what can be done to deal with the prison population crisis.

Cross-posted at Huff­ing­ton Post.

Information technology'southward time for Amer­ic­ans to rethink how we utilize prison every bit a genu-wiggle punish­ment for a major­ity of crimes. We have the highest incar­cer­a­tion rate in the world. There are 2.2 million people behind bars — by far the highest incar­cer­a­tion rate of any compar­able nation. Nosotros have less than 5 pct of the earth's popu­la­tion but almost 25 percent of its pris­on­ers.

Mass incar­cer­a­tion is the greatest civil rights injustice of our fourth dimension. People backside confined are dispro­por­tion­ately black and Hispanic. The crim­inal justice organization drives and rein­forces deep-seated racial inequity.

The United states needs funda­mental reform to reduce our reli­ance on incar­cer­a­tion, but it also needs to go on its citizens safe. A new report by the Bren­nan Center shows how to do just that.

Research­ers plant 39 percent of pris­on­ers — nearly 600,000 people — behind bars do not need to be in that location for a public safety reason. For some, generally lower-level and not-viol­ent offend­ers, prison is an inef­fi­cient and unfair sanc­tion. For others, they accept done their fourth dimension behind bars and tin can exist safely released.

These four recom­mend­a­tions walk through how we tin achieve a fairer, more than effi­cient crim­inal justice system.

ane. Elim­in­ate prison for lower-level crimes

Prison is often the default crim­inal justice sanc­tion when someone breaks the law. It should­n't be that style. For those who commit a lower-level crime similar drug posses­sion, trivial theft, or selling marijuana, prison is not only unfair, it is also a bad sanc­tion for soci­ety at big.

Prison costs $31,000 a twelvemonth per pris­oner,  and often does little to foreclose re-offense for these crimes. Proba­tion, treat­ment, or customs service are all more than appro­pri­ate for many lower-level crimes, non to mention much cheaper (proba­tion is 10 times less expens­ive). State legis­latures and Congress should alter senten­cing laws to make altern­at­ives to prison the default penalty for sure lower-level crimes, like drug posses­sion and petty theft.

2. Reduce sentence minim­ums and maxim­ums currently on the books

If someone commits a seri­ous crime, like robbery, they should be punished. But at that place's little evid­ence that stay­ing in prison house for such long peri­ods of time, such every bit the 20 or xxx-year sentences imposed, will rehab­il­it­ate pris­on­ers. In fact, research indic­ates that longer stays in prison do non pb to lower recidiv­ism. Some­times, longer stays tin evenincrement recidiv­ism. With prison house stays grow­ing longer each year, lawmakers should consider redu­cing the time many inmates spend behind confined when information technology'south not neces­sary.

State and federal legis­latures should reduce the minimum and maximum senten­cing guidelines, and make them more than propor­tional to the crimes commit­ted. Nosotros advise in the report that legis­lat­ors consider a 25 percent cutting as a start­ing point for the six major crimes (aggrav­ated assault, drug traf­fick­ing, murder, non-viol­ent weapons offenses, robbery and seri­ous burg­lary) that make up the bulk of the nation's electric current prison popu­la­tion. This will make our system smarter while even so protect­ing public condom.

3. Make these changes retro­act­ive

If we know that some­thing is skillful policy, so nosotros should prac­tice it. Many times, crim­inal justice reforms only impact time to come defend­ants.

Merely if the reform is the right policy, then we should live by it. Current inmates should exist able to peti­tion judges for retro­act­ive applic­a­tion of the two reforms in a higher place, on a example-past-case basis.

4.More ideas

There are other ways the coun­try can better the crim­inal justice system for the better that line up with the goals of the Bren­nan Centers report:

• Rein­vest savings into offense preven­tion polices: The recom­mend­a­tions in the recent Bren­nan Center report would save near $xx billion dollars a year. We should rein­vest those savings into police, schools, and reentry programs, which will help improve public safety even more. $20 billion could cover 270,000 police force officers, 327,000 teach­ers, or 360,000 proba­tion officers. Most experts concord that these invest­ments better forestall criminal offense than prison house.
• Elim­in­ate "Iii Strikes Laws" and "Truth in Senten­cing": Both policies accept away the abil­ity of judges to prop­erly asses the appro­pri­ate sentence for defend­ants in the crim­inal justice arrangement. We should trust our judges to make these decisions instead of forcing an inap­pro­pri­ate judgement with set-in-stone rules.
• Prosec­utors should seek lower penal­ties when appro­pri­ate: Prosec­utors should use their discre­tion to imple­ment the recom­mend­a­tions in our written report. Their senten­cing recom­mend­a­tions should not simply aim to put defend­ants behind confined for the longest fourth dimension possible. The best way to keep us all safe is for prosec­utors to seek the near propor­tional punish­ment – one that fits the crime — not simply the harshest ane.

The evid­ence-based discover­ings in this study testify one fashion to rethink senten­cing that will reduce the crim­inal justice organization'south dispro­por­tion­ate impact on communit­ies of color, go on hard-won declines in criminal offence over the final 20 years, and save signi­fic­ant amounts of money.

The ulti­mate goal of the written report is to spring-start a conver­sa­tion most how the United States can imple­ment specific reforms that are auda­cious enough to truly finish mass incar­cer­a­tion.

(Photo: Think­Stock)

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Source: https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/four-things-we-can-do-end-mass-incarceration

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