Ramos: Prison reform needed, but not the way AOC thinks
As Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez consistently shows her immaturity and ignorance in most of her comments about the environment, the economy and race relations, it is her most recent ones about incarceration that truly demonstrate those traits.
Ocasio-Cortez has called for the abolition of the prison system as “part of a greater restructuring of the criminal justice system.” As with everything else that she comments about, it all relates back to racism and slavery. She truly believes that most of those in jail serving time are there for petty marijuana possession or because of poverty which she believes only occurs within the black and brown communities. She taps into urban legend about marijuana and uses that as a basis for eliminating the whole prison system.
Politicians and reformers like to state that there are over two million people incarcerated in this country and how that is a travesty. They fail to mention that this country has over 327 million citizens and that the percentage of those in jail is less than 1% of that total population, with more than 60% of that group incarcerated for violent crime.
Reviewing the State of NJ corrections offender annual reports, one finds that Ocasio-Cortez’ perspective about those in jail, at least in New Jersey, to be inaccurate or untruthful. In fairness, New Jersey instituted Bail Reform on January 1, 2017 as a means to “decrease jail populations and save costs for counties by eliminating bail in most criminal cases and using a public safety assessment score that helps a judge determine whether to release or detain a defendant”. (pressofatlanticcity.com, April 3, 2019) It was intended to use prior acts and level of crime in determining whether one would stay in jail as opposed to poverty being the factor with the inability to post bail. This policy has decreased the number of those in jail awaiting trial or adjudication of their charges. This system has benefitted mostly those that commit property crimes, narcotics offenses, and public policy offenses.
As with anything, there are many detractors of this bail reform policy. Many find the recidivism rates of these released individuals to be troubling. Their biggest arguments are that while these individuals have not committed violent acts, they are released back into society to again commit similar offenses without worry of being incarcerated long term.
Even as New Jersey has introduced this policy, the total number of individuals incarcerated so far in 2019 is 19,212. Looking at the statistics of those arrested, 63% are in jail for committing violent offenses (murder, aggravated assault, sexual assault, robbery, kidnapping, other sex offenses and other persons offenses). Thirteen percent are incarcerated for narcotics offenses with 84% of that thirteen percent for sale/distribution offenses. Far cry from what Ocasio-Cortez presents.
I will agree with her that there must be a way to improve upon this system. We are losing a generation of individuals to crime and its effects. Prison populations are just a byproduct of that. Ocasio-Cortez rails against the prison-system as if it is the reason people commit crime. She views individuals that commit crime as the real “victims” and looks for any and every reason to excuse their behavior.
To find solutions, society must be honest and realize that these individuals choose to commit crimes. As a just society, we believe in the ideal that people are inherently good and that something triggers the antisocial and evil actions. Especially now, in the victimization generation, everything and everyone else is responsible for negative behavior, even if those excuses go back hundreds of years. But no matter the many studies, reasons, and apologists that have been introduced to excuse criminal behavior, in the end choices are made.
Once society talks about crime and prison reform in that context, the next step must be to consider the victims of crime and what is fair to them. Too often politicians and reformers only represent the perpetrators of crime. In most of the studies of criminal behavior and prison reform, the ones left out of that discussion are those that have suffered at the hands of these individuals. It’s as if their actions have no consequences or are mitigated by all the excuses politicians and reformers can muster.
As a police officer for twentysix years, I never was able to identify one of those victimless crimes that reformers like to reference. Every crime affects someone, even if its society at large. By acknowledging these two factors and accounting for them, can society begin to work to improve the system.