HIGH IMPRISONMENT NUMBERS DON'T MAKE AMERICA SAFER

The United States has more prisoners than any other Western nation, about 2
million. Of North American and Eurasian countries, only former Soviet
republics have greater prison populations.

Are Americans more prone to criminal behavior than, say, Turks, Irish,
Italians or Germans? We have twice as many prisoners per capita than all of
them combined.

Of course not. Crime levels here resemble those in western Europe. The
difference is the attitude taken toward crime in this nation.

Rhetorically, it sounds good to say we're tough on crime. Unless we
personally know someone who is or has been incarcerated, most of us
probably don't worry much about prisoners, because they deserve to be
punished. The negative effects of our prison systems and crime policies,
however, are hurting innocent people and extending beyond rightful
punishment. Recent dissatisfaction with flaws in the prison system,
however, are likely more about economics than humanitarianism.

Census 2000 revealed numerous blacks and Latinos had moved from the city to
the country, reversing previous trends. This switch wasn't because of
preference, but because they are incarcerated, counted as residents of
rural towns that house prisons. These "captive consumers" are valuable
commodities to rural towns. Prisoners skew income statistics lower,
enhancing towns' candidacy for poverty-directed funds. Because voter
representation is based on population, and prisons increase populations
with nonvoters, prison-town residents gain political clout. States can and
do manipulate this technicality to boost census totals. The impact is
greater today, because prison populations are six times greater than 30
years ago.

Private prisons flourished in the 1980s as rising crime rates and budget
deficits led governments to allow for-profit prisons.

However, with a balanced budget and upswing in the economy for most of the
1990s, investors watched their stock value drop along with the crime rate.
Now, private prisons are no longer Wall Street darlings, no longer relied
upon by governments, and legislators are questioning their management.

Though private prisons promised to show up their government predecessors in
criminal management, one of the largest private prison operations,
Wackenhut Corrections, has had employees indicted for rape or sexual
relations with female prisoners. The U.S. Justice Department sued the
company, alleging guards were beating young male inmates, throwing gas
grenades in cells and holding them in isolation for long periods.

Because private institutions need a population of inmates to perpetuate
their business, they are less interested, if at all, in rehabilitation.
More likely, inmates are discouraged from or punished for acts of kindness
or assistance to other inmates. Guards can and do place people in isolation
for arbitrary reasons, ransack and soil their cells and linens, and destroy
or damage essential court papers. While not all guards are cruel, even
good-hearted people who work in such environments say they feel more
hardened, paranoid and pessimistic from the experience.

Public dissatisfaction probably stems from such news and similar reports of
overpopulated prisons, recidivism, escapes, murders, assaults and
excessively harsh sentences.

The "War on Drugs" established harsh mandatory minimum drug sentences, and
drug offenders now comprise 64 percent of prisons nationwide. Former
President Clinton also enacted legislation to increase minimum sentences.
Since the imposition of minimum sentences, minority sentences are even more
disparately lengthy than terms handed down to white people.

We also now have nonviolent drug offenders serving life sentences.
Criminal? Yes. But worth a life sentence?

In a recent PBS documentary, a retired Drug Enforcement Administration
agent of 20 years said, in spite of his loathing for the drug, he believed
marijuana offenders were "a different breed" from amphetamine, cocaine and
heroin offenders, and he didn't agree with their serving life while rapists
and murderers are getting eight to 10 years. The same program told the
story of Will Foster, serving 93 years without parole after police found a
grow room in his basement. He has no other criminal record, but he does
have three children.

While we may think that children are better off away from parents who
commit drug offenses, wives and mothers are often sentenced as accomplices.
Their greatest offense is falling for the wrong kind of guy.

The bloated prison population in the United States does not reflect our
crime rate in relation to other Western nations. The drug war, mandatory
minimum sentences and the politics and business of prisons crowd jails and
hinder rehabilitation and systemic reform. The longer our prison population
looms in the millions, the more hard-pressed we will be to find someone who
hasn't been adversely affected.