We are drowning in statistics, in polling results and sports records, and also in economic numbers. Endless parades of quantitative exercises that propose to tell what people think, and how they react. These numbers games are merely diversions that have been put into place to simplify and often oversimplify complicated phenomena.
There are statistics that give us a jolt, or at least should from a concerned citizen’s view. An example of one of these issues is the prison population statistics. When the sun sets each day there are more inmates in US prisons than there were when the sun rose. According to the US BUREAU OF JUSTICE STATISTICS in mid 2003 there were more than 2 million persons behind bars, by a considerable margin more than any other country. For every 100,000 Americans 715 are incarcerated, Russia holds second place worldwide with 584 incarcerated persons per 100,000 population. In 2001, for every 100,000 Black women in the US population 199 were incarcerated. For every 100,000 Black men in the US population 3,535 were incarcerated. For every 100,000 Hispanic women in the US population 61 were incarcerated. For every 100,000 Hispanic men in the US population 1,177 were incarcerated. For every 100,000 Caucasian women in the US population 36 were incarcerated, and for every 100,000 Caucasian men in the US population 462 were incarcerated.
During the past decade, the US prison population has grown at an annual rate of nearly four percent forcing state and federal government agencies to build new prisons, or seek prison for profit private agencies. The number of prisoners is only part of the story. In addition to those behind bars there are roughly 750,000 on parole, and 4 million on probation. In 2002, there were 6,732,400 persons under correctional supervision, as compared with 1,842,100 in 1980. These numbers have enormous ramifications as we have recently learned in elections. The real tragedy is in the family stability, and the growing burden on public agencies this creates. These factors get scant notice because we are gripped by a determination to punish with even greater severity.
How can the political statistics boast that the war on crime is a success, while the prison population continues to rise? A major part of the increase in these numbers is the increase in laws added to the books. Legislative sessions are voting in more petty crimes to the criminal codebook. Incarceration is being utilized for petty crimes as opposed to alternatives such as fines, penalties, and community service sanctions, which would benefit the individual and the community as a whole.
There are over 4,000 crimes in the Federal criminal codebook, an increase on 1/3 since 1980. Most crimes are in the state and local facilities, and they do their best to make sure that they are running at full capacity all of the time.
The major factor that has had such an impact has been the lengthening of sentences. According to an article printed in the Wall Street Journal, 37.8% of Federal prisoners are now serving terms of 10 years. This is due to society’s belief that the sentences have been too lax in the past. In the efforts to enforce the law, society has become increasingly cruel. Long term incarceration increases the prospect of recidivism, and the post incarceration burden upon society.
Some judges have protested against the new system, but most have been docile for fear of peer, and social castration. The press and protesters are holding court with the defendant being guilty way before they are given their right to a trial. Constitutional rights are being grossly violated at will by the very servants elected to uphold them. The sixth amendment right to a trial by jury is becoming a moot element. Today only about 3% of those charged with a crime risk a jury trial due to the states tactics of intimidation, and threats of the maximum punishment of they exercise their right under the sixth amendment and are convicted.
There have been signs of hope. The US Supreme Court has recently invalidated a sentencing scheme, and is now reviewing essential aspects of the federal sentencing system. The hope is that this will mandate major changes in the judicial process that will hopefully restore certain protections that the Bill of Rights used to give to the accused person.
Society and those elected by it, have an obligation to work for solutions to the concerns shared here, and not to keep turning a blind eye to the dilemma. Contrary to popular belief, rehabilitation does work. The system of corrections spends millions of dollars going through the motions of rehabilitation. This money could really give those that want to be productive citizens the skills needed to be employed in a positive environment. There are many options that could be utilized, rather than release them to homeless shelters. The system has the potential to offer options and services to those without family and friends. As it stands presently, they are being released into the community with the same tools that made them wards of the state within the Department of Corrections.
John Williams CCA/FCC