Why Prison Incarceration Rates are High

The High Incarceration Rate: A Significant Issue Faced by the Criminal Justice System
Abstract
This paper examines the problem of the high rate of incarceration in America. This is a major challenge for the criminal justice system, as many people, families and communities suffer as a result of this high rate. It prevents individuals from improving their lives and can lead to the deterioration of families and neighborhoods. The paper discusses some of the policies that have been put in place in recent years to address this issue. It also discusses alternative solutions and how the rate could be brought down by way of decriminalization of drug use and the implementation of diversion programs or restorative justice programs.
Introduction
The problem of the high incarceration rate is one that affects more than prisoners and the prison population. It affects communities as well as the economics and politics of the nation. America has the highest incarceration rate of any country in the world (Gramlich, 2018) with more than 2 million individuals in prison or jail—approximately 860 adults out of 100,000 people in the U.S. This is a problem because it means a significant proportion of the American population is affected one way or another by incarceration. Families are split up and divided, communities are troubled, and millions have records (when finally released) that prevent them from being seriously considered for decent jobs. Year after year, more people are funneled into the prison industrial complex (Brewer & Heitzig, 2008), from which there is, realistically speaking, little hope of return. The prison industrial complex, a term coined in 1998, refers to the “complex configuration comprised of the US prison system, multi-national corporations, small private businesses and the inmate population in the social and political economy of the 21st century United States” (Smith & Hattery, 2006, p. 1).  This complex system represents a new form of slavery in America that is essentially disregarded by many because it operates under a legal pretext accepted by the mainstream as normal criminal justice (Davis, 2012). The high incarceration rate represents a moral, social, economic and political decline for America.
Individual and Social Implications
The individual and social implications of this problem are myriad: 1) individuals who are incarcerated face a much more difficult path in life than those who are never imprisoned, 2) the likelihood that they will be recycled through the prison industrial complex on more than one occasion is far higher for those who have been imprisoned previously than for those never jailed, 3) a higher percentage of minority males are imprisoned than whites, 4) minority communities are thus destabilized as a high percentage of minority families are undermined with fathers, sons and brothers imprisoned and re-imprisoned, often for technical violations of parole, 5) corporations take advantage of this system by using prison labor as a source of cheap labor, which incentivizes the privatized world to perpetuate the system and find legal reasons to keep it going (Davis, 2012; Smith & Hattery, 2006; Soyer, 2016). All of these factors end up contributing to a cycle of personal and social injustice that is perpetuated from one generation to the next. It destabilizes any efforts at regeneration and leads to the continued social and moral deterioration of populations that require whole families and community support. The interlinked nature of crime, culture, society, economics and politics makes it so that this issue is not one that can be addressed at any one level but rather must be addressed holistically at all levels because it is not just a criminal issue—a matter of people breaking the law and being punished. It is a cultural, social, economical and political issue.
What the Experts Say
Much of the problem is rooted in the more stringent sentencing guidelines adopted in the War on Drugs—sentencing that required longer prison times, mandatory minimum sentencing, offenses that had been misdemeanors changed to felonies, and a new policy called “Three Strikes You’re Out” (Smith & Hattery, 2006). This more stringent approach to sentencing drug criminals has resulted in an exponential increase in the prison population since the 1990s. As Smith and Hattery (2006) point out, “Currently 450,000 of the more than 2 million inmates (45%) in state and federal prison are incarcerated for non-violent drug offenses.  In contrast, this is more people than the European Union, an entity with a 100 million more people than the United States, has in prison for all crimes combined” (p. 3). Moreover, the prison industrial complex has benefitted handsomely from this more stringent sentencing set of guidelines: “States and the federal government continue to spend about $10 billion a year imprisoning drug offenders,” (Smith & Harvey, 2006, p. 3)—which means the prison industrial complex is seeing $10 billion annually in revenue. Imprisonment has become a big business and instead of helping people drug issues it is leading to the destruction of families and communities as well as futures.
Drug abuse should be treated as a mental health issue not as a crime issue, according to Peters, Wexler and Lurigio (2015). This means that sentencing people to jail is not going to address the problem. Just like the health care industry has realized the need to implement preventative care in order to help people lead healthy lives because simply waiting to treat the patient is not good for people’s health since so many issues can be avoided through a little education and training, the criminal justice system should be more focused on preventing crime rather than simply punishing it. That means it should be looking at promoting development and growth in communities instead of punishing people with longer and stiffer prison sentences for issues related to mental health problems.
The issue goes even deeper than that, as Davis (2012) shows: the criminal justice system has displayed an inherent racism towards minorities, particularly towards African Americans. The current approach towards the War on Drugs has led to higher percentage of the African American community being incarcerated than any other. The current prison population has resulted in a new kind of institutionalized slavery, according to Davis (2012). Smith and Hattery (2006) support this argument by showing the statistics: “Of the 2.6 million Americans who are incarcerated, one million or 43% are African American men.  In other words, more than forty percent of all American prisoners, men and women, are African American men” (p. 4). The fact that so many national and multinational companies, towns, colleges, and schools do business with the prison industry only serves to further support the argument that the prison system is a new form of the old slave system, in which African Americans were forced to labor for the profits of a ruling class.
