Posted on 09/02/2009 11:33:14 AM PDT by Parmenio
One in 35 Americans are caught up in the corrections system and incarceration is on the rise. Why is this when the US crime rate has dropped so remarkably?
The United States incarcerates more of its own citizens than any other nation. It has only 5% of the world’s population but 25% of the world’s prisoners. If you count everyone ensnared in the corrections system – on probation or parole – millions of Americans (one of every 31) are anything but free in the land of liberty (1).
“Incarceration is a rich country’s hobby,” says Scott Henson, a Texan journalist and political consultant who has monitored America’s addiction to imprisonment for years and thinks it a pastime of impractical and frivolous consequences. Crime and punishment are disconnected. As funding has increased, more prisons have been built, more of the usual suspects – drug users, dealers, and petty gangsters – have been wrangled into newly constructed penitentiaries, and more warders hired to man the guard towers.
Crime seems to have fluctuated of its own free will, unaffected by the billions of dollars thrown at it and the policies written to combat it. Although crime declined throughout the 1990s and into the new millennium, incarceration rates climbed dramatically, even among the young. Meanwhile, the state of New York saw a dramatic decrease in violent crime as its prison population dropped (2).
State budgets are being leached by rising bills for ever-expanding penal systems – nearing a cumulative $50bn this year – and politicians are exacting cuts on education, healthcare and other social services to make up the difference. Between 1988 and 2008, spending on the prison system grew from four to 30 times the budget for public housing (3).
There is a current of racial inequality and strife that runs through America’s history. From slavery to reconstruction, urban migration to ghettos, one of the starkest examples of the lingering racial divide is the over-representation of people of colour in the prison system.
While distinct in some ways and eerily parallel in others, the racial and criminal narratives of America became particularly intertwined at a time of cultural conflagration. In the 1960s America mutinied. Long-oppressed racial groups – blacks, Latinos and the indigenous people – demanded civil rights, students called for an end to the war in Vietnam, women challenged the assumptions of patriarchy, and environmentalists mobilised against ecological destruction. America was in open revolt against its own culture and Washington responded one of the few ways it knew: it declared a war.
‘Tough on crime’ With many citizens fearful of the uncertain future, politicians devised policies to win the war on crime and the war on drugs. Writing to Dwight Eisenhower in 1968, Richard Nixon expressed confidence in his “tough on crime” platform: “I have found great audience response to this law and order theme in all parts of the country, including areas like New Hampshire where there is virtually no race problem and relatively little crime.” (4)
The war on crime has nothing to do with crime. As Dr Bruce Western, professor of sociology at Harvard University, points out: “Crime rates themselves may not have driven the prison boom but long-standing fears about crime and other social anxieties may form the backdrop for the growth in imprisonment.” (5) While violent crime did drop remarkably in the 1990s, the role “tough on crime” policies played is debatable. Instead, changes in local policing tactics and economic growth should be credited.
Incarceration rates rose steadily throughout this period thanks to the war on drugs, which received more and more funds from federal authorities. In the 1960s drugs were beginning to emerge in the counter culture and working-class neighbourhoods, and their burgeoning popularity and expanding market were seen as a sign of lawlessness. Lawmakers decided to take the war to the streets and create heavy-handed penalties for even petty possession. These laws remain on the books and are enforced by a wide range of agencies, bureaus and police departments, all receiving increasing sums from the federal government. “Drugs draw many into the system who do not actively contribute to crime” explains Western. He says the effect incarceration had on crime rates was small. The government has wasted billions on treating as a crime wave what is really a pressing public health issue.
Yet despite the lacklustre results of the zero-tolerance “lock ’em up and throw away the key” approach to drugs and petty crimes, America continues to break records in terms of incarceration rates. Why? “That’s the $100,000 question,” says Tracy Velasquez, executive director of the Washington-based Justice Policy Institute. “Our political system tends to reinforce an increase in incarceration; [for politicians] there’s a need to be tough on crime.”
