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As Prison Population Sinks, Jails Are a Steal
HughPickens.com writes After rising rapidly for decades, the number of people behind bars peaked at 1.62 Million in 2009, has been mostly falling ever since down, and many justice experts believe the incarceration rate will continue on a downward trajectory for many years. New York, for example, saw an 8.8% decline in federal and state inmates, and California, saw a 20.6% drop. Now the WSJ reports on an awkward byproduct of the declining U.S. inmate population: empty or under-utilized prisons and jails that must be cared for but can't be easily sold or repurposed. New York state has closed 17 prisons and juvenile-justice facilities since 2011, following the rollback of the 1970s-era Rockefeller drug laws, which mandated lengthy sentences for low-level offenders. So far, the state has found buyers for 10 of them, at prices that range from less than $250,000 to about $8 million for a facility in Staten Island, often a fraction of what they cost to build. "There's a prisoner shortage," says Mike Arismendez, city manager for Littlefield, Texas, home of an empty five-building complex that sleeps 383 inmates and comes with a gym, maintenence shed, armory, and parking lot . "Everybody finds it hard to believe."
The incarceration rate is declining largely because crime has fallen significantly in the past generation. In addition, many states have relaxed harsh sentencing laws passed during the tough-on-crime 1980s and 1990s, and have backed rehabilitation programs, resulting in fewer low-level offenders being locked up. States from Michigan to New Jersey have changed parole processes, leading more prisoners to leave earlier. On a federal level, the Justice Department under Attorney General Eric Holder has pushed to reduce sentences for nonviolent drug offenders. Before 2010, the U.S. prison population increased every year for 30 years, from 307,276 in 1978 to a high of 1,615,487 in 2009. "This is the beginning of the end of mass incarceration," says Natasha Frost. "People don't care so much about crime, and it's less of a political focus."
The incarceration rate is declining largely because crime has fallen significantly in the past generation. In addition, many states have relaxed harsh sentencing laws passed during the tough-on-crime 1980s and 1990s, and have backed rehabilitation programs, resulting in fewer low-level offenders being locked up. States from Michigan to New Jersey have changed parole processes, leading more prisoners to leave earlier. On a federal level, the Justice Department under Attorney General Eric Holder has pushed to reduce sentences for nonviolent drug offenders. Before 2010, the U.S. prison population increased every year for 30 years, from 307,276 in 1978 to a high of 1,615,487 in 2009. "This is the beginning of the end of mass incarceration," says Natasha Frost. "People don't care so much about crime, and it's less of a political focus."
Sure it's good to have fewer people behind bars...if you happen to be people. But corporations run many jails now, and depend on your tax dollars to simply put food on the table for their corporate families. If there are no inmates, who will make money feeding them $0.86 meals, or use 19th century methods of medical care to maximize profits, or make payments on their newly built facilities? It's still a young industry. Won't you think of the corporate children?
I say it's time we stand up and put more people behind bars. For you. For Me. For the corporations. Because when corporations suffer, we all feel the hurt.*
*not really, but it seems like a good slogan
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
...and they'd demand swimming pools and a wine cellar.
Considering that the American prison system is now privatized this is quite scary, because "Prison, Inc." makes money by incarcerating people. If there is a shortage of prisoners...
Well, you do the math.
Political correctness is really just herd psychology pushed by insecure people who desperately seek social conformity.
Zombie Apocalypse Shelters.
The Moore-Murphy Law: The number of things that will go wrong will double every 2 years.
as a "casualty" of the US's insane and poorly thought out War on Drugs...I find this news wonderful.
the idea that people like me, whom got caught up in the drug game due to low self-esteem, need to goto state prisons and waste away with child-rapists, murderers, and "lifers" is not only totally ridiculous, but utterly dangerous.
i spent 22.5 months in Florida prison's, all because I got caught with some MDMA and weed at a rave in Orlando, FL in 2001.
i am basically serving a life-sentence for this crime, as corporate BG checks prevents me for getting hired.
hopefully, now others won't be subjected to the things I've been through.
never bring a twinkie to a food fight.
