Law & Order: Good Politics, Bad Policy

As recently as 1980, the United States had less than 500,000 people incarcerated in prisons nationwide. That may sound like a large number, but we are a large country and it is in line with the prison populations per capita of other nations. But since then, our prison population has grown much faster than our population did. By 2006, we had 2.2 million people incarcerated (and that number has just grown larger in the last six years). That is far more than any other country in the world.

Some of you may be thinking that our prison population is so large because we have a large civilian population, but that's not the case. Other large population countries have far fewer people in prison. Our prison population is 153% more than Russia's, 505% higher than Brazil's, 550% higher than India, and 2000% higher than Nigeria, Bangladesh, or Indonesia.

Even when the prison population is considered on a per capita rate, we have a much higher rate of incarceration than any other country. In 2006, the United States was incarcerating about 738 people for every 100,000 people in this country. Now that rate has gone even higher -- 760 prisoners for every 100,000 people. To show you how out of whack this is, here are the incarceration rates of the 15 countries with the highest incarceration rates (after the U.S.):

1. Russia...............607
2. Cuba...............487
3. Ukraine...............360
4. Singapore...............350
5. Botswana...............339
6. South Africa...............335
7. Taiwan...............259
8. Thailand...............257
9. United Arab Emirates...............250
10. Poland...............228
11. Israel...............209
12. Libya...............207
13. Iran...............206
14. Mexico...............196
15. Brazil...............191

Even China, with its autocratic government only has a rate of 118 prisoners per 100,000 people. The truth is that out incarceration rate is way out of whack. It should be in the range of other developed nations like Great Britain (145), Spain (145), Australia (126), Canada (107), Italy (102), Germany (95), France (88), Ireland (78), Sweden (78), and Japan (62).

Why does the United States incarcerate a so much larger percentage of its population than any other country does? Are the citizens of the United States so much much lawless than the people of other countries? Of course not. People are the same everywhere. The difference is in attitude and policy.

One of the main causes is the drug war -- a failed policy that has incarcerated millions of non-violent people without affecting the use or availability of drugs. Instead of incarcerating drug users (which in many cases just gives them a criminal record and training in other criminal behaviors), we could be attacking the problem fair less expensively with education and rehabilitation. This would save both lives and money. We should also consider legalizing some (or all) drugs and taxing them -- at least marijuana.

The other main cause of our ballooning prison population is the politics of "law and order". It is very popular for politicians of both political parties to campaign on being tough on crime, and once they are in office they pass laws making more things criminal and instituting longer sentences for all crimes (even non-violent crimes). This works great to get votes (since much of the general public likes the sound of it, but doesn't consider the outcomes).

This push for more crimes and harsher sentences has resulted in our prisons being overcrowded even though we have built more and more of them. We now have 7.1 million Americans under some kind of correctional supervision (prison, jail, parole, probation, etc.). And it is tearing a big hole in both federal and state budgets as we incarcerate more and more people. Even during the current economic mess, most states are increasing spending on prisons while cutting spending on education and help for honest and hurting American citizens.

The criminal justice system in the United States is badly broken, and it is time we fixed it. And it cannot be fixed with more "law and order". We must adjust our attitudes and policies. We must put more effort into prevention and rehabilitation, and we must stop the failed war on drugs. We must stop trying to legislate morality or micromanage the lives of our citizens. We must stop trying to use the law to solve our social problems.

Locking people up and throwing away the key may make some people feel better, but it is no solution to America's problems. It just creates more problems.