Millions in the Slammer: We Must Reverse America's Zeal to Incarcerate

[one...two...tree 2,762]

The U.S. has the most prisoners and the highest jailing rate of any country -- the insanity must stop.

By Nomi Prins, The Women's International Perspective

The movie Atonement is a heart-breaking love-story, a historical WWII saga. Without giving away the ending, which must be seen to be adequately felt, it tells the tale of two lovers' lives irrevocably changed by false testimony against one of them -- for a crime he did not commit. Thus, it's also a condemnation of unreliable witnesses, the willingness of people to believe the worst, particularly of those in a lower economic-class, and the havoc that a false accusation and conviction can wreak upon human life. It's a film and message that every judge, jury member, and prosecutor should see and consider before convicting or sentencing anyone accused of a crime.

On December 10th, the United States Supreme Court voted 7-2 to recognize a gross injustice with respect to sentencing guidelines which disproportionately penalize those convicted of crack versus cocaine related crimes. The disparity gives equal punishment to a person caught with 5 grams of crack (a poor person's cocaine) and one caught with 500 grams of coke (a drug dealer's amount). In their validation of a federal district judge's below-guideline sentence for a crack case, the Supreme Court reconfirmed the 2005 Booker ruling that federal judges could have more discretion in levying below-guideline sentences. They did not rule on the validity of the guidelines themselves.

This decision should be viewed as the tip of an iceberg. American prisons teem with non-violent prisoners. Our juries are caught between wanting to rush home for the evening and wanting to appear law-abiding. Members are too quick to bow to the loudest voice amongst them, and not necessarily in The Twelve Angry Men direction. Meanwhile, false convictions, due to witness error, prosecutorial misconduct, inferior defense lawyers or coerced "snitching," continue to destroy multiple generations of lives. They throw the idea of "equal protection under the law" under the same bus as our Declaration of Independence mantra of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

We've simply got to reverse this zeal to incarcerate. The United States has more inmates and a higher incarceration rate than any other nation: more than Russia, South Africa, Mexico, Iran, India, Australia, Brazil and Canada combined. Nearly 1 in every 136 US residents is in jail or prison. That's 2.2 million people, an amount that quadrupled from 1980 to 2005. (There were only 340,000 people incarcerated in 1972.) Adding in figures for those on probation or parole, the number reaches 7.1 million.

Over the next five years, the American prison population is projected to increase three times more quickly than our resident population. The Federal Prison system is growing at 4% per year with 55% of federal prisoners serving time for drug offenses, and only 11% for violent crimes. Women are more likely than men (29% to 19%) to serve drug sentences, dismantling thousands of families. One-third of prisoners are first time, non-violent offenders. Three-quarters are non-violent offenders with no history of violence. More than 200,000 are factually innocent. Whether our citizens are wrongly incarcerated or exaggeratedly so, our prison figures are shameful.

December 19th marked the five-year anniversary of the 2002 exoneration of the five "perpetrators" who were originally caught, indicted, and convicted in the infamous Central Park Jogger case. The five black and Hispanic youths, ages 14 to 16 at the time of their imprisonment, were exonerated only after they had spent between 5 and 13 1/2 years in prison for crimes they did not commit. Their freedom came late, even as it was conclusively confirmed by DNA testing results. At the time of their arrests, they confessed to crimes after prolonged interrogation by police.

The Innocence Project counts 210 people, mostly minorities, who have been exonerated post-conviction by conclusive DNA results (350 people have been exonerated including non-DNA related exonerations). Fifteen of them spent time on death row for crimes they did not commit. The average age at the time of their convictions was 26 years old. The average time served was 12 years. The total number of violent crimes that were committed because the real perpetrators were free while the innocent were imprisoned was 74.

Those total numbers may seem small, as those who favor a harsher penal system would argue, but they only consist of the situations that have been put through years of legal battles to conclude innocence. They don't include cases where there is no money left for the wrongfully convicted to fight for their freedom. They don't include the cases of people who are so beaten down mentally or physically by their imprisonment, they can't fight. They don't include the ones who don't even know what steps to take.

Freedom is a basic human right destroyed by a felony conviction. And in some states, so is the right to vote. Other casualties include the ability to adopt children, find housing or have certain employment. The stigma is permanent. Thus any mistake in a court-room, whether due to a self-serving witness or an ambitious prosecutor, costs someone a part of their life, severing them from the fabric of a justice system designed to protect them. As Martin Luther King said from the Birmingham Jail in 1963, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly."

