Gary Wisenbaker, Valdosta Today Opinion Contributor
It’s Jeopardy! and the category is “Geography”. The answer is 2.2 million. And the question: How are the populations of Houston and America’s state and federal prisons alike?
You just doubled your score if you wagered the barn.
When Merv Griffin first aired his now nationally iconic game show in 1964 the U.S. inmate population touched barely over 200,000. It has now grown 11 fold. America now holds 25 percent of the world’s inmates although accounting for only five percent of the world’s population.
This is insane. And the cost to the taxpayers is staggering with federal prison spending alone increasing 595 percent since 1980. Latest annual tab: $6.7 billion.
“But the streets are a lot safer.” Well, not really. Studies show that the rate of violent crime has leveled off over the past 35 years. Sure, exceptions exist and news media sensationalizations skew the perception at times but the data supports the findings.
Nor is the incarceration increase attributable to some sudden and new behavioral pattern shift within America’s population (bootleggers, liquor or drugs, are still bootleggers). Rather, there’s an explosion of proscriptive laws and regulations coupled with societal demands for “tough on crime” policies.
“Three strikes” laws. Mandatory sentencing. Elimination or reducing the availability of parole and probation. Recidivism statutes. These broad policy initiatives and specific policies themselves have attributed to a prison population that is now or becoming more and more non-violent in nature, i.e., crimes that are victimless in nature.
And then there’s Regulation Nation.
Since 1993 the federal government has added 81,000 regulatory laws to the books punishable by fines, imprisonment or both, laws that Congress may not even be aware of. Think about that pillow tag warning, for example.
And because of this, according to “Three Felonies a Day “ author Harvey Silverglate, an average American can commit about three federal felonies per day without even knowing about it.
What has happened is that an essential element for criminal liability, intent or “mens rea”, has been removed. And coupled with the judicial system’s mantra “ignorance of the law is no excuse”, assessing criminal liability got that much easier.
That America has the prison population it does evidences a failed justice system. While wrong doers must be punished, it is not axiomatic that salvable lives be forever destroyed rendering them useless in a society once their debt is paid.
And if this is chaos, and it is, then there is opportunity. Oddly enough, however, both the right and the left seem to grasp the concept that incarceration is not an “end all, be all” solution for all legal infractions.
A bi-partisan bill is making its way through Congress that would revisit sentencing guidelines, mandatory sentencing and the abolishment of federal parole for victimless, possession-only type drug related crime.
Finding common ground on smart-on-crime reforms can result in a national penal system that saves taxpayer dollars, reduces the need for more prison space and, probably most importantly, rebuilds lives.
Southern conservative Republican governors, however, are leading the movement. This makes sense: only Nixon could go to China.
Georgia’s Nathan Deal, for example, has modified his state’s mandatory sentencing guidelines and expanded sentencing judges’ discretion. Since taking office, he has enhanced educational opportunities in the prison system making high school diplomas available (as well as GEDs) and obviated the need to build new prison facilities. Georgia’s approach is reducing recidivism, saving tax dollars and is a nationwide model.
Outmoded policies of mandatory sentencing, guidelines and the like are nothing more than stereotyping. And they are wrong.
The heart of any judicial reform model must include instilling a sense of responsibility in both the ward and the warden.
Enough prisoners to fill up Houston? America, the home of the free, can do better than this.
But just to be safe, you might leave that pillow tag alone.
Gary Wisenbaker, B.A., J.D. is a native of South Georgia where he practiced law in Valdosta and Savannah for 31 years. He has served as state chairman of the Georgia Young Republicans and Chairman of the Chatham County (Savannah) Republican Party. Gary is a past GOP nominee for State Senate, past delegate to the Republican National Convention and has consulted on numerous local Republican campaigns as well as chaired or co-chaired campaigns for President and US Senate on the county and district level. He is the principal and founder of Blackstone, LLC, a corporate communications and public relations concern as well as Wiregrass Mediation Services, LLC, a general civil litigation mediation firm.
Gary hosts his own blog at www.garywisenbaker.com and recently published his first fictional work, “How Great is His Mercy: The Plea”, on Amazon.com. His opinions are regularly published on ValdostaToday.com and the Valdosta Daily Times.
