The
High Cost of Jail- Part 1
By Albert B. Kelly
One of the benefits of
living in the 21st century is the amount of data available to us on
almost any subject. Not too long ago I came across a report; “Incarceration’s
Front Door: The Misuse of Jails in America” prepared by the Vera Institute of
Justice.
There’s a lot to consider
in the 56-page report, which focuses on local jails like Cumberland County
Jail, and the first thing is that we as a country incarcerate more of our
citizens than any other country in the world.
They focus here because
the local jail as they describe it is the “gateway to the criminal justice
system”. For the record, there are over 3,000 jails in the U.S. These jails have
nearly 12 million admissions circulate through the doors each year and on any
given day, jails house over 730,000 people.
When we think of “jail” we
think “criminal”- bad guys who deserve to be there. While local jails do house
people awaiting trial for serious offenses, the study says roughly 75% of those
in jail are there for nonviolent offenses like small-time drug possession,
traffic violations, disorderly person’s offenses and other misdemeanors.
A study done of the jail
system in LA County by the institute found that the largest groups in the jail
were those charged with traffic or vehicle-related offenses. In 1983, the
average stay in jail was 14 days; in 2013 it was 23 days. The concern is not
the folks who can make a phone call and post bail in a few hours, but those who
can’t.
The studies’ main point on
misuse is that being detained in jail for multiple days or weeks on minor
charges is often the start of a downward spiral that does more damage to the
individual, his or her family, and the community than the original offense.
Time in jail usually means
the loss of a job and lost wages, loss of an apartment, falling behind on bills
or other financial obligations. The cycle compounds itself from there. It can
lead to homelessness or loss of children. Jail is always unproductive.
The cycle is hard;
consider Chicago where 21% of the people booked in a four year-span from 2007
to 2011 accounted for 50% of their total jail admissions. In NYC from 2008 to
2013, 473 individuals were each booked into jail 18 times or more. No frequent
flyer points here.
We call it “recidivism”
and it’s not always people choosing criminality; it’s because once the cycle is
locked in, people get further and further away from stability and then get
sucked into the cycle of jail-release-jail-release-jail.
Looking through the eyes
of certain individuals and groups, African-Americans are more likely to be
impacted by our penchant for locking people up as are Latinos. The same goes
for the poor and lower income individuals and families.
But maybe you have little
sympathy for people or groups; believing that anyone in jail must belong there
because after all, you’ve never had a problem with “the system”. So be it, but
surely we can agree that from a fiscal standpoint, there has to be a better way
to spend taxpayer money.
From 1982 to 2011,
spending on jails has increased 235% according to this report. And out of the
approximately $60 billion spent in total on “corrections”, $22 billion is spent
on local jails; expenditures that compete with schools, recreation, and a host
of other necessary public services.
If we can cut the number of
jail admissions using alternatives, it would mean lowering the number of
individuals being housed in local jails at any one time and this would lower
overall expenditures on the local and state level. While I don't always agree
with Governor Christie, I do applaud his efforts at finding alternatives to
incarceration such as drug courts and diversion programs.
Imagine the productive
uses we could find for the revenues we’re not spending on locking up low-risk
low-level offenders. Since jail has little to do with “rehabilitation” and
everything to do with punitive punishment, there’s no value added here.
It’s time for creative alternatives
involving drug treatment, relevant job training, serious community service or
some combination of these. Alternatives might include partnerships with
colleges, churches, vocational schools, volunteer groups, businesses, or local industry.
When it comes to jail,
it’s time to think outside the box. Aside from corrections-related jobs, we’re
simply not getting any return on the tax revenues expended on low-risk
low-level offenders cycling through our local jails.