U.S. seeks to fix ‘broken’ justice system
Aims to make sentences more humane, fair
WASHINGTON — While Canada has pushed harsher penalties in a tough-on-crime political agenda, the U.S. signalled Monday it will make sweeping changes to its “broken” criminal justice system that are designed to render it more humane and cost-effective.
After decades of harsh punishments for petty and nonviolent crimes that studies have found are often racially discriminatory and ineffective, the White House hopes the new way forward will reduce bloated prison populations and open the path to rehabilitation.
“Too many Americans go to too many prisons for far too long and for no good lawenforcement reason,” U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said in a speech Monday to the American Bar Association. “It is well past time to implement common sense changes that will foster safer communities from coast to coast.”
On the new policies, he said: “We must face the reality that, as it stands, our system is in too many respects broken.”
Canada’s Conservative government passed an omnibus bill in 2012 that in some ways mimics the U.S. system of imposing often severe minimum sentences for most crimes. Critics call this punishing the crime and not the action. The Canadian law imposes mandatory minimum sentences for some drug crimes, sexual offences against children and violent young offenders.
But the U.S. system failed to reduce serious crime while making it the world leader in per-capita incarceration, with more than two million people behind bars in 2009. U.S. prisons hold 25 per cent of the world’s inmates, although the country accounts for only five per cent of the world’s population.
Holder said the number of inmates in federal prisons has grown an astonishing 800 per cent since 1980, when a “tough-on-crime” mentality progressively took over the justice system under Republican presidents. The growth continues despite the fact federal prisons are now 40 per cent above capacity, Holder said.
As well, incarceration costs have skyrocketed in the U.S. to about $80 billion a year in 2010 from $60 billion in 2009. “It comes with human and moral costs that are impossible to calculate,” he said.
U.S. prisons have become revolving doors for repeat offenders, with nine to 10 million inmates entering and exiting every year. About 40 per cent of federal prisoners and 60 per cent of state prisoners find themselves back inside within three years of their release, Holder said.
Holder announced Monday that his prosecutors will no longer institute proceedings against non-violent, low-level criminals with crimes that carry mandatory minimum sentences. “Because (mandatory minimums) oftentimes generate unfairly long sentences, they breed disrespect for the system,” he said.
He also said he intends to release prisoners who have served lengthy sentences and are not deemed a threat to society.
Finally, Holder said he will use drug rehabilitation centres and community service as alternatives to prison, particularly for young people.
“By reserving the most severe penalties for serious, highlevel, or violent drug traffickers, we can better promote public safety, deterrence, and rehabilitation — while making our expenditures smarter and more productive,” he said.
Examples of people sentenced unfairly abound. In one recent case, Edward Young was helping a neighbour take her deceased husband’s bureau to a flea market. He found some shotgun shells in a drawer. Because he was convicted 20 years earlier of three burglaries, he was prohibited from possessing firearms or ammunition. Police, investigating Young over his involvement in a 2011 burglary for which he was recently found guilty, discovered the ammunition in his home. Married with four young children, he was sentenced by a reluctant judge on May 9 to 15 years in jail.
With rising warehousing costs a main driver of change, 17 states have already taken action. Texas reduced its prison population by 5,000 last year after it invested in drug treatment for non-violent offenders and changed its parole policies. Arkansas reduced its inmate population by 1,400 after similar changes.
Mary Price, vice-president of Families Against Mandatory Minimums, said Holder’s announcement is a great beginning, but there’s more to be done, such as dropping mandatory sentences for all federal crimes, which are primarily non-violent drug crimes.
Real change, she said, will depend on Congress.