuts would threaten some
of the $240 million in treatment programs for some offenders who, without those programs, would have been ordered to prison.

Madden says the programs also were central to a slight drop in the number of parolees who returned to prison for committing new felonies in fiscal year 2010, from 24,692 in 2009 to 24,239. "We can't afford to go back (to growing prison populations)," he says. "We're not conceding anything yet."

Prison and after: the New Jim Crow

The U. S. prison system contributes to the deterioration of our urban communities. The manner in which our criminal justice system treats minority citizens sets them, their families and their neighborhoods on a downward spiral into deep personal and social decline. The prison systems appears to be designed to make sure the majority of those involved return to prison again and again.

Listen to Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow, describe the awful reality that we confront every day. Things need to change.

Prison costs and judicial wisdom

This article appeared in The New York Times on September 18, 2010.  Another result of the recession. 

Working with men, women and youth here in inner city Dallas has taught me that for many offenses prison is not the best solution.  As a matter of fact, prison, at least the way we do it in Texas, often makes things worse for everyone.  And, it cost us all an arm and a leg and one life after another harvested out of already weakened communities.  I'm not talking about violent crimes here or sexual crimes.  For the most part, I am talking about how we handle addicts and users. 

Read the article and consider the "cost benefit" analysis that seems to be at work in the concept.  Then, tell me what you think.

Missouri Tells Judges Cost of Sentences


By MONICA DAVEY
Published: September 18, 2010

ST. LOUIS — When judges here sentence convicted criminals, a new and unusual variable is available for them to consider: what a given punishment will cost the State of Missouri.

For someone convicted of endangering the welfare of a child, for instance, a judge might now learn that a three-year prison sentence would run more than $37,000 while probation would cost $6,770. A second-degree robber, a judge could be told, would carry a price tag of less than $9,000 for five years of intensive probation, but more than $50,000 for a comparable prison sentence and parole afterward. The bill for a murderer’s 30-year prison term: $504,690.

Legal experts say no other state systematically provides such information to judges, a practice put into effect here last month by the state’s sentencing advisory commission, an appointed board that offers guidance on criminal sentencing.

The practice has touched off a sharp debate. It has been lauded nationally by a disparate group of defense lawyers and fiscal conservatives, who consider it an overdue tool that will force judges to ponder alternatives to prison more seriously.

But critics — prosecutors especially — dismiss the idea as unseemly. They say that the cost of punishment is an irrelevant consideration when deciding a criminal’s fate and that there is a risk of overlooking the larger social costs of crime.

“Justice isn’t subject to a mathematical formula,” said Robert P. McCulloch, the prosecuting attorney for St. Louis County.

The intent behind the cost estimates, he said, is transparent: to pressure judges, in the face of big bills, into sending fewer people to prison.

To read the entire story click here.

Thinking out loud. . .

Fact:  $140 per day to keep a person locked up in a Texas Department of Corrections prison facility. 

Annualized cost for this "service" per inmate:  $51,100.00.

Is it just me or, with these kinds of readily available resources, might there be a better way to respond to much of the prison population than the manner in which we currently work? 

Given the rippling, better, long term tidal wave affect of incarceration on families, neighborhoods and individuals, I know there is a better way to use these funds. 

Just thinking out loud.