Debate Desk
Is Mass Incarceration America's Real Crime Problem, Not Crime Itself?
America imprisons many people, but most state prisoners are serving time for violent offenses; reform should target nonviolent cases, not violence.
The claim
The United States has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world. Critics say that harsh sentences, driven by the war on drugs and mandatory minimums, filled the prisons with people who posed little danger, tore apart families and communities, and did nothing to make anyone safer.
The answer in three points
- Incarceration is a response to crime, not an independent cause of it. The prison population rose after crime rose sharply in the 1970s and 1980s, and crime fell in the 1990s as incarceration grew. Some of the decline owes to removing repeat offenders from the street.
- The common picture of a prison full of people held for minor drug use is mistaken. A majority of the people in state prisons are serving time for violent offenses, and many drug convictions follow plea bargains from more serious charges.
- Reform is still needed at the edges. Conservatives led efforts in states such as Texas and Georgia to reduce costs and recidivism with treatment, work programs and review of long sentences for nonviolent offenders. The First Step Act of 2018 was signed by a Republican president. Smart reform and tough enforcement of violent crime go together.
The numbers
- The Bureau of Justice Statistics reported about 1.2 million people in state and federal prisons at the end of 2022, with the large majority held in state prisons.
- The Bureau of Justice Statistics reports that more than half of state prisoners are serving sentences for violent offenses.
- The First Step Act of 2018 expanded earned time credits and eased some mandatory minimum sentences for federal offenders, according to the text of the law.
What they will say next
"The rate is higher than in any other democracy." True, and it reflects also that America has higher rates of violent crime than its peers. A country with more murders will have more people in prison for murder.
"Prison does not rehabilitate." Many programs do little, and some do help. Work, education and treatment inside prison can reduce return rates, and conservatives have championed them.
"Long sentences do not deter." Certainty of being caught deters more than severity. That favors policing and prompt prosecution over very long terms for marginal offenses, and it also favors keeping dangerous people locked up for as long as they remain dangerous.
"Racial disparities show the system is unfair." Disparities deserve scrutiny of how laws are applied. They are also related to differences in victimization rates, and the people hurt most by crime are often the people living in the same neighborhoods.
The aim is a system that protects the public, punishes fairly and gives those who can change a way to do so.
"Sentences in America are longer than elsewhere." They are, and sentencing reform that focuses on nonviolent offenders is a conservative cause in several states. Violent offenders are a separate matter.