What Society Has Done to Address the Problem
Society has attempted to address the problem by adopting alternative approaches to imprisonment, such as rehabilitation and alternative forms of punishment for convicts. This can start early on for juvenile offenders, who are typically the most likely to go on to be adult offenders as well: diversion programs have been set up in several states to help stop the trend of recidivism and to keep young persons from becoming lifelong offenders, criminals and tenants within the prison industrial complex. The benefit of diversion programs is that they provide more oversight for young offenders and can be useful in getting them on a better track in life rather than sitting them behind bars where they are basically like people in time-out, neglected, forgotten but out of the way. The diversion program provides “drug testing, restitution, participation in mentoring efforts, community service, counseling” and other programs for young offenders to be part of (Mears et al., 2016, p. 960). This approach helps them to keep out of jail and to break the cycle of recidivism, if only in a small way.
The other public policies that are being used by some states include the decriminalization of drug use. Today, marijuana is being legalized by many states for medicinal and even recreational purposes. Because this drug, which was legal in the U.S. before Prohibition, is now being made legal again it is an indication that state policy makers are willing to take a new look at what causes people to develop drug problems and how crime should be conceived.
People who have drug addiction problems are being steered towards wellness and treatment centers. With the opioid epidemic reaching catastrophic proportions and more and more understanding being acquired about the depths and extent of this issue (from Big Pharma playing a considerable role to the ways in which doctors pushed addictive substances onto patients to the problems with border security and the inability to keep drugs like fentanyl off the streets) the justice system is beginning to realize that the War on Drugs has only served to enrich the prison industrial complex (Smith & Hattery, 2006).
Informally, activists like Davis work to lobby for change by raising awareness about the need to challenge and reform the criminal justice system in its present incarnation as too many minorities are being imprisoned, having the futures destroyed, and having the families suffer because no one is there to support them. The strain that prison puts on communities is rarely discussed, by Davis and others like her have been educating the public about this issue for years. Both Davis (2012) and Smith and Hattery (2006) have sought to raise awareness about the new form of the old “plantation economy” that the prison industrial system perpetuates. That awareness has led to people lobbying for change, calling on legislators at all levels of government to address this issue, and is what has in part led to the creation and adoption of diversion programs and other alternatives. However, as the activists note, there is still a long way to go before the issue of high incarceration rates can really and truly begin to be addressed in any substantial way.
Are Public Policies Working?
Still, to some extent, these policies are working. The diversion programs are helping to keep people out of jail, which means recidivism rates come down when they are applied. Essentially, this means fewer people within the already overcrowded prisons. That in and of itself is a good thing, particularly when it comes society and the shape of communities. Communities fair much better when the individuals within those communities are able to improve their lives and be a part of something like a job or career for themselves instead of for a multinational corporation working for slave wages (Davis, 2012).
The decriminalization of drug use is also looking like it will benefit communities as well, particularly with the sale of medicinal and recreational marijuana. States are reporting increases in tax revenue on the sale of these now legalized products. With these increases in tax revenue, the money can go into more programs for communities, increased support for infrastructure and so on. By keeping drugs on the black market, the state has no access to those funds—but by legalizing it and regulating the industry, the state can increase its revenue substantially. This could be a way for the federal government to increase revenues as well.
Because much of the increase in incarceration rates started with the War on Drugs (Smith & Hattery, 2006), it may be a good sign for the prison population and the communities who suffer from high incarceration rates that drugs are beginning to be decriminalized. This means that fewer people will be going to jail for drug offenses. Likewise, the pulling back from the strict sentencing for drug crimes may be helping as well, as more states look for alternative solutions at sentencing. Exploring these alternatives is something that more states are doing (Johnson et al., 2015)—one such example is restorative justice.
Alternative Solution
Restorative justice can be a solution to the problem of traditional incarceration. Johnson et al. (2015) shows that the concept of restorative justice is more meaningful both for perpetrators of crime and for victims, who prefer to see restoration rather than incarceration as the outcome of a trial: “victims reported higher perceptions of fairness and greater feelings of justice through the restorative justice programs as opposed to victim reports of traditional justice programs” (p. 2349). Johnson et al. (2015) also note that in cases where restorative justice has been tried, recidivism rates have fallen by 26%. That is a significant decline and indicates that traditional methods of justice, such as incarceration in the prison industrial complex, where many have their lives ruined and from which so many communities suffer, need to be rethought and set aside in favor of new forms of seeing justice done.
The idea that the only way for justice to be done is through prison time is outworn and outmoded. Today’s world needs a better example of how people should live, and restoration is a good place to start. This teaches the criminal that the law is not interested in destroying anyone’s life for making a mistake. It teaches the criminal to have respect for other people and their property. By engaging in restorative justice it teaches the community that this level of respect, appreciation and humility is what makes society function in a positive manner. When entire communities are locked up, it fosters feelings of hatred and these feelings can turn menacing. The best thing that the criminal justice system can do at this point is to implement a better method of dealing with crime and serving justice.
Conclusion
Incarceration rates in the U.S. are the highest of any country in the world. This indicates that there is a considerable problem in the American criminal justice system. As the leader of the free world, it may be time for the U.S. to look at its criminal justice system and address some of the shortcomings that are appearing there. The reason it should be addressed is that there are individual and social consequences of high incarceration rates. People who are locked up have a harder time getting a job when they are released and the risk of recidivism rises. People who are imprisoned are separated from their families and communities and cannot contribute to either in any meaningful way. Because of the nature of the prison industrial complex, prisoners are used by companies as sources of cheap labor, which in no way benefits the prisoner or improves his condition. Alternatives to this issue or to try diversion programs or restorative justice, and recent efforts to decriminalize drug use may also work. The goal should be to keep families together and people out of jail whenever possible.

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