Texan Republicans going soft on Prison?

[Stavros]

This article shows: The USA has 5% of the global population, 25% of global prisoners, at a cost of $43bn a year. Three times as many Hispanic males than white are likely to be in prison, and as the article says, According to a landmark Pew report, one in nine black men between the ages of 20 and 34 is behind bars.

And, as the article points out, with its 'hang e'm high' policy on crime, Texas was eventually faced with a staggering bill of $2bn to build new prisons to accommodate all those felons....so, ok, the concept that Corrections should actually mean corrections finally hit home, that crime only pays for construction companies, private prison operators and, presumably, prison warder unions.

So the focus is on people, why they commit crime, how to stop them re-offending. And so it looks like most of the remedies proposed by pinko liberals and do-gooders....actually work. And leading the charge is a Texan Republican....

Follow the money!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/sep/30/robert-francis-texas-judge-jails

[broncofan]

We see a convergence of liberal and conservative policy in Texas but the motivations might be a little different. Either way, it makes sense to try to re-integrate people back into society when they look as though they're not likely to re-offend.

"Just as in BRITAIN, it has been an iron rule in US politics that candidates win elections by talking tough on crime. The result has been a wave of stiff sentencing laws which, combined with the backfiring "war on drugs", mean that the prison population is currently growing 13 times more quickly than the general population"

This is the problem as there is the political pressure to be tougher on crime than good policy and common sense would dictate. This is true even for elected judges, as well as appointed judges to a degree removed since they are appointed by elected officials.

The war on drugs is counter-intuitive because it takes individuals from a troubled background who are addicted to illicit substances and sticks them in an even more hostile environment. Instead of getting medical help for their addiction, or social assistance for that which led to the addiction, they end up in a prison with people stabbing one another with plastic shivs they made in workshop (perhaps I've seen too many movies). When they finally are released they are ex-cons, hardened by the prison system and without much hope for their future. It is absolutely a system for breeding criminals.

[BluegrassCat]

Don't forget the role the media plays with its "if it bleeds it leads" priorities. Even though actual crime has decreased, perceptions of crime have remained high, even increased.

From Gallup: http://www.gallup.com/poll/102262/perceptions-crime-problem-remain-curiously-negative.aspx

[Stavros]

The perception that crime is out of control yet is recorded in relative decline seems to match what people in the UK think. I am sure I read somewhere that a decline in the use of hard drugs and the turf wars that were rife in the 1980s and early 1990s in places like DC are part of the cause of the decline, notably in shootings. Young people still take drugs (as do their parents), but I think this might be one area where social behaviour has merged with tougher sentencing. People just don't do that anymore.

On the other hand, as Broncofan suggests, some drug users who are sent to prison merely have their existing problems magnified, or could it be that their errant behaviour was fuelled by alcohol? The point must be that to stop re-offending, the cause of deviant behaviour must be targeted. The argument in Texas is that they are, for once, trying remedial therapy; but offenders must also want to change their lives for re-offending to stop. It might help public perceptions if the glut of tv programmes about violent crime were diminished, as with those repetitive reality programmes where some f list celebrity 'does America' visiting Ellis Island, Graceland, chicken shacks, and maximum security jails where tattooed mass murderers on death row show off their basket weaving skills. There are alternatives.