Prometheus 6   

Mass incarceration in America? The term seems alien to us. Yet the facts are stark: the United States now has the world's highest rate of imprisonment-more than 2 million Americans behind bars, and another 4.6 million on probation and parole. The imprisonment rate is now also at its highest level in our history: more than 700 per 100,000 Americans, the highest in the world. This vast system of some 5000 federal, state and local penal institutions and its millions of inmates is supported by prison budgets that are also unprecedented-averaging more than $25,000 per inmate or about $50 billion annually. These and other facts have led some observers to speak of the country's incarceration polices being manipulated by a "prison industrial complex."

Despite studies showing this "industry" delivers few long-term economic benefits, prisons are often seen as an economic lifeline-especially in rural communities, making prison budgets hard to touch because many powerful local political arrangements are built on them. Recently, however, states' need to conserve funds has produced the first decline in new incarcerations in 30 years via the early release of nonviolent offenders, even as many of the sentencing policies that built and filled these prisons continue unabated.

There are serious questions about the effectiveness of mass incarceration in reducing crime. On the other hand, substantial research indicates that the massive scale of imprisonment and the long sentences are having disastrous effects of their own. This includes the creation of a large and embittered population of ex-offenders who return to their communities changed for the worse. Given the high rates of recidivism among ex-offenders generally-more than two-thirds of ex-offenders end up back in prison within a few years of their release-this dynamic virtually guarantees a higher crime rate in many urban neighborhoods for years to come.

Mass incarceration in our society disproportionately targets African Americans and Hispanics. African Americans, while only about 12 percent of the total population, constitute nearly 50 percent of the prison population; and approximately forty percent of all black men age 20 to 29 are currently in prison or jail, or on parole or probation. Incarceration is now becoming the norm for a substantial proportion of black American men; more black males go to jail than to college.

Drug-enforcement policies are particularly important for understanding mass incarceration, because during the last twenty-five years, they've produced the largest and most racially disparate increases in incarceration rates. Nationally, more than 450,000 people incarcerated for non-violent drug offenses. In New York State, despite the lack of any evidence of significantly higher rates of illicit drug use for blacks and Hispanics, drug-related incarcerations of young black and Hispanic males is 40 and 30 times the rate, respectively, of young white males. Since the so-called Rockefeller drug laws took effect in 1973, the rate of drug incarcerations in New York increased from 8 percent of the prison population to more than 30 percent. Ninety percent of that group are male; 78 percent are New York City residents; 94 percent are black and Hispanic (although blacks and Hispanics are just 12 percent of the total state population); and 70 percent of them come from just six New York City neighborhoods.
Studies which use a public-health approach to systematically assess the impact of mass incarceration policies show the huge scale of the harm the dynamic of mass incarceration policies-especially those driven by draconian drug laws-is doing to specific black communities and Black America as a whole.

Further intensifying the negative collective impact of mass-incarceration, little support is expressed for the communities and families most affected by the dynamic. Each prisoner's family must carry its own burdens and find ways to compensate for the loss. When this phenomenon occurs on a large scale and for an extended period of time, it may significantly damage the mental and physical health of individuals, families and entire communities-and create or intensify the very social conditions that enable crime to flourish
Felony convictions also mean the loss of the right to vote-which currently affects almost 3.9 million Americans, half of whom are African American. That means that thirty to forty percent of black males age 18 to 30 are disenfranchised. Given that the usual voting rate of this age group, regardless of race, is about 25 percent, it may be that in those areas with high incarceration rates, the number of young black men barred from voting may be greater than those who are legally eligible. This is political disempowerment writ large, not just of individuals but of entire communities.

Further, felony conviction usually means a greatly reduced chance of gainful employment after prison, and being barred from a range of rights and opportunities other Americans enjoy. Obviously, these extensions of incarceration into the post-sentence life of felons affects their families, too-underscoring the possibility that, far from conferring any protection by fighting crime, mass incarceration systematically undermines black family life by destroying a substantial part of Black America's social capital.

From a public-health perspective, we must consider America's high rates of incarceration a negative measure of the society as a whole-akin to such other societal problems as AIDS, infant mortality, addiction, homicide, or school failure. We must recognize that incarceration must be used sparingly-especially for non- violent drug offenders. One way to ameliorate this crisis is to immediately repeal many of the draconian mandatory sentencing laws-especially those for nonviolent drug offenses-and replace the old drug laws with new ones that allow judges the discretion to discriminate between dangerous criminals and the vast number of those defendants with drug-dependency problems. We must also reduce the collateral damage to the children, families, and communities most affected by enacting policies and establishing programs to help them when their family members are sent to prison and when they are discharged from prison.

America must learn to limit the use of incarceration itself and find other means to enforce even just laws. This means reducing the number of Americans behind bars through the use of more effective and less damaging social policies. And it means abolishing the many laws that are patently unjust and counter productive-especially our discredited drug laws, which have led us to make imprisonment "normal" for large groups of Americans.