{"id":7453,"date":"2017-06-06T21:48:01","date_gmt":"2017-06-06T21:48:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/?p=2674597"},"modified":"2017-06-06T21:48:01","modified_gmt":"2017-06-06T21:48:01","slug":"americas-mass-incarceration-problem-in-5-charts-or-why-sessions-shouldnt-bring-back-mandatory-minimums","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/americas-mass-incarceration-problem-in-5-charts-or-why-sessions-shouldnt-bring-back-mandatory-minimums\/","title":{"rendered":"America\u2019s mass incarceration problem in 5 charts \u2014 or, why Sessions shouldn\u2019t bring back mandatory minimums"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0 5px 5px;float:right;height:100px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/americas-mass-incarceration-problem-in-5-charts-or-why-sessions-shouldnt-bring-back-mandatory-minimums\/\" send=\"true\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"large-10 large-centered small-12 columns\">\n<div class=\"entry-meta-date\">Published: Jun 6, 2017, 12:41 pm \u2022 Updated: Jun 6, 2017, 2:38 pm<span class=\"single-comments-link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/2017\/06\/06\/mass-incarceration-jeff-sessions-mandatory-minimum\/80572\/#disqus_thread\" class=\"commentsNameLink\" \/><\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"byline\">By <strong>Tanya Golash-Boza<\/strong>, <em> The Conversation<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Today, the United States is a world leader in incarceration, but this has not always been the case.<\/p>\n<p>For most of the 20th century, the U.S. incarcerated about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bjs.gov\/index.cfm?ty=tp&amp;tid=11\">100<\/a> people per 100,000 residents \u2013 below the current world average. However, starting in 1972, our incarceration rate began to increase steadily. By 2008, we reached a peak rate of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bjs.gov\/index.cfm?ty=tp&amp;tid=11\">760<\/a> incarcerated persons per 100,000 residents.<\/p>\n<p>The increase in incarceration cannot be explained by a rise in crime, as crime rates fluctuate independently of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cbpp.org\/blog\/the-causes-and-costs-of-high-incarceration-rates\">incarceration<\/a> rates. Incarceration rates soared because laws changed, making a wider variety of crimes punishable by incarceration and lengthening sentences.<\/p>\n<p>This sharp increase was driven in part by the implementation of mandatory minimums for drug offenses, starting in the 1980s. These laws demand strict penalties <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/posteverything\/wp\/2017\/05\/15\/mandatory-minimum-sentences-are-cruel-and-ineffective-sessions-wants-them-back\/?utm_term=.3995cb555e65\">for all offenders in federal courts<\/a>, no matter the extenuating circumstances.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/politics\/la-na-politics-sessions-drugwar-20170511-story.html\">Obama administration<\/a> took some measures to roll back these mandatory minimums. In 2013, Attorney General Eric Holder issued a memo asking prosecutors to prosecute crimes with mandatory minimum sentences only for the worst offenders.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this month, however, Attorney General Jeff Sessions <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/2017\/05\/12\/sessions-drug-sentencing-policy-holder-memo\/79394\/\">rescinded that memo and issued his own<\/a>, which requires prosecutors to \u201ccharge and pursue the most serious\u201d offense. The punitive sentiment behind Sessions\u2019 memo is a throwback to our failed experiment in mass incarceration in the 1980s and \u201990\u2019s.<\/p>\n<h3>The rise of mass incarceration<\/h3>\n<p>According to political scientist <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Caught-Prison-Lockdown-American-Politics\/dp\/0691170835\">Marie Gottschalk<\/a>, mass incarceration took off in three waves.<\/p>\n<p>First, in the mid-1970s, Congress began to lengthen sentences. This culminated in the 1984 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.congress.gov\/bill\/98th-congress\/senate-bill\/1762\">Comprehensive Crime Control Act<\/a>, which established mandatory minimum sentences and eliminated federal parole.<\/p>\n<p>Then, from 1985 to 1992, city, state and federal legislators began to lengthen drug sentences. This was the heyday of the war on drugs. It included the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.congress.gov\/bill\/99th-congress\/house-bill\/5484\">Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986<\/a>, which imposed even more mandatory minimum sentences. Most significantly, it set a five-year mandatory minimum sentence for offenses involving 100 grams of heroin, 500 grams of cocaine or 5 grams of crack cocaine.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.congress.gov\/bill\/100th-congress\/house-bill\/5210\">Two years later<\/a>, new legislation added a five-year mandatory minimum sentence for simple possession of crack cocaine, with no evidence of intent to sell. Before then, one year of imprisonment had been the maximum federal penalty for possession of any amount of any drug.<\/p>\n<p>The third wave hit in the early 1990s. This involved not only longer sentences, but \u201cthree strikes laws\u201d that sentenced any person with two prior convictions to life without parole. \u201cTruth in sentencing\u201d policies also demanded that people serve their full sentences. This culminated in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.congress.gov\/bill\/103rd-congress\/house-bill\/3355\/text\">Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994<\/a>, which included a three strikes provision at the federal level.<\/p>\n<p>Notably, these laws were passed during a time when crime rates had begun a precipitous <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cbpp.org\/blog\/the-causes-and-costs-of-high-incarceration-rates\">decline<\/a>. Today, more than half of U.S. states have a three strikes provision.