About Jails

[jtuck004]

America relies on incarceration more than any other country, and the problem begins in local jails. Jails hold 731,000 people on any given day, with devastating impacts on individuals, families, neighborhoods, and the economy. Research shows that even a small amount of time spent in jail before trial can increase a defendant’s chance of receiving more time behind bars and is associated with future criminal behavior.

Local jails are meant to hold people serving short sentences and to detain those awaiting court proceedings who are a danger to public safety or a flight risk. But they have come to hold many who are neither. Today, the majority of people in jail have not been convicted of a crime and are presumed to be innocent. Despite the country growing safer—with violent and property crime down by nearly half since their peak—annual admissions to jails nearly doubled between 1983 and 2013. And 75% of those in jail, whether they are serving sentences or are being held before trial, are behind bars for nonviolent traffic, property, drug, or public order offenses.

Despite the country growing safer—with violent and property crime down by nearly half since their peak—annual admissions to jails nearly doubled between 1983 and 2013.

The overuse of jail has not affected everyone equally. Many jails have become warehouses for those too poor to post bail or too sick to receive help from often limited community resources. People with mental illness in particular are often swept into jail on minor charges, rather than being directed to the care they need. And jailing has disproportionately impacted communities of color—while African-Americans and Hispanics together make up 30% of the general population, they account for 51% of the jail population.
...


"There are 12 million local jail admissions every year, the equivalent of the combined populations of LA and NYC.


Just a site that you might be interested in exploring. When we look at who is in the jails, clearly we are going down the wrong path. The folks here are looking for a way to reduce over-incarceration in the U.S., because this is a waste of human lives and other resources, and does not make us safer.

[Press Virginia]

1. You think crime rates might be down because so many criminals or people accused

of crimes, remanded or unable to make bail, aren't out on the streets committing crimes? Do you think the actual threat of incarceration prevents people from committing some crimes in the first place?

As the prison population has increased crime rates have fallen...might there be a connection?

[DLevine]

2. "America relies on incarceration more than any other country."

Do you think that's something we should be proud of? Maybe we could learn something from those countries that manage to keep their citizens relatively safe without incarcerating a large percentage of them.

[Press Virginia]

3. has this reliance assisted in the falling crime rates?

Which countries should we be looking to?

[jtuck004]

4. Are you talking about the crime of incarcerating people for their color? Because we do seem to do

quite a lot of that, and it hasn't decreased. In addition to behavior being policed differently based on skin color, there are too many other variables that influence those numbers.

"Crime" is too broad to be able to measure, and it also ignores the above human-caused tragedy. Property crime here is worse than it has been in decades. Crime is down in some areas, but some had begun decreasing before the national trend toward increased incarceration started.

It's kinda like religion - some pray to a being only they see, then something good happens, and they attribute it to that prayer. Can't measure that either.

In addition to prisons, which, clearly, have some impact, there are other inputs to think about...the correlation is just not that simple.

Crime Rates Are Down — But Why?

...
• The “graying of America.” Young people commit most of the crime and the U.S population has gotten progressively older.

• There are now many more social programs for youth which help keep young people occupied and focused on positive goals.

...

Rick Nevin, a Virginia economist who consults with the National Center for Healthy Housing (among other studious pursuits) maintains that the decline in crime can be traced to the U.S. ban on lead in gasoline and house paints. In a series of graphs he demonstrates how the drop in the crime rate coincides perfectly with the coming-of-age of the first generation protected from lead exposure. The theory has not been widely researched because how do you study a group that has not been exposed to something? But, lead has long been associated with violent behavior and Nevin insists his research proves a link between the lead ban and a drop in crime not only here in the U.S. but in nine other countries as well.

Richard Rosenfeld, the former president of the American Society of Criminology at the University of Missouri in St. Louis, also cites the decline in opportunities for criminal behavior. He told reporters a while back that, “During severe recessions like the current one, with chronically high unemployment rates, more people are at home and can act as guardians for their home.” That translates into fewer home burglaries and property crimes. Rosenfeld also says the poor economy has left people with less cash and valuables, making criminals less likely to target them for robbery or theft.
...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/diane-dimond/crime-reduction_b_2878003.html

Simple fact is we jail too many, and too many are black, way out of proportion to the effect it has on crime. Among other things, it represents some of that white privilege we need to shed.

[Press Virginia]

5. The prison population has been falling over the last decade

You could argue sentencing disparities based on race but crime statistics would tend to support the prison population racial breakdown.

Overall the prison population is 1.5million...which hardly qualifies as mass incarceration

54% of those in prison are for violent offenses another 30% are for property or other non violent offenses unrelated to drugs

[jtuck004]

8. We overpolice black folk for the same behavior as white folk, and jail them far

more often.

You skip all that and say "See, they must have been bad guys".

That is a privilege white folks - i.e. most of the nation - have. It doesn't mean the "crime statistics" are anything more than a reflection of planning based on skin color.


If the sample is biased, so is your research and its conclusions. eh?

[Press Virginia]

9. Ummm I can read the FBI's crime statistics...either the victims are lying about who is

committing crimes against them or the FBI is actively lying in its report.
Furthermore 60% of black prisoners are there because they were convicted of violent crimes.
You can argue sentencing disparity but it won't change the stats about who is committing what crimes in what proportion

[Igel]

10. prison =/= jail. n/t

[Press Virginia]

11. 6 months in county lock ups on drunk driving convictions are a big problem for the country?

People in jail are either awaiting trial on a felony that will result in prison or for a misdemeanor that nets them less than a year.

[gopiscrap]

6. The US is getting collectively "older" as a nation

as we age crime and recidivism decrease

[Press Virginia]

7. As does the prison population

[Igel]

12. Jail has another purpose.

Flight risk. Those minlmally attached to their communities and homes are more likely to vanish.

Those in communities that are hostile to the judicial system are more likely to let or even help some "vanish."

Those already in criminal networks or with easy access to them can more easily work *that* system of privilege.


As for the mentally ill, given the laws in this country my BIL was roaming free. It was suspected something was wrong, but my in-laws were too ... cowardly? ... ineffective? ... soft-hearted! ... to even confront him. But when he had a psychotic break and assaulted his sibling he was tossed in jail. Now, the family could have said "no" but instead insisted on incarceration *and* stated up front they didn't want to post bail at that time.

Within 24 hours his behavior got him an eval psych.

Within 48 hours he was committed for observation and severely medicated.

A couple of weeks later he appeared in court and the family and judge worked out that he would be under court order to take his meds, visit the psychologist, and remanded to his parents' custody. At the time, the judge also noted that the young man was indigent by virtue of his illness and put under the state medicaid program. If he failed to take his meds he would be forcibly committed again.

This was the best outcome. The laws made jail his only practical entry point to the mental health care system. That's not funding, that's not being unmerciful, that's saying that the burden of proof and legal hurdles for forcing somebody to get help are so high and so "respectful" of the individual that it hurts many.

[jtuck004]

13. Black people are arrested at four times the rate of whites for dealing pot, even though whites are u

"Black people are arrested at four times the rate of whites for dealing pot, even though whites are up to 32 percent more likely to sell the drug."

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/05/legal-pot-and-the-black-market/481506/

So much for crime stats.