Awkward Utopia

There is a study that has just been published by the JFA Institute on America’s prison/incarceration dilemma. It cites a report by PEW Charitable Trust which states that “under current sentencing policies the state and prison population will grow by another 192,000 prisoners over the next five years. The incarceration rate will grow from 491 to 562 per 100,000 population.” A chart shows that in 1970 there were fewer than 200,000 prisoners in state and federal prisons. As of 2006 that number was somewhere around 1.2 million! Even accounting for our population increases since 1970 the increase in our prison population is still alarming.

So what is to blame? “The study points to dramatic increases in the proportion of felony convictions resulting in prison sentences and in the length of stay those sentences require.” According to the Department of Justice, the average sentence in 1993 was 66 months compared to only 65 in 2002. Yet the average time served jumped from 21 months to 30 months in the same time period. So the culprit appears to be lengthier stays and increases in number of crimes considered felonies rather than sentencing changes.

As far as economic costs are concerned, here is a quick breakdown from the report (in averages):

Crime—————-Economic loss to victims——Cost of incarceration:
Robbery————-$1258——————————-$113,000
Burglary————-$1545——————————-$64,000
Larceny Theft——-$730———————————$47,000
Auto Theft———–$6646——————————-$41,000

Furthermore, the study points out and provides evidence against some of the “myths” surrounding incarceration, namely:
1. There are “career criminals” we can identify and whose imprisonment will reduce crime.

2. Tougher penalties are needed to protect the public from dangerous criminals, and;

3. Tougher penalties will deter crime.

I have been saying for years that our system is going through a felony-frenzy. Just recently one of our very own at UF (Tony Joiner) was charged with felony burglary for taking his girlfriends car out of a tow yard. Luckily for him, he is a Safety for the Gators so the owner claimed “it was all a big mistake,” and I doubt anything serious will result. As for the rest of us ordinary citizens, everyday we are bombarded with felony charges and it has gone to far. It has become economically unfeasible to continue in our trend, but no fear, the politicians will provide a great and compelling speech on why we need to be kept “safe,” but my question is, at what expense?

To exacerbate the problem and make change almost impossible, in our own great State of Florida we don’t even allow ex-cons to vote, for life! That’s right, convicted felons are disenfranchised from their voting rights for the rest of their life. And we’re not alone. There was an article published in 2004 detailing how at any given moment 14% of Georgia’s black male population is barred from voting (20% in Rhode Island).
Unreal as it seems, I think this study brings to light some of what is going wrong in our justice system and I expect that in the future we will be hearing more of it.

The report may be viewed at:
http://www.jfa-associates.com/publications/srs/UnlockingAmerica.pdf