THROWING AWAY THE KEY

Criminal-Justice System Desperately Needs Reform

Disturbing new statistics show the American criminal-justice system
continues to pour new inmates into crowded jails and prisons. It's an
expensive solution that often fails to solve the problems.

A high rate of imprisonment may be a factor in a reduced crime rate in
recent years but, in the long run, it also may be giving some criminals new
skills to use once they're released.

The Justice Department reports that at the end of 2001, nearly 6.6 million
men and women were either incarcerated or on probation or parole. That's
3.1 percent of the country's total adult population. Just under 2 million
of that total were imprisoned.

The United States now has the highest rate of adult incarceration of any
country in the world, having recently surpassed Russia. The American
Society of Criminology, an organization of criminal-justice professionals
and scholars, said in a 2000 report that the American philosophy "has
shifted from one of rehabilitation between the turn of the century and the
middle of the 20th century to a philosophy of deterrence and, more
recently, retribution."

Rehabilitation and deterrence should be the primary goals. Retribution --
especially when the punishment doesn't fit the crime -- often just creates
more intractable criminals.

Justice Department figures show that the numbers rose in every category of
what's called the "correctional population." The number of people on
probation increased 2.8 percent and the number on parole went up 1 percent.
The jail population was up 1.6 percent, while the prison population rose
1.1 percent.

Illegal drugs -- and mandatory sentencing rules -- have exacerbated these
numbers. Drug abusers frequently don't get effective treatment for their
addiction, so they commit more crimes when released from prison.

The growth in the prison population is unsustainable. In 1980, fewer than
500,000 people in the U.S. were in prison or jail. Last year, that total
had quadrupled.

Some habitual criminals need to be removed from society. But reversing the
trend of growing prison populations will require improved crime prevention
methods and better rehabilitation programs. In addition, there needs to be
more discussion of ethical and moral issues facing everyone from youngsters
to corporate executives.

Missouri and Kansas are part of this national correctional population
problem. At the end of last year, 104,100 people were either incarcerated
or on probation or parole in Missouri. In Kansas the figure was 32,400.

The American system for handling criminals desperately needs reform and the
best thinking that citizens can offer. At the moment, the system drains
resources that could be better spent elsewhere, and it fails to alleviate
many of the fundamental problems.