There’s a surprising consensus spreading across the
political spectrum regarding criminal justice reform. From Rand Paul to Bernie Sanders, the Koch
brothers to the Quakers, everyone has joined the chorus in a syncopated refrain
demanding a solution to a “broken system.”
This is both a reason to cheer and to ponder. Like
all previous reform efforts this latest attempt is focused on the wrong problem
and calls for inappropriate solutions.
The public wants to improve the system but justice reform has never been
a critical issue for voters. That’s
because of a divide between what politicians are promoting and the demands of
the public.
People in general are more concerned with crime control and
reduction than with criminal justice system reform. That’s not to say they don’t want a more
humane, and just system, they just don’t believe that the focus of reform
efforts is in tune with their own interests.
Politically driven justice reform focuses on reducing
incarceration. The public demands public
safety.
Experts from academia, social services, as well as the
public and private sectors, provide legislators with answers to what’s described
as “mass incarceration”. Bad policy
however isn’t the result of not knowing the answers. It’s the result of not asking the right
questions. Not asking crucial questions
targets the wrong problems. Subsequent
solutions only succeed in requiring more remedies in the future and it further
alienates the public.
Reform activists also don’t seem to be aware of two
important facts that render their methods unwarranted. They demand that the system do what it
already does and has done for decades.
They also seem to be unaware that for more than twenty years the justice
system has been changing itself from within.
This ongoing “quiet revolution” goes beyond the scope of reformation to transformation.
Traditional reform efforts are initiated and directed from
outside the system. Selling the idea of
less incarceration to a seemingly indifferent public requires a negative
portrayal of prisons and incarceration in general. The narrative describes a justice system that
incarcerates too many in terms of numbers and necessity. Prisons are too costly and drain not only our
economy but deprive money to our schools and other more vital initiatives. To our shame we have the highest
incarceration rate in the world because we lack or don’t make use of other
options.
Reality paints a different picture. Despite our high incarceration numbers and
contrary to statements that we don’t make use of alternatives, the vast
majority of our corrections population (more than eighty percent in some
states) is under community supervision rather than locked up. States spend about $50 billion yearly on
corrections and about $600 billion on education.
Statistics only give a snapshot of a person’s current
offense. They don’t describe criminal
histories, crime circumstances, or plea-bargaining. By asking crucial questions we can avert
disasters as when corrections departments are ordered through legislation or
the courts to release all “non-violent offenders” who “shouldn’t be locked up”.
So what exactly is wrong with our criminal justice system
and what needs to be done? The premise
of the system has always been offender-focused and is supposed to do things to or for them after they commit a crime.
This means that punishment and rehabilitation are two sides of the same
coin and operating policies and procedures depend in large part on the
political coin toss. The justice system
is also not so much a system as it is a group of individual components each
with its own mission, values and priorities.
It works to process cases rather than to solve problems.
The reason we need an effective crime policy is because of
the system’s steadfast focus on offenders.
We strive to make the system either meaner and harsher or kinder and
gentler on law violators and crime victims are all but ignored. We fool ourselves into thinking we’re
addressing crime when we’re actually
trying to determine the best means of responding to individual criminal behavior. The labels “tough on crime” and “smart on
crime” actually have nothing to do with crime at all. They merely dictate reactive responses after
someone violates the law.
The encouraging news is that despite claims of needing to
fix a broken system, something appears to be working. For more than twenty years we’ve experienced
a remarkable drop in crime. The timeline
corresponds with the conception and growth of a new justice system. What makes the new criminal justice
revolutionary is that it’s a “ground up” rather than the “bottom down” approach
to change. The changes weren’t because
of more laws passed through legislation but because the justice system and
citizens joined forces in partnerships to develop new strategies and operating
practices.
It began with community policing when increasing crime,
disorder and rapid deterioration in our cities forced citizens and business
owners to work with police to develop problem-solving practices at the
neighborhood level. They began by
changing the question and ultimately the mission and goal of their
efforts. Rather than asking how many
more or fewer people to put in prison, they simply asked how they could create
and maintain safer communities.
These practices have spread throughout the other system components. Community courts, community prosecution, and
community probation/parole work with citizens, schools, faith groups and social
services. They combat juvenile
delinquency, domestic violence, drug addiction, gang and gun violence and other
issues.
Even prisons and jails have transformed themselves. The direct supervision model, which was in
its infancy in the 1980’s, has now spread throughout the country. Direct supervision is a microcosm of
community policing in prisons and jails. Officers are in constant and
direct contact with inmates and get to know them so they can respond to trouble
before it escalates into violence.
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) between
1980 and 2002 the state prison homicide rate dropped from 54.0 per 100,000
inmates to an astounding 5.7 per 100,000.
Better architectural design of facilities has also made Attica type
uprisings virtually a thing of the past.
It seems reformers should rejoice at such good news but
instead they portray prisons and jails as if nothing’s changed in the past forty
years.
Perhaps the greatest irony is that the latest calls for
racial justice come when police departments in the inner cities have begun to
work with and for their communities.
Black police chiefs working for Black mayors and working in partnership
with the Black residents in these communities head many of these police
departments.
The people who need protection from those who terrorize them
because they can’t afford to live anywhere else but in the poorest
crime-infested neighborhoods are now marginalized by a sense of misplaced
compassion for their victimizers. It’s
easy to advocate for thugs when you don’t live among them.
Giving citizens and victims a sense of ownership of their
justice system is the way to erase the existing harmful divisions and
mistrust. Citizens must be trusted to
craft policy together with the justice system including the courts. This is already being demonstrated in
neighborhoods from Brooklyn NY to Portland OR.
Partnerships of citizens, faith groups, social services, businesses, and
others working with the justice system have transformed crime-infested areas
into safer, more livable locations.
This transformation must not be hindered because of harmful
and divisive rhetoric. We can only hope
that politicians finally hear and heed the calls of the populace as they work
to transform the system.
