In the aftermath of the October killing of a New York City police officer by a career criminal, outrage was expressed by many that the perpetrator was not in jail.
Despite the reality that an increase in incarceration, (rates of incarceration increased by 400% from 1970 to 2010, according to the Marshall Project) has resulted in a significantly lower crime rate for the past several decades, some continue to call for alternatives to incarceration that would allow some criminals to roam free.
In his October 17 weekly address, President Obama reiterated several of the myths guiding the call to reverse the strategy that has lowered crime. A White House description summarizes his comments:
“In this week’s address, the President highlighted the problems in our criminal justice system. Our country faces a vicious cycle of poverty, criminality, and incarceration that traps too many Americans and weakens too many communities. There are 2.2 million people behind bars in America today, compared to 500,000 just 30 years ago. This topic isn’t new – the President has talked about the unfairness of much of the criminal justice system since his time in the Senate. And while we’ve taken steps to address this issue, members of both parties agree that we can do more. Over the next few weeks, the President will travel the country and meet with Americans who are working to fix the criminal justice system, from law enforcement officials working to lower the crime and incarceration rates, to former prisoners who are earning their second chance. And he promised to continue to work with Congress to pass meaningful criminal justice reform that makes the system cost-effective, fairer, and smarter, while enhancing the ability of law enforcement to keep our communities safe.”
The Manhattan Institute’s Heather MacDonald writing in the Wall Street Journal, notes that America is in the midst of “the biggest de-legitimization of law enforcement in recent memory.”
Progressives incorrectly allege that the prison population is comprised in large part of nonviolent minor drug offenders. Ms. MacDonald provides more accurate statistics indicating that violent criminals and serial thieves constitute the vast majority of the incarcerated population. 87% of prisoners are in state jails. In 2013, drug offenders made up less than 16% of state prison populations. In the far smaller federal system, only 1% were imprisoned for simple drug possession, and 49% for serious drug trafficking. The next review will find that even those comparatively small numbers will be lowered even further in the aftermath of the dismantling of tough drug laws in the past few years.
The campaign against incarceration has produced a number of startling comments. A New Yorker article by Adam Gopnik typifies the progressive perspective: “How did we get here? How is it that our civilization, which rejects hanging and flogging and disembowelling, came to believe that caging vast numbers of people for decades is an acceptably humane sanction…William J. Stuntz, a [deceased] professor at Harvard Law School… startlingly suggests that the Bill of Rights is a terrible document with which to start a justice system—much inferior to the exactly contemporary French Declaration of the Rights of Man, which Jefferson, he points out, may have helped shape while his protégé Madison was writing ours.The trouble with the Bill of Rights, he argues, is that it emphasizes process and procedure rather than principles. The Declaration of the Rights of Man says, Be just! The Bill of Rights says, Be fair!”
As attitudes against incarceration harden, violent crime increases. Melanie Batley, writing for Newsmax provides a number of examples:
“A city-by-city look shows:
- In Baltimore, shootings are up 82.5 percent, or nearly double from last year…
- In Chicago, there have been over 900 shootings this year, a 40 percent increase, and a 29 percent increase in homicides in the first three months of the year…
- In New York City, murders have increased 20 percent and the mayor has already announced that he will put an additional 330 cops on the street by Monday in response to the spike in homicides and shootings.
- In Los Angeles, violent crime rates increased by more than 25 percent and the city is also deploying more officers to areas where crime is on the rise…
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And according to Townhall.com:
- In St. Louis, there have been 55 murders this year
- In Dallas, violent crime is up 10 percent
- In Atlanta, homicides are up 32 percent
- In Milwaukee, homicides have increased by 180 percent.”
The clear correlation between the increase in incarceration rates and the historic decrease in crime cannot be overlooked. To undue that success poses a true danger to the public.