Prison Overcrowding and the Politicians Than Can Solve It
Whether you don’t believe in doing time for nonviolent crimes or you’re a strong supporter of the “three strikes” law, there’s no denying that prison overpopulation in the U.S. is a problem that has to be addressed.
It’s been well publicized in recent years that the U.S. has the highest incarceration rate on the planet. Here are some of the numbers to help it sink in:
- One in every 200 Americans are in prison (source)
- An estimated one in 10 American men have a felony conviction (source).
- The U.S. makes up 5 percent of the world’s population, but has 25 percent of the world’s prison population (source).
- According to the Prison Policy Initiative, U.S. prisons “hold more than 2.4 million people in 1,719 state prisons, 102 federal prisons, 2,259 juvenile correctional facilities, 3,283 local jails, and 79 Indian Country jails as well as in military prisons, immigration detention facilities, civil commitment centers, and prisons in the U.S. territories.”
- According to the United States Department of Justice, Louisiana leads the imprisonment rate race by far at .008 percent of the population (867 prisoners for every 100,000 citizens). Next is Mississippi with 686 per 100,000 citizens.
Over the last three decades, there has been a massive increase in the number of people who are behind bars. Since the majority of prisoners are in state or local prisons, it’s state policy that needs to be addressed.
Sometimes, The Punishment Doesn’t Fit the Crime
While opinions vary on what punishments should be doled out for certain crimes, most people do not naturally gravitate towards sympathetic opinions on the plights of inmates. On the other hand, most reasonable people also have some cutoff point where a punishment is too harsh, even for a hardened criminal.
Possibly the most significant way to address prison overpopulation is to consider legal reform with non-violent crimes, the most significant of which are drug-related crimes.
The rise of the War On Drugs has brought overly harsh sentencing, even for small-time dealers and users. According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, more than half of federal inmates are incarcerated for drug crimes. Twenty-seven percent of those drug crimes are related to marijuana, according to the Sentencing Commission.
When drug sentencing lengths were significantly increased, it compelled judges to increase sentencing time for crimes that were equal or worse than drug crimes. This helped bring on a massive spike in prison populations.
An Issue with Bipartisan Solutions
Setting aside the philosophical debate over what sort of punishment fits a particular crime, there are practical matters that need to be considered, not the least of which is the psychological state of an inmate who is not serving a life sentence. The vast majority of prisoners are not “lifers” and thus will have to readjust to life outside of prison.
While formal political platforms tell us that conservatives and liberals tend to have very different views on crime and punishment, there is more bipartisan support for prison reform than you may think.
While Republicans tend to be more associated with being less flexible in their views on crime and punishment, most politicians in either major party has wanted to be vocal about criminal justice reform. The risk being that you will likely be accused by your opponents of being soft on crime.
But at some point, regardless of your political ideology, there comes a time when you have to face an inevitable crisis. And just maybe, as that time has slowly come, there can be some small victories to be touted.
Politically conservative Texas has enacted a series of prison reforms in recent years that have been attributed by some, including former Governor Rick Perry, to saving the state billions of dollars and shutting down three prisons. Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant, Alabama Governor Robert Bentley, and Georgia Governor Nathan Deal have all signed prison reform legislation that they tout as a step in the right direction.
Much of the support is more than just the cost savings for taxpayers. It also centers around the fact that there is collateral damage to imprisonment (families are adversely affected), and that most prisoners will eventually be on the streets again, more likely than not to commit additional crimes, unless proactive policies are put in place.
The fact that these are problems clearly seen and agreed upon by people of opposing political views is encouraging in an age of extreme political divide.
