More incarceration is not the answer

As a law enforcement official, I read Matt Ernst’s op-ed with interest. While he raises some valid points, additional perspective is necessary. To hear Ernst tell it, the only thing wrong with America’s criminal justice system is that we should be building more prisons. But from my perspective, more jails and prisons is not the answer. Study after study has shown, we have long passed the point of diminishing returns on incarceration. A thorough examination of corrections by the National Research Council last year concluded “the costs of the current rate of incarceration outweigh the benefits.”  

A system in which nearly 1 in 100 adults is in prison or jail cannot be deemed to be functioning properly. Federal prisons are currently operating at between 35 and 40 percent above their rated capacity and they are projected to be over capacity by at least 50,000 inmates each year through 2020. Is there nothing wrong with a system that houses almost 25 percent of the world’s prisoners when the nation only has 5 percent of the world’s population? 

{mosads}No one can argue with the tremendous success law enforcement, with the help of organizations such as the neighborhood watch program, has had in the last decade in reducing crime. Protecting the public’s safety is paramount. But incarceration alone is not responsible for the crime decline. According to a comprehensive study this year by the Brennan Center for Justice, incarceration played a negligible role in the crime drop. In this century, increasing incarceration accounted for less than 1 percent of the reduction in property crime and has had little effect in the drop in violent crime for the past 24 years.  Something has to change. 

One of the main drivers for our growing prison population is the length of sentences for drug offenses. Sentences have gotten so long that some judges have begun to rebel against this regime. In 2013, U.S. District Judge John Gleeson, a former prosecutor, severely criticized the drug sentencing guidelines as “deeply and structurally flawed,” subjecting “low-level offenders” to “prison terms more suitable for a drug boss.” He added, “federal drug sentencing has contributed to the national crisis of mass incarceration.” 

Alternatives to lengthy sentences for drugs can and do work. They are also cost effective.  Diversion programs should be used more often.  Take drug courts for example.  They combine treatment with sanctions and are established or planned in all 50 states. According to the Office of National Drug Control Policy, drug courts can reduce crime by as much as 35 percent when compared with traditional approaches. And they can save as much as $3.36 for every $1 spent.   

If states are supposed to be the “laboratories of democracy,” testing out ideas before they become federal policy, then the results of prison reform are already in. My home state of Texas has been one of the leaders in prison reform. From its peak in 1999, Texas has cut its number of prisoners by nearly 11 percent. Meanwhile, crime has been reduced 54 percent between 1988 and 2013. Cutting incarceration does not have to come at the expense of public safety; in fact, using alternatives to incarceration can reduce recidivism and enhance public safety. Similar results have been achieved in California, New York, and South Carolina. 

Unaddressed by Ernst are the crushing racial disparities in the criminal justice system. African Americans are almost four times more likely to be arrested for selling drugs and almost three times more likely to be arrested for possessing drugs, even though whites are more likely to sell drugs and equally likely to consume them. African Americans make up one-third of the population in jails serving time for most low-level offenses even though they constitute 13 percent of the total population. 

It is precisely because of the obvious inequities and inefficiencies of the current system that there is an emerging consensus among a bipartisan group of lawmakers that now is the time for reform.  

Changing the criminal justice system should not be done recklessly without consideration of the data. The overarching goal is to protect the public. But the current system is simply too expensive, too harsh, and too unjust to conclude that it can remain in place without significant reform.

Hamilton is sheriff in Travis County, Texas.