The Trillion Dollar Problem That We Can No Longer Afford to Ignore
In the summer of 2015, I accompanied President Obama to Oklahoma’s El Reno prison, where he became the first sitting president to visit a federal prison. President Obama put a spotlight on the often overlooked plight of the 2.2 million people incarcerated in our nation’s prisons and the 11 million cycling through our jail systems every year, costing taxpayers over $80 billion a year in prison and jail costs alone.
At El Reno, we heard inmates talk about a deck stacked against them from birth, being caught in an arbitrary and profoundly unjust criminal justice system, and the lack of opportunity resulting from generational poverty, chronic addiction and/or mental illness.
Most shocking was the inmate who told us he pled guilty to a crime that was committed while he was still incarcerated. What could make him plead guilty to a crime he could not have committed, and what made him — and so many others — lose all confidence in the fairness of our judicial system?
I was overwhelmed by the tragic waste of human potential, and the injustice of our justice system.
The United States has approximately 5 percent of the world’s population and 25 percent of its prisoners. This is unsustainable. We all have a collective and individual responsibility to reverse this trend.
I wondered about the different paths these men may have travelled if they had felt there were viable opportunities to reverse the downward trajectory of their lives. And I wondered what was being done across the country to help the women, men and youths in our prisons and jails.
A year later, I visited San Quentin, a state penitentiary in the Bay Area, where inmates are participating in a program called The Last Mile. They were learning to code and proudly gave me a presentation on both their progress and their expectations for employment after completing their time served in prison.
With more than 600,000 people returning to their communities from prison every year, we need more programs like the Last Mile that gives people real, marketable skills that they can apply after their release.
Criminal justice reform needs to do more than make our existing system better; we must reimagine it entirely so it leads to a smarter, fairer, and dramatically smaller one. We can start by keeping people out of jails that don’t belong there. For example, we should treat mental illness and substance abuse as health issues, not criminal justice problems. We must tackle the root causes of poverty. And we have to do more to ensure that when people come out of the criminal justice system — especially young people — they are prepared for and can secure the jobs, housing, and stability they need to break the cycle of incarceration that prevents them from leading productive, law-abiding lives.
All Americans have an interest in living in safe and vibrant neighborhoods, in raising their children in a country of equal treatment and second chances, and in entrusting their liberty to a justice system that remains true to our highest ideals. We simply cannot afford to spend $80 billion annually on incarceration, to write off the seventy million Americans — that’s almost one in three adults — with some form of criminal record, to release 600,000 inmates each year without a better program to reintegrate them into society, or to ignore the humanity of 2.2 million men and women currently in U.S. jails and prisons and over 11 million men and women moving in and out of U.S. jails every year. In addition, we cannot deny the legacy of racism that continues to drive inequality in how the justice system is experienced by so many Americans.
President Obama
The President’s Role in Advancing Criminal Justice Reform
Harvard Law Review
So how do we get to a smarter, fairer criminal justice system? Start at the front end. Then keep people from returning.
My Brother’s Keeper
Let’s begin by making sure every child competes on an even playing field. President Obama launched the My Brother’s Keeper initiative to address persistent opportunity gaps faced by boys and young men of color and ensure that all young people can reach their full potential.
In partnership with businesses, foundations, and more than 250 cities, the initiative is connecting young people to mentoring and support networks, and providing them the skills they need to find a good job or go to college.
Address Unique Challenges Facing Women and Girls of Color
In addition, we need to help address the unique challenges that women and girls of color face. In 2014, the White House Council on Women and Girls (“CWG”) launched“ Advancing Equity” to ensure that policies and programs across the federal government take into account the unique obstacles faced by women and girls of color and women and girls from marginalized communities. CWG worked with foundations, non-profit organizations, and academic institutions across the country to elevate the unique needs of women and girls of color.
21st Century Policing
Another important step is to rebuild the relationship between police and the communities they serve and protect. President Obama took an important step in mending this relationship by creating the Task Force on 21st Century Policing in the aftermath of the tragic shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. The Task Force made a series of concrete recommendations for law enforcement agencies that are designed to improve policing, strengthen the bonds of trust, and make our communities safer.
We know that more work needs to be done to build the criminal justice system of the future. That’s why this week, I’m excited to join the Near Future Summit to hear from innovative leaders who are working to tackle some of our system’s hardest problems.