Ever since the racial and social strife of the 1960s, rehashed for a new generation by the campaign ads Ronald Reagan ran against Michael Dukakis featuring rapist and murderer Willie Horton, leaders everywhere have been working to appear tougher than their opponents. Henson claims “if you had to put your finger on it, Reagan set the tone of the debate”. But he is quick to emphasise – as observers and activists usually are – that it’s wrong to examine criminal justice policy as a left-right issue, since the left and right have both failed miserably. “Joe Biden and John Kerry and Tom Harkin are the biggest drug warriors in the Senate,” he claims. “Obama, in his stimulus package, even wanted to triple funding [for drug enforcement agencies] and ended up doubling it.”
Velasquez explained that “there hasn’t been a downside to being tough on crime” – a downside when courting votes. But for the millions of Americans locked up for minor crimes and pushed around by well-funded police, the downside has been apparent for some time.
There are social issues in the prison system that warrant not just concern but urgent action. Gangs have been using the penal system as a recruiting mechanism and their influence has grown. Inmate populations have segregated themselves along racial lines to further conform to gang culture. Sexual abuse is also prevalent: a recent study found that 60,000 inmates are abused each year with prison staff cited as frequent culprits (6). Beyond the fences there are other problems: more than half of America’s incarcerated citizens are parents.
Occasionally, politicians point to the amenities afforded to some inmates and lament that murderers and rapists are living more comfortably than they should. A sheriff in Arizona garnered press attention for having his prisoners live in tents beneath the desert sun (a move that prompted an investigation by Amnesty International). Such attitudes have created a system that merits shame and disappointment.
Cradle to prison In 40 years Americans have asked their leaders only to take those unseemly, typically non-white people on the sidewalks peddling crack, lock them up, and throw away the key. While conservatives like Reagan lamented “cradle-to-grave” welfare, his and other presidential policies have created a cradle-to-prison system where impoverished communities produce youth who choose to take their chances within the profitable drug or criminal world rather than do a minimum-wage job in the service sector. Police, flush with money from the federal government, round up some of the “usual suspects” who will face stiff penalties in a legal system they will have little help in navigating. Locked away, they may leave behind families who could use their help, in fact need it.
Each inmate is different and each story is complicated but politicians at every level of government seem to have found a solution that is absurdly simple. And yet none of it works. Crime is not falling as a result of tougher laws; the criminal justice system is anything but economical; mass incarceration is creating a wide range of social problems in the communities it has affected; and even after the one million plus people who work in the prisons are paid their wages and more laws are authored, America has little to show for its crusade against crime and drugs.
“It’s not the kingpin but the low-level dealer [who is put] in jail,” Velasquez points out. It’s a lack of alternative work that has drawn millions of Americans into drugs and then jail. While narcotics have also spread to wealthier neighbourhoods, Henson reminds us that “one side of the [railroad] tracks has taken the brunt. Drugs have spread but not prosecution”.
If the problem rests in bipartisan racism, in bipartisan neoliberalism and in bipartisan indifference, a solution seems to be emerging from bipartisan concern. While there are several lawmakers on the left who have worked on this issue for decades, the political climate has marginalised their power. Yet as Republicans scramble to secure their conservative credentials by exercising “fiscal conservatism”, many have considered ways of diminishing the costs of the corrections system and finding alternatives to incarceration. And as states struggle to balance their budgets, polls reflect more positive attitudes towards the legalisation of marijuana and wardens run out of cells, this could be the perfect moment for debate.
In the article, the author Andrew Oxford from San Antonio, Texas also emits this howler:
"Ever since the racial and social strife of the 1960s, rehashed for a new generation by the campaign ads Ronald Reagan ran against Michael Dukakis featuring rapist and murderer Willie Horton, leaders everywhere have been working to appear tougher than their opponents."
Andrew Oxford sounds like a real winner. A quck yahoo search shows he has written for the Socialist Worker:
http://socialistworker.org/2009/03/05/big-government-republican-style
and has participated in a Code Pink demonstration in San Antonio:
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/MYSA110907_06A_PresColor_34b4e5f_html11113.html
Yup, appears that the correlation between catching crooks, putting them in jail, and a low crime rate appears to elude liberals.