Hurricanes, flooding, and the occasional viral outbreak would be much easier to weather if some known infrastructure was already in place.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
The main reason for the drop in prison population is because so many criminals in Wall Street went scot free after the 2009 crisis. Just make up the short fall in prison population by jailing the top people of large financial firms. They have long ago gone from "too big to fail" and "too big to jail" to "too big to be free".
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
I notice that the author couldn't resist putting some spin on the story - the part about relaxed drug enforcement.
However -
http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2011/crime-in-the-u.s.-2011/tables/table-1
The government tells us that ALL crime is down. For example, from 2001-2011, the violent crime rate went down 21.9%.
Everything dropped - property crimes, rape, the whole lot.
Am I the only one who thought the prison population was at an all time high?
No worries. Since the for-profit prison industries have politicians firmly in their back pocket, I'm sure new laws will be manufactured to enable the prisons to fill their beds once again.
Or could that be due to other factors? Besides, a lot of it is victimless crime like arresting people for smoking weed.
I think they would probably address the poverty issue rather than decide to look everybody up.
They are bare bones buildings designed to accommodate people in the most basic conditions. They provide shelter, sanitation, feeding infrastructure, physical security, basic medical facilities, and even infrastructure to do productive work.
Any American jail would be luxurious compared to living on the street. Open up empty jails to the homeless populations and food banks. Use the facilities to teach homeless people skills to do a job.
"There's a prisoner shortage"
Framing it this way is typical of a mindset that is depressingly endemic in our culture. We do not have a shortage of prisoners, we have an excess of prisons.
They're probably the ones buying prisons for pennies on the dollar. Watch crime somehow go back up to previous levels right after the for-profit prison industry buys up all the government prisons.
Just arrest and convict all those thousands of politicians (Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians, etc. - they're all crooked).
Easy way to solve the "prisoner shortage".
Put Congress, Wall Street Execs, and Hollywood execs into prison.
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
We teach our children that making money is more important than being happy, ie 'that degree is useless' or 'don't go into that field, you won't get paid much.' Our economy is based on wealth (gotta have money to make money), and our media is obsessed with how great the rich have it (next on Cribs, some athlete's ridiculously huge mansion and garage worth more than the GDP of a small nation).
The schools, the media outlets, hell even the sports teams are owned by the same cabal of very, very wealthy people.
So, if there's a 'wealth envy' issue in America, it's cultural, and the rich have no one to blame but themselves.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
Why couldn't we use them as temporary apartments for the homeless? All the infrastructure is there to meet their needs, just replace the cell bars with a wall/door to add privacy. They now have an address in applying for employment. Showers, laundry, and dining facilities. Common areas could help with job training and education. The medical wing could make efforts to help diagnose mental illness and help people with addiction.
The only thing this requires is effort.
The problem is that once in prison, always in prison. With NCIC records public of both arrest and convictions, even an arrest for PI in college can keep someone from getting meaningful employment.
I know at least a few companies who ask for -arrest- (not conviction) records. The people I asked said that someone can buy their way out of a conviction, but if the cop thinks they are guilty enough to pull out the cuffs, they are guilty.
Felonies are also ridiculously easy to get. In the '80s, if two people were caught racing in their cars, it would be a $111 fine. Now, here in Texas, that is a felony.
Of course, once a felony is on a record, a person is pretty much hosed for life. For insurance reasons, few employers other than call centers will hire felons. They are not part of the voting bloc. They are prey to other felons. They cannot get apartments for the most part. Any brushes with the law will almost certainly result in an arrest. In society, they are persona non grata; the untouchables. This pretty much means that without a solid family support structure, there is no future. Good luck moving to another country. Nobody will take US felons.
So, because there isn't any real way to make income, crime is always available... which usually means arrest and another, longer sentence. Great for private prison profit margins, but a cost center until the person dies... all paid for on the US taxpayers nickel.
Because it's not about reducing kids born to unmarried mothers, it's about not forcing kids to be born to mothers that don't feel they can adequately provide for their children (or just plain don't want them).
It's about being born into poverty, not about whether the mom wears a ring.
You can ridicule it all you want. But even after you take out all the other socioeconomic variables, married folks have kids who outperform their peers in school, contribute more to society, have less medical issues including ADHD and are far less likely to end up in jail.
Call it whatever you like, but all the evidence points to marriage as the cure for a lot of societal ills.