<\/p>\n<p>By the end of the 20th century, there were an unprecedented <a href=\"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/reports\/pie2017.html\">over two million inmates<\/a> in the U.S. That\u2019s more than 10 times the number of U.S. inmates at any time prior to the 1970s, and far more than most other countries.<\/p>\n<h3>The beginning of the end<\/h3>\n<p>Although the current incarceration rate is still high \u2013 about <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pewtrusts.org\/en\/research-and-analysis\/analysis\/2017\/01\/12\/us-adult-incarceration-rate-declines-13-percent-in-8-years\">1 in 37<\/a> adults \u2013 it is at its lowest since 1998.<\/p>\n<p>Imprisonment has decreased over the past decade for two reasons. First, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pewtrusts.org\/en\/research-and-analysis\/fact-sheets\/2016\/11\/33-states-reform-criminal-justice-policies-through-justice-reinvestment\">policymakers<\/a> have started to realize that punitive laws do not work. Second, states are no longer able to continue financing this massive carceral system.<\/p>\n<p>The Great Recession in 2007 gave elected leaders the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ucpress.edu\/book.php?isbn=9780520277311\">political will<\/a> to make cuts to the prison system. After three decades of prison building, many states found themselves with massive systems they were no longer able to finance, and began to release some prisoners to cut costs. This was the first time in 37 years that the number of prisoners went down. By 2011, <a href=\"https:\/\/nyupress.org\/books\/9780814717196\/\">one-fourth<\/a> of states had closed or planned to close a prison.<\/p>\n<p>In 2010, Obama signed the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/feature\/fair-sentencing-act\">Fair Sentencing Act<\/a>, repealing the five-year mandatory sentence for first-time offenders and for repeat offenders with less than 28 grams of cocaine.<\/p>\n<p>This change reduced the 100-to-1 sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine down to 18-to-1. Activists had been demanding this reduction <a href=\"https:\/\/global.oup.com\/academic\/product\/the-first-civil-right-9780199892785?cc=us&amp;lang=en&amp;\">for decades<\/a>, as the only difference between the two drugs is that crack is made by adding baking soda and heat to powder cocaine. Despite similar rates of crack usage in black and white communities, in 2010 \u2013 the last year of the 100-to-1 disparity \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/sites\/default\/files\/assets\/141027_iachr_racial_disparities_aclu_submission_0.pdf\">85 percent<\/a> of the 30,000 people sentenced for crack cocaine offenses were black.<\/p>\n<p>In 2012, after years of steadily increasing prison admission rates, the number of new admissions to federal prisons began to decline. In 2015, just <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bjs.gov\/index.cfm?ty=dcdetail&amp;iid=269\">46,912<\/a> people were admitted to federal prison \u2013 the lowest number in 15 years.<\/p>\n<h3>Crime falls, but public opinion stays the same<\/h3>\n<p>When mass incarceration first started ramping up in the 1970s, violent and property crime rates were high. However, even after crime rates began to decline, legislators continued passing punitive laws. In fact, some of the most draconian laws were passed in the mid-1990s, long after crime rates had gone down.<\/p>\n<p>Incarceration has had a limited impact on crime rates. First of all, it is just one of many factors that influence crime rates. Changes in the economy, fluctuations in the drug market and community-level responses often have <a href=\"http:\/\/press.princeton.edu\/titles\/10731.html\">more pronounced effects<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Second, there are diminishing returns from incarceration. Incarcerating repeat violent offenders takes them off the streets and thus reduces crime. But incarcerating nonviolent offenders has a <a href=\"http:\/\/press.princeton.edu\/titles\/10731.html\">minimal effect<\/a> on crime rates.<\/p>\n<p>But incarceration continued to rise even as crime fell, in part because of the public\u2019s demand for a punitive response to crime. Although there is less crime today than there has been in the past, most people <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gallup.com\/poll\/1603\/crime.aspx\">are not aware<\/a> of this drop.<\/p>\n<p>Thus, the fear of crime persists. This often translates into punitive public policies \u2013 regardless of declining crime rates and the inefficacy of these laws at preventing crime.<\/p>\n<p>Since the election of Richard Nixon, politicians on the left and right have learned that fear-mongering around crime is a surefire way to get elected. Today, when crime rates are at a historic low, politicians continue to stoke the flames of fear. These strategies may win elections, but the evidence shows they will not <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/infographic\/we-can-have-safer-communities-and-fewer-people-behind-bars\">make our communities safer<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><em><br \/>Tanya Golash-Boza is a Professor at the University of California, Merced.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Via the AP. This article was <a href=\"http:\/\/theconversation.com\/americas-mass-incarceration-problem-in-5-charts-or-why-sessions-shouldnt-bring-back-mandatory-minimums-78019\">originally published on The Conversation<\/a>. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><!-- .row --> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today, the United States is a world leader in incarceration, but this has not always been the case. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7141,6813,77,9,5019,441,2324,1,3,6963,61,1736],"tags":[7142,6818,2655,5022,3015,4891,6966],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7453"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7453\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}