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Americans Get It: We Need to Rehabilitate Inmates By Michael S. Greco, President When it comes to our nation’s enormous prison population, average Americans get what many politicians still don’t: Being tough is not enough. By overwhelming margins, Americans understand that hundreds of thousands of inmates are released back to our communities every year, and that we are all at risk if we don’t help them return home successfully. That is the import of a recent poll conducted by Zogby International for the National Council on Crime and Delinquency. By almost an 8-to-1 margin (87 percent to 11 percent), the U.S. voting public favors rehabilitative services for nonviolent prisoners, as opposed to a punishment-only system, according to the poll. Similar large majorities said prisoners returning to the community should get some assistance with housing, medical and mental health services, drug treatment, family support and mentoring, and that they are more likely to commit new crimes if they don’t. These attitudes run directly counter to a decades-long trend in which federal and local politicians lined up to declare themselves tough on crime. From 1984 to 2004, America’s jail and prison populations tripled, from about 700,000 to 2.2 million, and annual spending on incarceration soared to $24 billion. One of the most profound changes involved the introduction of mandatory minimum sentencing for drug-related crimes. Over time, it has become clear that this form of sentencing has served neither justice nor society’s practical needs. Imprisoning so many Americans is extraordinarily expensive, and the vast majority will eventually return home. Like it or not, nearly 700,000 prisoners will be freed this year. It’s reckless not to prepare them for a successful transition. Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, speaking to the American Bar Association in 2003, said, "Our resources are misspent, our punishments too severe, our sentences too long. … I can accept neither the necessity nor the wisdom of federal mandatory minimum sentences. In all too many cases, mandatory minimum sentences are unjust.” His address led to the creation of an ABA commission that examined issues including racial disparities in the criminal justice system, alternatives to incarceration and prisoner reentry. In the past year, a successor group, the ABA Commission on Effective Criminal Sanctions, has been looking to expand on Justice Kennedy’s vision. The commission is looking at alternative sentencing strategies that offer less-serious offenders a chance to avoid prison and a conviction record; innovative community-based interventions for drug-related crimes that work to reduce recidivism; and measures to make it easier for convicts who have served their time to gain useful employment. In recent years, about half of all states have reformed their sentencing laws, including many that have rolled back or eliminated mandatory minimum sentencing for nonviolent crimes. This is evidence that elected officials are increasingly embracing the public opinion captured in the Zogby Poll that we can be tough on crime when appropriate and be smart at the same time. It is very encouraging that Americans are seeing through the trap of narrow, punishment-only prison systems. We earnestly hope that America’s lawmakers will continue to follow the public’s lead. May 23, 2006 |