DELUSIONS

By William M. DiMascio
   Executive Director

For the past three decades at least we have been fostering the delusion that we are somehow better off when we put more people in prisons.

We overuse incarceration: imprison too many people and hold them for too long. To comprehend the extent of this abuse consider the fact that the western democracies - England, France, Germany and Italy - incarcerate about one person for every 1,000 in their population. In the U.S., we imprison one for every 143. For almost half a century leading up to the 1970s, the incarceration rate in this country was almost identical to those of the European nations.

Most experts agree that the incarceration binge was a result of the increased use of illegal narcotics and the violence spawned by the drug trafficking. Interestingly, while the numbers of other types of crimes have risen and fallen during the period, the war on drugs has had little impact in reducing the use of addictive substances.

The long and short of it is that incarceration is a failed strategy in the war on drugs and a costly and questionable response to the public's desire to feel safe. Between 1982 and 1999, the Bureau of Justice Statistics reports, the federal, state and local expense on corrections went from $9 billion to $49 billion, an increase of some 440 percent. And, these expenses fail to consider the indirect costs from expanded welfare systems to care for the families, lost tax revenues and other items.

Still more, our existing public policy in this area is creating many related problems. Lengthy prison terms are contributing to the demise in urban neighborhoods. The absence of fathers and positive male role models is breeding new generations of offenders. Prison construction is creating a bogus base of economic development in communities that sorely need to find ways of supporting their inhabitants without depending on the misfortunes of others.

The American Bar Association report of the Justice Kennedy Commission directly addressed these issues: "The families and communities from which inmates come suffer a wide variety of tangible and intangible harms from the absence of the inmate. These include the emotional, economic and developmental damage to the children of incarcerated offenders, and the disenfranchisement and consequent political alienation of a significant portion of the young men in the minority communities in which both crime and punishment are most frequent."

Although some conservative writers and academics cling to the notion that locking up more men and women is the certain way of reducing crime, most experts disagree. Researchers point to changing demographics of individuals in the crime prone years, economic conditions, availability of guns and other factors. The Kennedy Commission added: "It is not even clear that the increased use of incarceration has enhanced public safety, although lawmakers for twenty years have acted in reliance on the claimed crime-preventive effect of harsh and certain punishments."

Using data gathered by the Texas Criminal Justice Policy Council, the commission compared changes in incarceration rates with changes in crime rates between 1991 and 2001. Nationally, an increase of 51.6 percent in imprisonments resulted in a decrease in the crime rate of 29.5 percent. California's incarceration rate went up by 42.5 percent while its crime went down 42.4 percent during the period; at the same time, New York increased incarcerations by 10.9 percent and saw its crime rate drop by 53.2 percent.

Interestingly, Pennsylvania increased incarceration during the decade by 61.5 percent and reduced the crime rate by just 16.8 percent.

'The numbers do suggest, however, that there may well be an over-reliance on incarceration in some criminal justice systems," stated the Kennedy Commission report.

Pollsters are beginning to see signs of a shift in public sentiment. A national survey by Hart Research Associates found that public attitudes were becoming increasingly more progressive since 1994. By 2002, Hart reported that two out of three respondents favored strategies that addressed the roots of crime rather than the strict sentencing, tough on crime approach.

Doble Research, a firm that specializes in studies of public attitudes, also recognizes the change. John Doble writes on the firm's web site, "Recently, however, public support for more progressive ideas seems to be on the rise, as evidenced by referenda in various states that decriminalize marijuana or require treatment instead of incarceration for low level drug offenders who are also addicts. As well, a number of states are reconsidering their mandatory minimum sentencing laws."

Another more-recently completed study by one of Kentucky's most respected and Influential law professors found the state's prison population had exploded by 600 percent since 1970 and predicted the growth would continue unless the legislature changed "irrational" penalties enacted by earlier lawmakers. The study, "Difficult Times in Kentucky Corrections -- Aftershocks of a 'Tough on Crime' Philosophy," was authored by University of Kentucky law professor Robert Lawson, who wrote the state's current penal code and drafted its rules of criminal evidence, but also instructed many members of the current Kentucky legislature in their law school days. His message resonates across the country, however:

"We have demonized criminals en masse, lost sight of the importance of distinguishing between dangerous... and non-dangerous offenders, and laid a foundation for a new citizen underclass made up of parolees, ex-convicts and their families."