1 in 35 “Americans” ? Take out all the illegals and the ratio is about 1 in 100, I bet.
The easiest way to control people is to make them criminals. The easiest way to make everyone a criminal is to keep passing laws. Soon enough 75% of us will be incarcerated, on parole or on probation
“It made my heart ache, you know, to see all these beautiful black men in the joint. The warriors should be out there helping the masses. I felt that way, I was real naive. Six weeks I was up there and I talked to the brothers. I talked to ‘em, and ... thank God we got penitentiaries!” - Richard Pryor
A lot of the drug offenders get their first instruction in violence in prisons. We need to end the war on drugs immediately.
I thought George Bush was the one who squashed Dukakis like a bug.
“...one of the starkest examples of the lingering racial divide is the over-representation of people of colour in the prison system.”
######
Over-representation, my buttocks.
Prove it. Provide statistical examples that black’s incarceration rate is out of line with their ridiculously skewed crime rate, as compared to other demographic groups.
Actually, I think the increase in incarceration rates is more likely due to our having gone soft on crime. As an example, one used to get hanged for stealing a horse. Not too many people, under that system, stole horses. However, nowadays one might get less than a year for stealing a car (or a horse), and will spend that time in relative comfort in a prison with cable TV. As a result, we get more people stealing cars.
The author fails to understand that our freedoms do not include to freedom to commit crimes.
That said, I don’t like to see every little thing become a crime, either. Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.
And some think of prison as “Three hots and a cot.”
Personally, and I’m not a socialist, I think marijuana use and possession of one ounce or less for personal use, should have the same ‘law’ as alcohol. Don’t drive impaired.
We tax cigarettes. Add a hefty tax to the cigarette rolling papers and use the money collected for education against driving impaired.
I would also like to see crimes of passion looked at differently from “malice aforethought” crimes. Usually those are one time occurrences and the perpetrators can be rehabilitated but shouldn’t be placed in with hardened criminals.
What’s missing from our lives is “culture” for use of a broad term. Boys don’t open doors for girls. Girls don’t appreciate boys holding doors open for them. We need to stress “couth” in an “uncouth” world.
Would the author prefer to be in one of those countries where you simply disappear when arrested, and then they find mass graves years later?
Would he like to be in a place where they release robbers promptly, but missing a hand?
Maybe he’d like to get it over quick with public stoning?
Yes, prisons such as we have are a rich country’s luxury. Justice that is actually just is very expensive. I think it’s well worth it to continue, when compared to the barbarous alternatives.
We have the highest population of inmates mainly because heavily punitive countries like China have the death penalty for a much wider range of crimes, AND they carry those sentences out promptly.
It is even funnier when he says it is a public health problem. Methinks he wants to say that Obamacare will lower the incidence of crime in the U.S.
Yeah, poor countries have to settle for mass executions.
I suggest the author watch a few episodes of “The First 48” or “Trauma: Life in the ER”. It will immediately become apparent why so many Americans are caught up in the corrections system. It’s called persistent criminal behavior by black and Hispanic Americans. And lest you think these programs unfairly target minorities it should be noted that most cops shown are also black or Hispanic. (And most life-saving medical personnel are white).
People are now arrested for every little thing. Used to be two guys got in a fight, they fought and it was over. Now someone calls the law and they go to jail. When i was growing up if the cops caught you with a little marijuana, they’d destroy it and tell you not to do it again. I was in court this morning where a state trooper was there in a case where he found 0.6 grams of weed and a pipe on someone (reason for stopping the car? was Bonnaroo weekend and the car had out of state tags, therefore they must be dopers). Every hour cops spend in court is overtime. Every arrest means overtime. People who commit real crimes need to be in jail. But we fill up our jails with people whose only offenses are against themselves.
Go to your local county website and look up the arrests and prisoners list. Just go thru it and you will see who is committing what crimes in your area on a current basis.
They are always claiming we have people locked up for petty crimes, but a quick viewing of your lown counties’ list will reveal a lot of very serious crime. Here in San Diego they give race, but not nationality..but it is easy to see who is doing what.
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