High Incarceration Rates and the U.S. Criminal Justice System

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 every 100,000 people in the United States. 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 of released individuals carry records that prevent them from being seriously considered for decent employment. Year after year, more people are funneled into the prison industrial complex (Brewer & Heitzeg, 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 U.S. 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 numerous. First, individuals who are incarcerated face a much more difficult path in life than those who are never imprisoned. Second, the likelihood that they will be recycled through the prison industrial complex on more than one occasion is far higher for those previously imprisoned than for those never jailed. Third, a higher percentage of minority males are imprisoned than whites. Fourth, minority communities are 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. Fifth, corporations take advantage of this system by using prison labor as a source of cheap labor, which incentivizes the private sector to perpetuate the system and find legal reasons to keep it going (Davis, 2012; Smith & Hattery, 2006; Soyer, 2016).

All of these factors contribute to a cycle of personal and social injustice that is perpetuated from one generation to the next. This cycle destabilizes any efforts at regeneration and leads to the continued social and moral deterioration of populations that require the support of whole families and communities. The interlinked nature of crime, culture, society, economics, and politics means that this issue cannot be addressed at any single level; it must be addressed holistically because it is not merely a criminal matter—not simply a question of people breaking the law and being punished. It is also a cultural, social, economic, and political issue.

What the Experts Say

Much of the problem is rooted in the more stringent sentencing guidelines adopted during the War on Drugs—sentencing that required longer prison terms, mandatory minimum sentences, the reclassification of some misdemeanors as felonies, and a policy known as "Three Strikes You're Out" (Smith & Hattery, 2006). This more stringent approach to sentencing drug offenders 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 100 million more people than the United States, has in prison for all crimes combined" (p. 3). Moreover, the prison industrial complex has benefitted substantially from these stringent sentencing guidelines: "States and the federal government continue to spend about $10 billion a year imprisoning drug offenders" (Smith & Hattery, 2006, p. 3), which means the prison industrial complex receives $10 billion annually in revenue. Imprisonment has become big business, and instead of helping people with drug issues, it is leading to the destruction of families, communities, and futures.

Drug abuse should be treated as a mental health issue rather than a criminal one, according to Peters, Wexler, and Lurigio (2015). This means that sentencing people to jail is not going to address the underlying problem. Just as the healthcare industry has recognized the need for preventative care—helping people lead healthier lives rather than simply waiting to treat illness—the criminal justice system should be more focused on preventing crime rather than simply punishing it. That means promoting development and growth in communities instead of responding to mental health-related issues with longer and stiffer prison sentences.

The issue runs even deeper, as Davis (2012) demonstrates: the criminal justice system has displayed an inherent racism toward minorities, particularly African Americans. The current approach to the War on Drugs has resulted in a higher percentage of the African American community being incarcerated than any other group. Davis (2012) argues that the current prison population represents a new kind of institutionalized slavery. Smith and Hattery (2006) support this argument with 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 further supports 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.

Conclusion

Incarceration rates in the United States are the highest of any country in the world, which indicates a considerable problem within the American criminal justice system. As a nation that positions itself as a leader of the free world, the United States may need to examine its criminal justice system and address the shortcomings that are becoming increasingly apparent. The case for doing so rests on real individual and social consequences: people who are incarcerated have a harder time finding employment upon release, and their risk of recidivism rises. Prisoners 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, incarcerated individuals are exploited by companies as sources of cheap labor, in a manner that benefits neither the prisoner nor improves his or her condition.

Alternatives to traditional incarceration—such as diversion programs and restorative justice—offer promising paths forward, and recent efforts to decriminalize drug use may yield further progress. The goal should be to keep families together and to keep people out of jail whenever possible, treating addiction as the public health issue it is rather than as an occasion for criminal punishment.

References

Brewer, R. M., & Heitzeg, N. A. (2008). The racialization of crime and punishment: Criminal justice, color-blind racism, and the political economy of the prison industrial complex. American Behavioral Scientist, 51(5), 625–644.

Davis, A. (2012). The meaning of freedom. City Lights Books.

Gramlich, J. (2018). America's incarceration rate is at a two-decade low. Pew Research Center.

Johnson, T., Quintana, E., Kelly, D. A., Graves, C., Schub, O., Newman, P., & Casas, C. (2015). Restorative justice hubs concept paper. Revista de Mediación, 8(2), 2340–9754.

Mears, D. P., Kuch, J. J., Lindsey, A. M., Siennick, S. E., Pesta, G. B., Greenwald, M. A., & Blomberg, T. G. (2016). Juvenile court and contemporary diversion: Helpful, harmful, or both? Criminology & Public Policy, 15(3), 953–981.

Peters, R. H., Wexler, H. K., & Lurigio, A. J. (2015). Co-occurring substance use and mental disorders in the criminal justice system: A new frontier of clinical practice and research. Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal, 38(1), 1–6.

Smith, E., & Hattery, A. (2006). The prison industrial complex. Sociation Today, 4(2), 1–28.

Soyer, M. (2016). A dream denied: Incarceration, recidivism, and young minority men in America. University of California Press.