Pubdate: Sat, 03 May 2014
Source: Wall Street Journal (US)
Copyright: 2014 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.wsj.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/487
Author: Mortimer Zuckerman

HARSH SENTENCING, OVERSTUFFED PRISONS-IT'S TIME FOR REFORM

Here's a shocker: Nonviolent offenders make up 90% of the federal 
prison population.

Since 1980 the U.S. federal prison population has grown by about 800% 
(to 216,787 this week, according to the Bureau of Prisons), while the 
country's population has increased only a third. By comparison, under 
President Reagan, the total correctional-control rate (that includes 
everyone in prison or jail or on probation or parole) was less than 
half what it is today. And here's another shocker: At the federal 
level, nonviolent offenders account for 90% of prisoners.

The origin of this unseemly American record is in the national panic 
about the explosion of addiction in the early 1980s. Alcohol, heroin 
and marijuana were already wrecking lives, but a tipping point was 
passed in 1983 when crack cocaine transformed the social ill of 
addiction into a national health-and-crime catastrophe.

Congress responded to the epidemic with mandatory minimum sentencing. 
A first-time offender convicted of possessing five grams of crack, 
for instance, received a mandatory minimum sentence of five years. If 
the offender was a part of a "continuing criminal enterprise," this 
triggered a 20-year mandatory minimum sentence. No wonder drug 
offenders make up nearly half of all federal prisoners.

Federal prisons today house nearly 40% more inmates than they were 
designed for, many of them repeat offenders. According to an April 
2011 report from the Pew Center on the States, more than 40% of state 
ex-convicts return to their cells within three years of release, and 
in some states the recidivism rate approaches 60%. The inflexible 
mandatory-sentencing rules inflict punishments that in many cases no 
reasonable judge would impose--and then the system turns out 
prisoners who are more harmful to society than when they went in. For 
instance, a June 2013 paper by Anna Aizer of Brown University and 
Joseph J. Doyle Jr. of MIT found that putting a minor in juvenile 
detention reduced his likelihood of graduating from high school by 
13% and increased his odds of being incarcerated as an adult by 23%.

There is now an awakening to the desperate situation we created (out 
of the best of motives). It is manifest in Congress, which has a 
bipartisan bill before it to refocus federal resources on 
incarcerating violent offenders and move away from low-level ones. We 
also see the urge for reform in Attorney General Eric Holder, as well 
as in the states, which together have six times as many prisoners as 
the federal government.

The attorney general wants Congress to reset the sentencing polices 
for federal judges and reduce sentences in most of the nation's drug 
cases. It is ridiculous to hand down 25-year sentences for selling 
pain pills to friends. We should be concentrating on those who 
initiate violence. Thieves or fraud artists or tax evaders must be 
punished but might well be released earlier, subject to more severe 
penalties if they offend again.

That is why a Justice Department sentencing panel is about to propose 
an amendment to federal guidelines with the idea of retaining the 
most severe penalties for dangerous and violent drug traffickers. The 
reform would also reduce the sentencing ranges for low-level, 
nonviolent drug offenders with no connection to gangs or large-scale 
drug organizations. These people make up nearly half of the 220,000 
federal inmates serving time for drug-related crimes.

In addition, Mr. Holder justifiably wishes to release more elderly 
federal inmates earlier and to increase the efforts to help 
ex-convicts re-enter society. The administration also plans to let 
thousands of convicted criminals seek early release from federal 
prison, particularly those who have served 10 years of a sentence 
that would probably be much shorter if it were imposed today.

The states are laboratories of reform led by vigorous governors--who 
realize that prisons cost the states more than $50 billion a year, up 
from about $9 billion in 1985. Beginning in 2007, Texas, under the 
leadership of Gov. Rick Perry, rejected a proposal to build eight 
more prisons (and has saved an estimated $2 billion overall in 
projected corrections spending). Instead, Texas is shifting 
nonviolent offenders from state prisons into alternative treatment, 
and budgeting for rehabilitative programs for addicts and 
mentally-ill prisoners. A March 2013 Pew Charitable Trust report on 
state and consumer initiatives found that the rate of parole failure 
had dropped 39% since 2007 and Texas had its lowest crime rate since the 1960s.

More than a dozen other states--including Ohio, Georgia and South 
Carolina--are shortening or even eliminating prison time for the 
lowest-risk, nonviolent offenders. Instead of spending on more 
prisons, many states are increasing the number and compensation of 
parole caseworkers, who in the past have been almost perpetually 
overwhelmed. Technology like ATM-style check-in stations and ankle 
bracelets with GPS helps.

But funding is required for the roughly 650,000 federal and state 
prisoners who are released every year into society. You cannot drop 
them on the curb to fend for themselves, for two-thirds are 
rearrested within three years. Enlisting family members to help once 
their relative leaves prison is one proven way to reduce recidivism.

Sentencing nonviolent offenders to a minimum-security prison or even 
to home confinement is not only cheaper but also eliminates the 
strain on separated families and reduces the contagion of crime.

We have to be smart and tough on criminal-justice spending, with the 
goal of getting the most public safety from the more-efficient 
expenditures of taxpayer dollars. The central idea must be to return 
significant criminal-justice discretionary dollars to local 
authorities. Reserve expensive prison beds for career criminals and 
violent felons, and give local jails the responsibility and funding 
to oversee low-level inmates involved with less-violent crimes.

The politics of all this are admittedly touchy. But we cannot remain 
in the mind-set created by the 1980s crime explosion that led to a 
narrowing of criminals rights and tougher penalties. Think of all the 
billions spent building prisons that could have been spent on roads, 
hospitals, schools and airports. If we do not support the initiatives 
of all three government branches to reform the system, the verdict 
could only be: Guilty of waste and injustice.

Mr. Zuckerman is chairman and editor in chief of U.S. News & World Report.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom