Prison Reform Talking
Points
December 19, 2003
Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow
The US prison system is exacting an increasingly heavy toll, both
financial and human. Surging numbers of prisons hold more than 2 million
inmates, giving the United States the highest rate of incarceration in the
world.
Over the past few decades, the dominant criminal justice philosophy
dropped rehabilitation in favor of sequestration and retribution.
Opportunities for education, job training and drug treatment have fallen
out of fashion. "Three strikes" and minimum sentencing laws have
led to excessive punishments for millions of nonviolent offenders,
especially in the misguided "war on drugs."
Any assessment of the US prison system is incomplete without considering
the prison-industrial complex, a network of private corporations with a
direct interest in increasing the number of prisoners. Dovetailing with
these interests are politicians exploiting tough-on-crime rhetoric that
plays well at election time. The reality is that punitive incarceration
policies are a relatively ineffective means of reducing crime, especially
drug use.
Fortunately, many states are starting to recognize the system's failure
and experiment with rehabilitative programs such as job training and drug
treatment. These programs are yielding impressive results in the form of
reduced recidivism rates and taxpayer costs. But alternative solutions are
in constant jeopardy because of the prevailing, federally driven
ideology.
Prison Reform Talking Points
1. The conditions of prisons are inhumane. In many prisons, inmates are
victims of physical abuse and excessive disciplinary action. Overcrowding
and double-bunking are widespread. At the same time, many "supermax"
prisons subject inmates to prolonged isolation in tiny cells, which
frequently fosters mental illness. Prisoners also tend to have inadequate
access to physical and mental healthcare.
2. Prisons are "crime factories." Instead of curbing criminal
tendencies, prisons encourage them. Violent and aggressive behavior is
standard and even rewarded. It's clear that time served in such conditions
regularly creates violent criminals from nonviolent ones.
3. Recidivism rates are exceedingly high. According to the Bureau of
Justice Statistics, more than two-thirds of released prisoners are
re-arrested within three years. These figures underline the
ineffectiveness of prison as a deterrent and a reformer. They also lead to
a related criticism of prison trends: Increasingly, people are re-arrested
on technical parole violations, such as missing an appointment with a
parole officer, and returned to the system more quickly than in the
past.
4. Prisons are expensive. According to CBS News, taxpayers are paying an
estimated $40 billion a year for prisons. Feeding and caring for an inmate
costs about $20,000 a year on average, and construction costs are about
$100,000 per cell. The demand to build more prisons has often siphoned
funds from the few existing treatment and education programs, leading to a
vicious circle in which more prisons are needed because, partly due to the
lack of these programs, more prisoners continue to come back.
5. Most of the growth in prison population has been for nonviolent
offenders, especially those convicted on drug charges. Because of
mandatory sentencing laws, over half of today's inmates are incarcerated
on drug charges, despite evidence that treatment programs are much more
effective at preventing future drug offenses.
6. The combined effects of disenfranchisement laws, inmate population
trends and economic realities perpetuate a racial divide in society.
Prisoners are disproportionately from minority communities. According to
the Bureau of Justice Statistics, based on current rates of incarceration
an estimated 32 percent of black males will enter prison during their
lifetime, compared with 17 percent of Hispanic males and 5.9 percent of
white males. Once released, many prisoners lack job skills and face
employer suspicion. In most states convicted felons are not allowed to
vote from prison; in twelve states, felons are disenfranchised for life.
These factors contribute to widespread unemployment in minority
communities as well as disproportionately meager electoral
representation.
7. Under draconian laws, people can end up in jail for life for nonviolent
crimes. Because of the ascendancy of "three strikes" laws, for
example in California, it is increasingly common for people to receive
life sentences for offenses such as drug possession and welfare
fraud.
8. Most prisoners will be released into society, and are not prepared by
prisons to participate productively. The culture of parole has changed
dramatically over the past generation. Now there is much less
individualized consideration of how well prepared an inmate is to leave
prison. Less help is provided to facilitate that preparation, and fewer
parole officers are available to ease the transition back into the
community. Such trends are especially dangerous in light of the mental
illness and violent tendencies that result from prison conditions.
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