American Incarceration

I am caring for a pregnant woman on probation. The conditions of her probation are outrageous. She was an accessory to an act of vandalism. For this she can pay nearly 2000.00 in fines, or be on probation for two years. During probation SHE pays for her probation officer, and her drug testing. And she must find a job, which is quite difficult to do when you are pregnant. I provide care for another woman who has been in jail for eight months. Just awaiting sentencing! These stories, a recent video, and my daughter's work with juvenile sex offenders prompts this post.

US prisons are an ignored social problem. A bit of surfing turns up troubling and interesting material.

The US leads the world in the proportion of its population that is incarcerated. Here is the graphic-

 

 

The number has increased dramatically over the last 40 years, for out of proportion to the population-

 

 

The total population with contact in the prison system, which includes parolees, is even more startling- more than 5,000,000 people are in prison or on parole, or 1 in every 60 people you will meet.

 

At the same time crime rates have fallen significantly, dropping to 1973 levels for violent crime and approximately 1966 levels for property crime.

 

I expected that most of the prison population increase was a result of drug crime, mandatory sentencing and illegal immigration. The graphic, which for some reason will not reproduce at a reasonable size, is here-

prison population distribution.

The data are rather different-

 

Local jails hold 721,000 people, of whom 60% are simply awaiting trial.

Federal prisons hold 216,000 people, of whom 116,000 or 54% are for drug and immigration offenses.

State prisons hold the great majority of prisoners- 1,360,000. These are divided as follows-

-drug offenses-19%

-robbery- 15%

-murder-12%

-assault 11%

-burglary- 10%

-public disorder- 10%

-other- 26%

 

As you can see, nominal causes of state incarceration are quite remarkable well distributed. Of all crimes, however, 25-30% were by drug users seeking money for drugs. This is distinct from drug offense, which include distribution or possession with intent to distribute.

Besides prison, 44 states require prisoners to pay back their room and board and/or to pay for their probation and parole, just like my patient. Most prisoners cannot do that, and get sent right back to prison for failure to pay their fines and fees! That is positively Kafka-esque, a circular trap from which there is no escape. Released prisoners work just to pay for their imprisonment. They cannot possibly afford the trappings of an ordinary existence as a result of our laws.

 

Several observations-

 

First, a reduction in crime rates may or may not be a result of increased incarceration rates. Association is most definitely not causation, and the bulge in crime rates corresponds to the demographic bulge of the baby boomers.

 

Second, re-incarceration rates are stunningly high. 60+% of all prisoners released will re-offend in one year. Furthering this, as mentioned on the video, is a society not unprepared to receive prisoners but actively hostile to them. Released prisoners, far from having 'paid their debt to society', are made into a group which cannot find work or housing. Federal assistance programs may be barred to them, and employers will rarely hire people reporting a criminal record, let alone felony offenders. The punishment of these people thus continues after their release, and their inability to integrate back into society leaves little choice except to commit crime to eat. We thus have created a self-fulfilling prophecy that criminals remain criminals. Of course they do if society does not accept them back.

 

Criminal records are a major deterrent to black men looking for employment. And sex offender labels make it almost impossible for offenders to find work or housing. Limitations on where they may live and work leads to men living in deserts, or under bridges, or in fields. And a remarkable number of these men have done nothing except to engage in consensual coitus with a girl under 17, or to view or store pornographic images. While not excusing violations of law, a large proportion of sex offenders are not psychologically different from 'normal' men. They are not monsters and do not pose a threat to society or children.

 

And yet these men, and criminal offenders in general, are the lepers of our society, officially unacceptable and incurable, reduced to begging and crime to survive. As Robert Ley said to his Nuremberg captors, why don't you just shoot them now? If we are going to end the functional lives of people is it not kinder to simply kill them than to render them untouchables?

 

In all of this we must ask why the US imprisons more of its population than North Korea. You have a lesser chance of going to prison in North Korea than in the US! That's crazy!

 

Our policies do not convincingly reduce crime, and render ordinary citizens who offended unemployable and homeless. This is not justice. It is not rehabilitation. It is hideous torture of the living and their families. I don't have a pat answer, but I am sure that what we are doing is wrong. As a simple step we can remove barriers to employment and housing, reduce sentencing and increase efforts and opportunities for post prison employment. We can concentrate on the re-integration of offenders into society.

 

Because if we are not going to accept criminals back into society all we are doing is sentencing them for life imprisonment, whether in or out of prison.

 

Ted