HOLLY WELLS: USA: Land of the imprisoned
Issue date: 5/1/08 Section: State of Mind
In America if you screw up, you go directly to jail. You don't pass go, and you definitely don't collect $200.
The United States comprises less than 5 percent of the world's population, but holds almost a quarter of the world's prisoners. Currently, there are nearly 2.3 million Americans behind bars.
This high number of prisoners reflects America's tough and entirely distinct approach to crime and punishment. Americans are locked up for a greater array of crimes and for much longer than almost any other country in the world.
From writing bad checks or abusing drugs, to committing murder - there are countless offenses that can get you locked up. Criminologists and legal experts point to a number of different factors to explain America's extraordinarily high incarceration rate: harsher sentence laws, the ongoing war against drugs, higher levels of violent crime, racial turmoil and America's anomaly for tough justice.
Whatever the reasons, there is little dispute that America's exceptionally high incarceration rate has impacted crime. America's stance on tough justice has taken criminals off the streets and put them behind bars where they belong, thus lowering crime rates and making our nation safer.
Critics say incarceration is costly, and I'm not denying that. The U.S. spends billions of dollars each year on corrections, but the benefits of incarcerating criminals greatly outweighs both economic and societal costs.
Criminologist and author John Dilulio estimates that the annual cost of keeping a criminal in jail is at least $25,000, while the total social and economic cost to society (including policing, insurance, injuries, replacing stolen property and household expenditures on security measures) of allowing an offender to remain at large is $70,098.
From a financial standpoint, prison is a bargain. Looking at this issue from a societal point of view, incarceration lowers crime rates and ultimately keeps Americans safe.
From 1981 to 1995 the risk of punishment rose in the United States and fell in England, according to U.S. Department of Justice Statistics. The crime rates predictably moved in opposite directions, falling in the United States and rising in England.
Simply put, when America got "tough" on justice, crime rates dropped. When England got "soft" on crime, rates increased.
It's not rocket science.
Some argue that offenders, especially drug offenders, do not belong in prison. This view is very shortsighted.
Research establishes a strong correlation between daily drug use and criminal activities, according to David Rasmussen and Bruce Benson in their book, "The Economic Anatomy of a Drug War."
Incarcerating people involved in drug trade is imperative because it helps thwart the demand for illegal drugs and drives down other crime. Confirming this notion is research that finds that criminal activity increases with the intensity of drug use. A decline in drug use by offenders results in a reduction of non-drug criminal activity, particularly income-generating crimes such as robbery, burglary and theft, according to Rasmussen and Benson.
"The simple truth is that imprisonment works," Kent Scheidegger and Michael Rushford of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation wrote in The Stanford Law and Policy Review. "Locking up criminals for longer periods reduces the level of crime. The benefits of doing so far offset the costs."
Americans feel safer and sleep better at night because of tough crime policies. You can try to blame poverty or race, but you cannot blame miscommunication. Learning right from wrong starts at an elementary level. The inmate population of this nation is a group of people who never learned to make good choices.
The recidivism rate in this country is astounding: 67 percent of offenders will get thrown back in jail. We should not be focused on reducing sentence guidelines or trying to change laws that give criminal offenders a second chance. The current laws are effective.
If you still find it puzzling that crime rates decrease when more criminals are put behind bars, go back to elementary school. You need a refresher course in basic math.
-Holly Wells is a business senior and a staff columnist.
-This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Daily Aztec. Send e-mail to letters@thedailyaztec.com. Anonymous letters will not be printed - include your full name, major and year in school.
The United States comprises less than 5 percent of the world's population, but holds almost a quarter of the world's prisoners. Currently, there are nearly 2.3 million Americans behind bars.
This high number of prisoners reflects America's tough and entirely distinct approach to crime and punishment. Americans are locked up for a greater array of crimes and for much longer than almost any other country in the world.
From writing bad checks or abusing drugs, to committing murder - there are countless offenses that can get you locked up. Criminologists and legal experts point to a number of different factors to explain America's extraordinarily high incarceration rate: harsher sentence laws, the ongoing war against drugs, higher levels of violent crime, racial turmoil and America's anomaly for tough justice.
Whatever the reasons, there is little dispute that America's exceptionally high incarceration rate has impacted crime. America's stance on tough justice has taken criminals off the streets and put them behind bars where they belong, thus lowering crime rates and making our nation safer.
Critics say incarceration is costly, and I'm not denying that. The U.S. spends billions of dollars each year on corrections, but the benefits of incarcerating criminals greatly outweighs both economic and societal costs.
Criminologist and author John Dilulio estimates that the annual cost of keeping a criminal in jail is at least $25,000, while the total social and economic cost to society (including policing, insurance, injuries, replacing stolen property and household expenditures on security measures) of allowing an offender to remain at large is $70,098.
From a financial standpoint, prison is a bargain. Looking at this issue from a societal point of view, incarceration lowers crime rates and ultimately keeps Americans safe.
From 1981 to 1995 the risk of punishment rose in the United States and fell in England, according to U.S. Department of Justice Statistics. The crime rates predictably moved in opposite directions, falling in the United States and rising in England.
Simply put, when America got "tough" on justice, crime rates dropped. When England got "soft" on crime, rates increased.
It's not rocket science.
Some argue that offenders, especially drug offenders, do not belong in prison. This view is very shortsighted.
Research establishes a strong correlation between daily drug use and criminal activities, according to David Rasmussen and Bruce Benson in their book, "The Economic Anatomy of a Drug War."
Incarcerating people involved in drug trade is imperative because it helps thwart the demand for illegal drugs and drives down other crime. Confirming this notion is research that finds that criminal activity increases with the intensity of drug use. A decline in drug use by offenders results in a reduction of non-drug criminal activity, particularly income-generating crimes such as robbery, burglary and theft, according to Rasmussen and Benson.
"The simple truth is that imprisonment works," Kent Scheidegger and Michael Rushford of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation wrote in The Stanford Law and Policy Review. "Locking up criminals for longer periods reduces the level of crime. The benefits of doing so far offset the costs."
Americans feel safer and sleep better at night because of tough crime policies. You can try to blame poverty or race, but you cannot blame miscommunication. Learning right from wrong starts at an elementary level. The inmate population of this nation is a group of people who never learned to make good choices.
The recidivism rate in this country is astounding: 67 percent of offenders will get thrown back in jail. We should not be focused on reducing sentence guidelines or trying to change laws that give criminal offenders a second chance. The current laws are effective.
If you still find it puzzling that crime rates decrease when more criminals are put behind bars, go back to elementary school. You need a refresher course in basic math.
-Holly Wells is a business senior and a staff columnist.
-This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Daily Aztec. Send e-mail to letters@thedailyaztec.com. Anonymous letters will not be printed - include your full name, major and year in school.
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 2
John Thomas
posted 5/04/08 @ 11:16 PM PST
This is silly. Marijuana is non-addictive and far less harmful than alcohol. Prohibition is a counter-productive fraud. In the Netherlands, where marijuana is legal for personal use, they have half the marijuana consumption as the U. (Continued…)
bleumoyen
Kris
posted 5/08/08 @ 8:17 AM PST
I agree, this article is silly. People will always want to use drugs just like people will always want to drink alcohol. I won't even go into how the myriad of pharmaceutical drugs are creating new things for people to get into. (Continued…)
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