Emptying the Prisons

An article in America Magazine looks at the current over-populated state of America’s prisons, and as they allow comments, this was my comment.

The best way to reduce prison population is to effectively rehabilitate criminals, something the traditional rehabilitative practitioners have so far failed to do, with the current recidivism rate running about 70% nationally.

Becoming a criminal is largely an internal decision—regardless of social situation—and becoming a former criminal is also largely an internal decision; and no one is better equipped to stimulate that internal decision than a reformed criminal, and no institution is better positioned to encourage that internal decision than the Catholic Church.

It is our hope that the Church will soon become much more deeply involved in prison ministry and prisoner reentry work by supporting reformed criminals who bring ideas, passion and grounding in the social teaching of the Church, to the work of criminal reformation.

An excerpt.

“Extreme overcrowding in California’s prison system, the nation’s largest, led a panel of three federal judges in early February to call for reducing the state’s prison population by a third. The prison system holds twice the number it was designed for, with tiered bunks filling gyms and classrooms. The judges were especially alarmed by the effects of the crowding, which has led to deterioration in mental and physical health care, preventable deaths and suicides at the rate of one a month—a situation so dire they called it a violation of the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. A primary cause of the crowding is mandatory minimum sentencing policies, which essentially tie judges’ hands in meting out sentences, especially regarding drug offenses, which are common. California has made extensive use of such sentences and also the so-called “three strikes laws,” which require sentences of 25 years to life for third-time felony offenders, no matter what the third offense is.

“California’s incarceration problems, however, are simply outsized reflections of what is happening around the country. The Bureau of Justice Statistics reported in December that the nation’s prison population continues to rise, with almost 2.5 million people behind bars. Many prisons are managed privately by groups like the Corrections Corporation of America. In the United States the overall cost of incarceration exceeds $60 billion a year.

“Sentencing practices in Europe, by contrast, tend to be far more conducive to rehabilitation. In Norway, for example, few prisoners serve more than 14 years, even for such a serious crime as murder. In many cases prisoners receive weekend parole after they have served seven years. This allows them to maintain contact with their families, which has long been recognized as a key factor in lowering recidivism rates. In Italy, after serving 10 years a prisoner may be permitted to work in the community during the day.”