ONE OUT OF EVERY 31 PEOPLE IN CUSTODY OR UNDER SUPERVISION

The Pew Center on the States issued a new report, One in 31: The Long Reach of American Corrections. According to the report one out of every 31 people in this country are under supervision of the criminal justice system. This includes 1,512,576 in prison, 780,581 in jail, 4,293,163 on probation and 824,365 on parole. The total number who are either incarcerated or on supervision is 7,328,200. That is 3.2 per cent of the adult population. The figures, however vary widely by state and location from 1 in 13 in Georgia to 1 in 88 in New Hampshire.

The report points out that the more people we imprison the less we benefit from the incarceration. There are certainly individuals who’s incarceration protects lives and property. But the more people we incarcerate the less the value to society of the additional incarcerations. Thus many prisoners can be released with relatively little harm to society.

To make matters worse the system is quite racist. Over nine percent of African Americans and 3.7 per cent of Hispanic Americans are either incarcerated or under supervision. This can be compared to only 2.2 per cent of White, non-Hispanic, Americans.

The Pew report concentrates on the cost of maintaining a huge number of people in prison and jails. The 50 states spend approximately 52 billion dollars on corrections, a 300 per cent increase over the last 20 years. When we consider all levels of government the cost has increased by 330 per cent since 1986. This can be compared to a 205 per cent increase in education, an 82 per cent increase in transportation, a 125 per cent increase in higher education and a 9 per cent increase in public assistance. Only Medicaid costs have grown faster than the cost of corrections. While they could only find statistics for 34 states the cost of keeping a person in prison or jail was $79 per day. The cost of supervising a parolee is $7.47 and a probationer is $3.42.

The report recommends a six step program that will reduce crime and at the same time reduce the cost of corrections. First, it suggests that we sort offenders by the risk they pose to public safety. According to report there are a number of risk assessment tools that take into consideration factors such as age at the time of their first arrest and current drugs use that while not being perfect help to predict danger to society.

Second, community treatment modalities must be based on current scientific models. Individualized evidence based plans can reduce crime by 10 to 20 percent and in some cases recidivism can be reduced by 30 per cent.

Third, the use to technological innovations such as electronic monitoring, GPS, and substance testing can be used to inform probation officers of the whereabouts of individuals and their alcohol or drug use.

Fourth, research has found that the use of swift, certain, and proportionate sanctions for criminal activity and supervision violations are more important than the lengthy incarceration.

Fifth, incentives for success are necessary. It is not only necessary to provide benefits for successful defendants but it is also necessary to reward successful agencies and to have means to measure results.

Finally, It is necessary to measure progress It is necessary to determine tje results by measuring recidivism and by increasing the amount money available to use on budget items other than corrections.

A relatively reasonable reduction in prison populations can result in major savings to the state, a decrease in crime, increased money for other budgetary needs and a significant increase in community treatment for offenders.