Why Do We Keep Our Aging Prisoners Behind Bars?
The evolving figures on US prison populations represents both good
news and bad news. The good news is that US incarceration rates are no
longer increasing, and have even declined slightly.
The bad news is that we still far outpace the rest of the world in unnecessarily locking people up.
We don’t lock up more people because the US is a more dangerous
place, we lock up more people primarily because we’ve made policy
decisions over the last 30 years that give prosecutors enormous
discretion and we have succumbed to cultural and political will for
punishment that is closely linked to our continuing struggles with
institutional racism and implicit bias.
Our incarceration rates also demonstrate an unwillingness to meaningfully discuss and change our approach to people charged with violent crimes.
But a new report on recidivism data recently released by the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS)
suggests that there are two places we could be making a significant
difference, simultaneously reducing future crime and the costs of mass
incarceration. The report shows a clear pathway that could create a
significantly less expensive system that is fairer, and keeps everyone safer.
Link to Report
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