4 ms·
Violent crime may be going down, but the human cost is real. There are almost 2.3 million people (https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2018.html https://www
by panic 8y ago
Violent crime may be going down, but the human cost is real. There are almost 2.3 million people (https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2018.html https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2018.html) locked up in the United States alone. If the jails and prisons of the US were made a state, it would have a larger population than New Mexico!
The question can't just be, how do we reduce crime? We also have to think about how the system affects the people caught up in it.
- rectang 8y agoThose massive numbers serve a social and political purpose: through disenfranchisement of convicted felons and large disparities in enforcement, prosecution, sentencing, and so on, the political power of minority voters is degraded. Reducing the prison population means diminishing that political advantage, so there will be resistance from those who benefit from it.
- panic 8y agoNot to mention the massive amount of money you can make off of this disenfranchised population (by selling phone calls and commissary items, collecting bail fees, and even making the prisoners do work for you -- the 13th Amendment doesn't cover punishments for crimes!)
- atlantic 8y agoJust because prison policy can also serve a political purpose does not mean that its primary function is not what it is: to punish criminals, and to protect the public from them. The discrimination narrative is very compelling on a large scale, but offers courts no alternatives when facing a specific instance of rape, assault or murder. What is the judge supposed to do, pat the criminal on the head and send him home?