Pubdate: Thu, 08 Oct 2015
Source: Baltimore Sun (MD)
Copyright: 2015 The Baltimore Sun Company
Contact:  http://www.baltimoresun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/37

COMMON SENSE SENTENCING

Mass Incarceration and Long Prison Terms Don't Make Us Safer From Crime

The federal prison system holds thousands of inmates who probably 
don't need to be there, either because they received unduly long 
sentences for low-level, nonviolent drug offenses committed decades 
ago, or because they're now simply too old to represent much of a 
threat (crime being overwhelmingly a young man's game). The U.S. 
locks up more of its citizens per capita than any other country, 
despite the facts that it hasn't made us any safer, and the costs, 
both economic and social, have been enormous.

That's why the Justice Department's announcement this week that it 
will release about 6,000 inmates later this month represents a 
long-overdue step toward redressing what increasingly has come to be 
regarded as a shameful miscarriage of justice.

The prisoner release, the largest in U.S. history, aims to reduce 
overcrowding in the nation's prisons and roll back some of the worst 
effects of the harsh mandatory sentencing laws of the 1980s and '90s. 
During that era, the punishment for possession of crack cocaine, 
which was sold primarily in African-American neighborhoods, was 20 
times greater than that for possessing powder cocaine, which was 
consumed mostly by whites.

The disparity in sentencing policies had a devastating effect on 
minority communities already ravaged by high unemployment, crime and 
drug addiction.

But sending large numbers of people away for long prison terms had 
little effect on those problems and may even have made them worse.

In recent years a growing bipartisan consensus has developed that the 
mass incarceration policies and harsh mandatory sentencing guidelines 
of that era have not had much success in driving down crime rates. 
What they have done is create a large class of people who have spent 
so much time behind bars that it becomes almost impossible for them 
to readjust to the world, find jobs or become productive members of 
society when they get out of prison.

The failure of mass incarceration and imprisonment policies has 
become so obvious that it is now one of the few important policy 
issues on which both Democratic and Republican lawmakers can agree.

That consensus is backed up by research.

As former Baltimore City State's Attorney Gregg Bernstein wrote 
earlier this year in a Sun op-ed, criminal careers generally are 
short, lasting no more than five to 10 years: Most offenders are 
relatively young, but they "age out" of illegal activity by the time 
they reach middle age. As a practical matter, that means keeping 
people locked up into their 40s, 50s and 60s actually does little to 
prevent crime because all but the most hardened career criminals are 
no longer likely to reoffend.

At the same time, the cost to society of imprisoning large numbers of 
people soars as inmates age: Health care alone for prisoners is now 
some $4 billion annually.

The new Justice Department policy will allow judges to consider 
granting clemency for inmates convicted and sentenced under the old 
mandatory sentencing rules who already have served at least 10 years 
in prison, have no history of violence or significant criminal 
record, and who would have received a lower sentence under current 
guidelines than those in force when they were convicted.

About a third of the inmates the department plans to release are 
undocumented immigrants whose crimes were so serious that they will 
be deported back to their home countries as soon as they get out.

The Obama administration is taking the lead on this issue, but 
ultimately Congress will have to address comprehensive reform of the 
sentencing laws to make a dent in the problem.

President Obama has shown that it's possible to begin driving down 
the number of people behind bars who don't need to be there while at 
the same time saving billions of dollars that could be better spent 
on assisting former inmates to successfully re-enter their 
communities through halfway houses, educational and vocational 
training programs and other targeted services.

Locking people up and throwing away the key hasn't worked. The far 
better alternative is a rehabilitative corrections policy that makes 
sense in terms of both social justice and public safety.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom