[HPN] Fwd: [BRC-NEWS] Prisons "R" Us

[Coalition on Homelessness, SF]

>Date: Fri, 18 Feb 2000 18:53:12 -0500
>From: Mark Weisbrot <weisbrot@preamble.org>
>Subject: [BRC-NEWS] Prisons "R" Us
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>X-Sender: Mark Weisbrot <weisbrot@preamble.org>
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>____________________________________________________________
>
>February 17, 2000
>
>Prisons "R" Us
>
>By Mark Weisbrot <weisbrot@preamble.org>
>
>         America is facing an epidemic of incarceration.
>Like a dread disease it has spread and multiplied until it
>begins to corrode the fabric of our society. The number of
>prisoners has multiplied six-fold over the past 27 years,
>and will reach the astounding milestone of two million some
>time this year.
>
>         No other country, with the possible exception of
>Russia, puts so many of its people in cages. We have less
>than 5% of the earth's population, but somehow manage to
>hold a quarter of the world's prisoners.
>
>         How can this be? Are we afflicted with so much more
>crime than other countries? It turns out that for most
>crimes, we are not: the best available data place the United
>States at about average in its crime rate as compared to
>countries of similar income. The big exception is homicide:
>here America is number one among developed nations, with
>more than three times the rate of Canada or France, and six
>times the rate of Ireland.
>
>         This is, as everyone except the NRA seems to know,
>primarily a result of our widespread availability of
>firearms, as compared to other countries. More prisons will
>do little to address this problem.
>
>         But the "Race to Incarcerate" -- as Marc Mauer of
>the Washington-based Sentencing Project has aptly titled his
>new book -- has not been fueled by an increase in homicides.
>Nor does increasing crime of any kind explain the explosive
>growth in our prison population, especially over the last
>two decades. Rather, it has been caused by deliberate policy
>changes that have brought more and longer prison sentences.
>
>         The biggest growth in incarceration has been for
>drug offenses. From 1980-1992, for example, the chance of
>going to prison for a drug offense rose by 447%. The "war on
>drugs" has now given us about a quarter of our prison
>population. Together with non-violent property crimes, these
>infractions account for the majority -- more than a million
>people -- incarcerated.
>
>         One would have to be blind -- not color-blind -- to
>fail to see the racism of these policies. African-Americans
>do not, as a group, use illegal drugs at a significantly
>higher rate than whites. Yet they are at least seven times
>as likely as whites to end up behind bars for drug offenses
>-- and for much longer sentences. On the basis of present
>trends, more than one out of every four black males born
>today would end up doing time in prison. To ask the
>question, "would these policies persist if this were the
>fate of white males?" is to answer it.
>
>         Some people think that the sharp drop in crime
>rates over the last seven years is the result of increased
>incarceration, but there is so far little evidence of this.
>A glance at the last 25 years of crime statistics shows that
>crime rates have moved up and down, unrelated to the soaring
>incarceration rate.
>
>         The causes of declining crime rates are varied and
>difficult to parse out statistically: there are demographic
>effects, as the baby boom generation has passed its peak
>crime-committing years; the crack epidemic has waned of its
>own accord, as a new generation has learned from the
>mistakes and ruined lives of its predecessors; and the
>longest running peacetime economic expansion, with
>unemployment at a 30-year low, has undoubtedly helped.
>
>         The basic arithmetic of crime and punishment, as
>Mauer and others have demonstrated, explains why long-term
>studies show little impact of incarceration on crime. Most
>crimes go unreported; of those that are reported, most do
>not result in arrest. By the time we get to conviction and
>imprisonment, we are talking about roughly three percent of
>the homicides, rapes, robberies, and aggravated assaults
>that are committed. So there are severe limits to what
>longer and more frequent prison sentences can do to reduce
>crime.
>
>         From a purely economic perspective, we have long
>passed the point at which alternatives to the $20,000 annual
>price of locking someone up would be more cost effective in
>reducing crime. This is especially true for treatment of
>drug addiction, which is unavailable to the vast majority of
>poor people who need it.
>
>         But just as it took shameful cowardice and
>demagoguery on the part of politicians -- of both parties --
>to bring us to this low point, it will take some real
>courage and leadership to shift priorities. Most of the
>major Presidential candidates have tried to portray
>themselves as compassionate, or motivated by other than
>opportunistic concerns. Yet the hideous inhumanity of
>unnecessarily incarcerating such enormous numbers of our
>fellow human beings seems not to bother them.
>
>         The public still has a sense of fairness that far
>exceeds that of its leaders, if a candidate were to appeal
>to it. Is anyone up to the task?
>
>
>Mark Weisbrot is co-director of the Center for Economic and
>Policy Research in Washington, DC.
>
>-30-
>
>Mark Weisbrot, Co-Director
>Center for Economic and Policy Research
>1737 21st Street NW
>Washington, DC 20009
>(202) 265-3263, ext.279 (office)
>(202) 333-6141 (home)
>(202)265-3647 (fax)
>mailto:weisbrot@preamble.org
>http://www.cepr.net
>
>
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