Help Those with Mental Illness
It is vital that we not only engage with our police officers and sheriff’s deputies, but also with our EMTs, ER doctors, and nurses. They will tell you that in our local jails, 64 percent of people suffer from mental illness, 68 percent have a substance use disorder, and 44 percent suffer from chronic health problems. Patients with mental illnesses are repeatedly cycling through hospital emergency rooms, shelters, jails, and, in turn, our health, housing, law enforcement and criminal justice systems.
“There was nothing more demoralizing to my officers than coming across the same people over and over again and knowing the only thing they could do was to take them to the ER or book them into jail,” says Chief David Rausch of Knoxville, Tennessee. “They never got better, and often got worse.” For Chief Rausch, this is also a public safety issue: “People with untreated, serious mental illness can be quite vulnerable, especially when they are homeless. We saw them being victimized when they were on the streets.”
Lack of coordination across safety net systems often results in fragmented, misaligned care in jails, hospitals, or shelters that costs taxpayers billions of dollars each year makes vulnerable individuals worse off and does not make our communities safer. To address these challenges, I was proud to help launch Data-Driven Justice (DDJ) last June as part of the Obama Administration and am glad to see this critical work continue at the Laura and John Arnold Foundation. A collaborative, bipartisan coalition of more than 140 city, county, and state governments and top Silicon Valley talent, DDJ is creating new technologies that will allow any community — no matter its size or capacity — to look across data sets such as 911 calls, jail bookings, and emergency room admissions to find the people most in need and link them to effective treatment. DDJ represents a tremendous opportunity to scale data-driven strategies that promise to have a huge impact on communities across the nation — strengthening health care, improving individual lives, and saving taxpayers millions of dollars in the process.
Help Young People Return to Opportunity and Not Back Into the System
Back in 2003, Hollywood producer Scott Budnick went to a juvenile detention center as part of a writer’s workshop and met teenagers, some as young as 15 years old, who were facing adult prison sentences. Through their writings, the teens taught Scott about childhoods marked by trauma, violence, and neglect. Over the years, as Scott’s students were released from juvenile halls and prisons across California, he witnessed many of them return to jail or prison, unable to overcome the challenges of reentry. In 2013, Scott launched the Anti-Recidivism Coalition (ARC), a support and advocacy network of more than 300 members and hundreds of volunteer mentors and allies. ARC is having real impact, dropping the recidivism rate to under 5 percent of the youth with whom they work.
Create New Entrepreneurs
Like the inmates I saw in San Quentin transforming themselves into coders, a good example of creating entrepreneurs is Defy Ventures. It has focused on harnessing the natural talents of currently and formerly incarcerated men, women, and youth and redirecting them toward entrepreneurship. They do this by providing intensive leadership development, Shark Tank-style business plan competitions, executive mentoring, financial investment, and startup incubation. Defy gives their “entrepreneurs in training” a chance to become profitable leaders, stellar employees, engaged parents, and committed role models in their communities.
Tackle Poverty as a Root Cause
We know that poverty and a lack of access to opportunities are root causes of crime. The Human Needs Project (HNP) has focused on these problems, recognizing that potential and talent exist everywhere — even in the world’s most impoverished areas. Starting in Kibera, Kenya, one of Africa’s largest slums, HNP has created a “Town Center,” which provides not only basic services like water, toilets, showers, and laundry, but also business training, micro-credit, WiFi cafes, health information and more. These integrated services can give people a roadmap to a better life.
Ban the Box
The simplest way to break the cycle of recidivism is to not discriminate against those who have earned a second chance. President Obama signed an executive order that requires federal contractors to Ban the Box by not asking job applicants about prior criminal records at the front end of the application process. He also challenged the private sector to do the same voluntarily by signing Fair Chance Hiring pledge and many did. Meanwhile local governments across the country are following President Obama’s lead and Banning the Box.
Federal Legislation
Finally, we need to continue efforts to pass legislation at the federal and state levels to reduce mandatory minimum sentences — particularly for nonviolent drug offenders who are clogging our system, draining precious financial resources and destroying so many lives with great potential. Just imagine if those resources were available for education, job training and treatment.
So what do we do? And what can you do? First we need to address these issues head on; we can’t look the other way. As President Obama used to remind us regularly, we have to fight cynicism every day. That starts with talking about the problems. Not once, or twice, but regularly. It means getting out of our comfort zone, meeting those who have been incarcerated, and hearing their stories. It also means engaging as citizens with our elected leaders to work on creative solutions that employ data, technologies, and the arts. There isn’t a silver bullet. It’s a problem that only sustained focus and dedication can help to change. Our country needs to be safer, healthier, and more just — that is what all our citizens deserve.