Thus, there's more work to do. Providing judges more latitude to reverse jury convictions in which there's no physical evidence, or there exists the potential of fraudulent or self-incriminating testimony coerced under hostile conditions or threats, would be another step in the direction of justice. Reducing guidelines substantially would also help, as would be alternatives to incarceration for non-violent offenders. Without addressing these issues, our prisons will continue to burst beyond the seams of their present 134% overcrowding rate, our prisons systems will continue to get more funding than our schools, and we will be a sadder nation for it.

Nomi Prins is a senior fellow at the public policy center Demos and author of Other People's Money and Jacked: How "Conservatives" are Picking your Pocket (Whether you voted for them or not).

[JODO 2]

Too many criminals on the street already. We need more prisons.

[Kathryn41 3,205]

Kind of frightening that we spend more on incarceration than on education . . . perhaps if we had spent more on education to begin with there would be less need - or perceived need - for incarceration.

[peejay 327]

My impression is that this is a typical ultra-lib article. It starts out quoting 2.2 million incarcerated and then implying that huge numbers of inmates have been railroaded, are innocent, or serving sentences for so called non-violent victimless crimes. Not to mention that it implies we should fall into incarceration rates just to ape other countries, no matter if their situation is different from ours or not.

The article also failed to state when comparing 1980 to 2005 that there were roughly 75 million less people in the USA in 1980 and the demographics of our country was much different then too. Mass immigration has seen to that.

To get off topic...you can already see where non-enforcement of immigration and workplace laws have taken us. Let's see where non-enforcement of a host of other laws takes us too? No thanks...let's not go there.

Yes Virginia honey...you do get what you tolerate.

[HAL 9000 96]

You incarcerate based on what the criminal deserves vs. you incarcerate based on how idiotic some people can be vs. you incarcerate based on what a society allows a criminal class to continue growing. It seems you lose any which way possible without creating real alternatives to actually keep the prison construction business (#1 or #2 in growth, STILL), out of business.

Happy New Year Folks...

[one...two...tree 2,762]

We must be doing something right if we have more people in prison than any other country. Or maybe we just have very bad people in this country.

[patiently_waiting 0]

Work with criminal population on a daily basis and you won't necessarily agree that we are crazy about incarceration. It is our choice to have a jury trial or a bench trial and now those who wanted a jury trial want to allow a judge to over rule their findings. Come one, you can't have your cake and eat it to. Also, how many of them are incarcerated as a result of a parole or probation violation as opposed to first time offenders? How many are in on a second or third strike law? Many first time offenders have deferred adjudication or are placed in pre trial diversion programs. When you work with the worse of the criminal population for any given amount of time, you learn more about the reality of all this than the simple words written in an article and you know how complex it all really is. Granted, errors are made and as long as they are corrected, the system has worked. There are innocent people in jail or prison because they decided to enter a guilty plea for their own reasons. No one forced them too. There are also those who enter Alford pleas for their own reasons. This was a very one sided article and if it is to be fair, it must then cover all the angles for a person to form a concrete impression of the system and wheter it is working or failing.

[Heracles 417]

We must be doing something right if we have more people in prison than any other country. Or maybe we just have very bad people in this country.

What is the cultural demographics of these prisoners?

Another point to consider is the cultural differences abroad. For example, being a "gansta" is certainly not viewed as being cool overseas.

Edited January 2, 2008 by Boo-Yah!

[Ban Hammer 13,346]

spend more money on executiions

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

We must be doing something right if we have more people in prison than any other country. Or maybe we just have very bad people in this country.

What is the cultural demographics of these prisoners?

Another point to consider is the cultural differences abroad. For example, being a "gansta" is certainly not viewed as being cool overseas.

Culture is a red herring IMO. Regardless of what subcultures prisoners come from - they are still part of the US general population (excluding foreign nationals of course).

I mean... its not like we can "stamp out" culture now is it...

[desert_fox 32]

Kind of frightening that we spend more on incarceration than on education . . . perhaps if we had spent more on education to begin with there would be less need - or perceived need - for incarceration.

I agree. Spend less on incarceration!!!! You could prob cram 6 guys into each of those cells instead of 2.

