The latest numbers that compare crime with our prison population raise a troubling question. Crime is way down, yet our prison population — though declining — remains high.
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6 Responses to Prison Dilemma: Less Crime, More Inmates. What To Do?
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Why is that a dilemma? Seems like common sense to me.
The length of time served in increasing. DWI is usually cited as the single biggest change from 1970 to 2010. Drugs are second. New classes of felonies were created and mandatory minimum prison sentencing is now the norm in Drugs and DWI cases. 3rd time DWI is now one year. No parole. No probation. This class of cons don’t get early release when prisons are over crowded. One year is the mandatory minimum time served. A rapist will get released to parole before a DWI gets released early. It’s the way the legislation is written.
Marijuana decriminalization in CT was a rare example of the legislature looking in the mirror and realizing they created a monster by pandering to every lobby and victim group asking for felony status for a crime and harsh sentences and yes, Dr Petit, lobbying for the death penalty.
They just can’t say no. No matter what the statistics say. If it polls favorably its a done deal.
http://www.cga.ct.gov/ps99/rpt/olr/htm/99-r-0305.htm
Then we get into recividism and the way the deck is stacked against offenders. One of my favorites: prison workers get paid under a dollar an hour and leave prison nearly broke needing housing vouchers, bus pass, treatment, foodstamps, and so forth. Ahh/. The social welfare network smiles. If prisoners were paid while at work then they wouldn’t need 3/4 of those services on release.
Better yet, wage garnish the guilty instead of incarceration. Nice hefty fines and rehab for those with jobs. Public service jobs and rehab for those without. Wipe public records clean after 7 years so they can get jobs or pass legislation protecting cons against discrimination and having to resort to property theft or winter incarceration to get out of the cold.
Let me simplify it for you Rick. We put more bad guys in jail and keep them there longer and therefore fewer crimes get committed. Isn’t that the way it’s supposed to work? Seems to me we should be celebrating this.
You dont’ see the whole population wthout parole and probation.
It gets more obscene when you run the numbers back to 1968 when the Department of Corrections first opened with around 1000 prisoners and exploded to 3,845 in 1980.
I don’t find the quality of living all that much better.
Rick would never celebrate this…liberals wanted Gitmo closed and I am fairly confident they want CT prisons to slap the bad guys on the wrist and tell them to behave. Rick, what happens when the bad guys, who should be prison, start break into homes in West Hartford?
Yes this is a problem. The US locks up more people than any other nation; about 2.3 million behind bars. The “get tough”, war on crime, mandatory minimums has caused great pain – economically (billions of dollars!) and to many people, including families and communities. The research is clear: deterrence doesn’t work. Recidivism is high.
A solution you ask? We need another approach. One that holds offenders accountability in a meaningful way, meets the needs of victims, and builds community. Restorative justice.