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By A. Scott Washington, J.D., Workplace ReConnections, Inc.
Beginning in the late 1970s and continuing throughout the next two decades, the United States’ reaction to escalating crime rates was to enact policy that was designed to be "tough on crime." As a result of these policies, we have seen a dramatic and unprecedented increase in the prison population in this country. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics there has been a five fold increase in the number of prisoners in federal and state prisons during this period. Between 1974 and present, the number of persons incarcerated in this country’s prisons jumped from around 470,000 to nearly 2.2 million prisoners.
Economic Impact On Society
These statistics, in and of themselves, suggest that the criminal justice system has gone awry. Because of the unexpected consequences that flowed from the criminal justice policies of the 1980s and 90s, the economic stability and community safety of the urban landscape in this country rests on unstable ground.
The fiscal impact of the American experiment in mass incarceration has been high. The United States Department of Justice reports that between 1982 and 1999, direct expenditures by federal, state, and local government on corrections increased from $9 billion to $49 billion, an increase of over 440%.
The collateral costs of mass incarceration has been staggering on local communities as well. The tough on crime approach to criminal justice and its collateral consequences have had a tremendous impact on the urban centers of this country. Cities, as well as the outlying townships and suburbs incur a variety of collateral costs when a defendant is incarcerated, including increased expenditures for the maintenance and health care of dependents of prisoners, lost tax revenues from income that would have been earned or expenditures that would have been made by an incarcerated person. Most importantly, however, families and communities from which prisoners come suffer various tangible and intangible harms from the absence of the incarcerated person. These include the emotional, economic, and developmental damage to the children of incarcerated persons, and the disenfranchisement and consequent political alienation of a significant portion of young men with whom crime and punishment are most frequent.
Today, this nation’s prisons are literally bursting at their seams. Equally as disturbing is the deteriorating condition of the disenfranchised neighborhoods throughout this country. These conditions are the residual and rippling effect of current criminal justice policy. One factor that must be considered when discussing our disenfranchised communities is the over reliance on incarceration in addressing nonviolent social dysfunction. To ignore the causal connection between contemporary criminal justice policy, and the cyclical pattern of poverty and crime in America is turning a blind-eye to factors that are rotting the foundation of contemporary urban society.
Ex-offender Reentry
One mechanism to reverse the detrimental effect of mass incarceration is “Ex-offender Reentry.” Ex-Offender Reentry is defined (for our purposes here) as: “the process of leaving the prison system and returning to society.” The concept of “reentry” is applicable to a variety of contexts in which individuals transition from incarceration to freedom, including release from local jails, state and federal institutions, and juvenile facilities. Of particular importance are those sentenced to serve time in state prison because these individuals, more often than not, have been convicted of the most serious offenses, have been removed from the community for longer periods of time, are eligible for state prison programming while incarcerated, and are managed by state correctional and parole systems.
Common Sense Approach
The bottom line is that it just makes sense. The criminal defendants that were sentenced under the tough on crime sentencing schemes of the 1980s and 90s are now being released in droves into our communities. It makes sense in terms of economic growth and community safety within the urban communities that there is a mechanism for returning ex-offenders to become productive members of the community. As such, there is a significant need for programs and policies geared toward preparing prisoners for release from prison and reentry into the community. Also, our community leaders should encourage community acceptance of returning prisoners. Efforts here must urge jurisdictions to identify and remove unwarranted legal barriers to reentry. Law schools located in areas where large numbers of ex-offenders are returning should establish low/no cost clinics to assist convicted persons with legal issues related to their reentry into the community.
Notwithstanding the benefit to recently released ex-offenders, reentry is an area where great strides can be had with respect to community revitalization. Communities that are plagued by crime, and more importantly, violent crimes are almost always, without exception, communities with the highest incarceration rates of its citizens. The cost of crime and the criminal justice process is often devastating for local economies. Flight of businesses, residents, and entire industries from high crime areas has left communities, particularly the urban core, scrambling for ways to repair the damage inflicted on the local economy by the loss of commerce, and the most important aspect of a community’s infrastructure; its families.
Realistic Solution
As we proceed into the new millennium, criminal justice policy must be enacted that presents strategies for addressing social dysfunction without stripping our communities of its most valued resource; its people. It is imperative that our children have families that are available to them to instill a sense of family solidarity and values that were once the anchor of the community. In the year 2007, an enormous issue stews below the many important social issues of the day. That issue is: what in the world are we going to do with the massive numbers of unskilled, undereducated, and often, recalcitrant felons that will be returning to our communities over the next several decades? First, we must elect officials who are not hesitant to point out the flaws and inadequacies in the current method for dealing with the complex problem crime in America. Next, our lawmakers must present concrete solutions for problems that cannot be conquered by locking up millions of Americans. These solutions, absolutely, must promote funding for alternatives to incarceration and post incarceration reentry programs so we can begin to build, or in many cases, rebuild our families, neighborhoods and communities.
We have had nearly 30 years of tough on crime. Drugs are more available now than ever, and there are more varieties of drugs (Xtacy, Methamphetamine, etc). Violence is more prevalent now than in years past and it occurs more often today with younger and younger people. I think it is time to get SMART ON CRIME.
A. Scott Washington, J.D. is a formerly incarcerated person who has earned a Bachelors Degree in Urban Studies with an emphasis on contemporary urban problems and a Juris Doctor Degree from the University of Dayton School of Law. Also, he is a Staff Attorney In the Montgomery County Common Pleas Court and Executive Director for Workplace ReConnections, a Miami Valley grass-roots community service organization that assists ex-offenders make the transition from lifestyles of criminality and incarceration to a more productive crime free lives. contact: Scott@workplacereconnections.org
Copyright © 2007 Christian Association for Prison Aftercare. All Rights Reserved.
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