[AnewKINDofFEELIN 0]

The only issue I have is our incarceration of drug users and refusal to legalize marijuana. It adds to the long list of people in prison while the two largest killers in the country (as far as drugs go) remain legal. Mandatory minimum drug sentences need to go.

[Ban Hammer 13,346]

The only issue I have is our incarceration of drug users and refusal to legalize marijuana. It adds to the long list of people in prison while the two largest killers in the country (as far as drugs go) remain legal. Mandatory minimum drug sentences need to go.

i agree. instead, drug users should be shot.

[Artegal 1]

Work with criminal population . . . Granted, errors are made and as long as they are corrected, the system has worked. There are innocent people in jail or prison because they decided to enter a guilty plea for their own reasons. No one forced them too. There are also those who enter Alford pleas for their own reasons. This was a very one sided article and if it is to be fair, it must then cover all the angles for a person to form a concrete impression of the system and wheter it is working or failing.

um, I was agreeing with you up until the part highlighted in bold. I am sorry but 95% of all cases never see "a day in court." These cases are plea bargained etc. And you state that no one forced them too plea--this is not true. Many defendants (especially the poor, ignorant, young, or otherwise weak) are railroaded into making a plea. Even in simple cases like traffic tickets many will just plea to the offense even when you are not guilty--because the weight of the justice system upon an individual is overwhelming. For example I was charged with illegal lane change, a fine of $65. The cost just to adjudicate the case and plead not guilty would cost $65 non-refundable bond, then add the expense of getting a lawyer, investigating similar cases, the situation, evidence discovery, witness interviews, even if you did your own leg-work--who would or could do all that--when you could just easily plea no-lo to the charge. Don't forget that more and more states are prosecuting juveniles as adults and there have been many cases where the juvenile was interrogated without end (denied legal counsel, food, water, sleep, bathroom breaks, or even time with parents) for hours (a form of torture) until a confession was created. Often the endlessly interrogated suspect was promised freedom in exchange for the confession creation. Another well known practice is to so over-charge a defendant that the legal mountain of charges forces certainly the weak and in some cases those normally thought to be strong to give in and take a lesser charge or probation—even though they may actually be totally innocent of any wrong doing. I think that is enough for now, of course I could bring up the examples of bad forensics science, fraudulent forensics, and out right lies purported to be crucial evidence in countless cases--some of which resulted in innocent people being executed.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Work with criminal population . . . Granted, errors are made and as long as they are corrected, the system has worked. There are innocent people in jail or prison because they decided to enter a guilty plea for their own reasons. No one forced them too. There are also those who enter Alford pleas for their own reasons. This was a very one sided article and if it is to be fair, it must then cover all the angles for a person to form a concrete impression of the system and wheter it is working or failing.

um, I was agreeing with you up until the part highlighted in bold. I am sorry but 95% of all cases never see "a day in court." These cases are plea bargained etc. And you state that no one forced them too plea--this is not true. Many defendants (especially the poor, ignorant, young, or otherwise weak) are railroaded into making a plea. Even in simple cases like traffic tickets many will just plea to the offense even when you are not guilty--because the weight of the justice system upon an individual is overwhelming. For example I was charged with illegal lane change, a fine of $65. The cost just to adjudicate the case and plead not guilty would cost $65 non-refundable bond, then add the expense of getting a lawyer, investigating similar cases, the situation, evidence discovery, witness interviews, even if you did your own leg-work--who would or could do all that--when you could just easily plea no-lo to the charge. Don't forget that more and more states are prosecuting juveniles as adults and there have been many cases where the juvenile was interrogated without end (denied legal counsel, food, water, sleep, bathroom breaks, or even time with parents) for hours (a form of torture) until a confession was created. Often the endlessly interrogated suspect was promised freedom in exchange for the confession creation. Another well known practice is to so over-charge a defendant that the legal mountain of charges forces certainly the weak and in some cases those normally thought to be strong to give in and take a lesser charge or probation—even though they may actually be totally innocent of any wrong doing. I think that is enough for now, of course I could bring up the examples of bad forensics science, fraudulent forensics, and out right lies purported to be crucial evidence in countless cases--some of which resulted in innocent people being executed.

Interesting points. It certainly goes beyond just our issues with imprisoning drug users.