Sessions’ aim on crime off target
Pursues policies that have U.S. tops for prison rates
On the day Jeff Sessions was sworn in as attorney general, the president signed three executive orders pertaining to criminal justice. More recently, Sessions issued a memo to federal prosecutors stating, “It is the policy of the Department of Justice to reduce crime, and addressing violent crime must be a special priority.”
These actions are baffling because data indicate that crime rates across the United States are declining. A 2015 article by Matt Ford in The Atlantic, “What Caused the Great Crime Decline in the U.S.?” reveals, “By the end of the last decade crime rates went down. And then they kept going down…. By virtually any metric, Americans now live in one of the least violent times in the nation’s history.”
The Brennan Center for Justice supports this reporting, “Crime in America is at historic lows nationally, despite recent upticks in a handful of cities. ... The average person in a large urban area is safer walking on the street today than he or she would have been at almost any time in the past 30 years.”
So why rush to issue orders that, at best, relate only to “recent upticks in a handful of cities?”
It’s an important question that needs answering before our nation heads down a path that ignores data and embraces failed policies that have caused the U.S. to become the world leader in incarceration.
Despite declining crime rates, our country imprisons more people than any other nation in the world. In 2016, the Sentencing Project reported, “The U.S. is the world’s leader in incarceration. There are 2.2 million people in the nation’s prisons and jails — a 500 percent increase over the last 40 years.” More disturbing is that the racial disparity of our nation’s prison population is appalling. A Sentencing Project 2015 report confirms that “one in every 10 black males in their 30s is in prison or jail on any given day in the U.S.”
Like other states, Massachusetts is experiencing a decrease in crime. It also imprisons a significant number of people. The good news is we have the lowest incarceration rate in the U.S; the bad news is we are the best of the worst worldwide.
A 2016 Prison Policy Initiative report discloses, “The two U.S. states that incarcerate the least are Vermont and Massachusetts, but if those states became independent nations, they would rank as the 11th and 12th greatest users of incarceration on the planet.”
Massachusetts has a higher incarceration rate than every European nation, and a higher rate than Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, Libya and Somalia. Our racial disparity is also extremely troubling. According to the Sentencing Project, in 2016, the Massachusetts rate of imprisonment for whites was 89 for every 100,000 population, but 605 in 100,000 for blacks, and 351 in 100,000 for Hispanics, the nation’s highest ratio. Although we may be doing better than other states in overall incarceration rates, there’s room for improvement. Declining crime rates provide an opportunity for meaningful “smart on crime” reforms that reduce reliance on incarceration and focus on ways to lower recidivism while maintaining public safety. Massachusetts is taking a first step on this with “Justice Reinvestment” legislation supported by the governor, Senate president, House speaker, and the chief justice of the Supreme Judicial Court. Other states are working on similar initiatives that help release people from prison and keep many out. Such measures will save taxpayer dollars, while further reducing crime, increasing public safety and improving lives.
The recent actions by the president and U.S. attorney general will encourage failed policies and only add more prison beds and incarcerate more people. They should be derailed before upending efforts for successful “smart on crime” reforms. The United States and Massachusetts should focus instead on diverting a greater number of people from prison, creating more opportunities for mental health and substance abuse treatment and providing more programs for prisoners and those returning to their communities.