PRISON NUMBERS

Acute social observers here and overseas contend America depends far
too much on prisons, as reported in the Daily Press, June 1. Critics
claim America is on an "imprisonment binge." If the mindless
incarceration of two-bit drug dealers and occasional recreational drug
users were stopped, they say, prisons would have a vacancy problem.
Finally, who goes to prison is shaped by racial bias. Black offenders
unfairly, and thereby too frequently, are sent away.

However, reality presents a different picture. Using the standard
measure of the number of prisoners relative to the size of the general
population, state prison incarceration has been decreasing steadily
since 1997. That downward trend is expected to continue.

Additionally, state prisons are not filled primarily with drug
offenders. Inmates are predominately violent offenders, such as
murderers, rapists and robbers.

Finally, the notion of cells being reserved for blacks is murky. The
most recent evidence is that race does not have strong, uniform
effects. Being black rather than white is no greater guarantee of
being confined. There are no consistent findings that race alone
substantially influences who is sent to prison.

The rhetoric far outstrips the evidence. Iron cages are scourges on
society. But fallacious and inaccurate criticism is not helpful.

Roger Hanson

Williamsburg