It's time to fix our broken prison system and save money doing it

Can we finally bring an end to the madness of incarcerating so many Black men?

The budget crises faced by states might be the key to breaking our nation’s abhorrent incarceration rates for Black and Latino men.

We’ve all heard powerful arguments about the high social cost of keeping men of color locked up:

• the price paid for raising children without fathers
• relegating men to low-income jobs because they have a record or spent their prime working years in prison
• voter disenfranchisement
• broken families
• broke communities

All of these problems have social costs and real economic costs.

But somehow, the arguments are always pounded down by the law-and-order politicians who make specious arguments about public safety.

(Our “post-racial” society that is still automatically suspicious of dark-skinned brethren hasn’t been sufficiently outraged about inequities in the criminal justice system to do much about it either.)

Well, maybe this time the tune will change. Because this time it’s about big money. Not just the people’s money, not just the money lost by low-income communities. But BIG money, as in many billions of dollars.

State and local governments all across the country are facing budgetary crises. And they could cut billions out of their expenditures by reducing incarceration rates.

Governments could make quick use of an extra $16.9 billion a year, the amount that could be saved by cutting the number of jailed nonviolent offenders in half.

The Center for Economic and Policy Research released a new report on the potential savings to state and local governments if they cut the prison population, with virtually no risk to public safety.

Over the last 30 years, violent crime and property crime rates have gone down. Over the same period, incarceration rates have exploded. In other words, crime is not the reason more people are in jail. It’s a political choice.
Even for 2009, in the midst of the recession, FBI statistics show crime rates falling. They keep going down despite hard economic times, which we often think will drive people to take desperate measures.

In 2008, federal, state, and local governments spent about $75 billion on corrections, according CEPR. Nonviolent offenders make up about 60 percent of those in jail or prison, so cutting that group in half could offer substantial savings for strapped states and localities.

Take a cue from the downward trend in juvenile incarceration. States have been closing juvie facilities because arrests are down, as the AP reported.

Since it costs about $200,000 a year to hold a juvenile, there’s a potential for considerable savings. As states are laying off teachers, benching firefighters, and leaving poor children without health insurance it seems like a good time to reevaluate our priorities.

The juvenile justice system is taking a different approach than the adult one, with an emphasis on rehabilitation rather than punishment, the AP points out.

The juvenile system is focusing on the worst offenders, and steering those convicted of lesser crimes to other programs.

The result is that between 2000 and 2008, the number of juvenile offenders dropped 26 percent, from about 109,000 to 80,000.

While juvie facilities are losing residents, adult facilities are getting more crowded. Take one of the biggest governmental budgets anywhere: the state of California designates 11 percent of its state budget to prisons, while just 7.5 percent goes to higher education. Prisons here are so crammed they operate with double the number of inmates facilities were built to handle. And it's expensive, California spends about $50,000 per year per inmate. Other states spend around $22,000 per year per inmate. If those prisoners were out earning a living, even on a modest salary, they'd easily offset such costs.

Couldn’t California find a better use for $8 billion a year? Couldn’t all states find more productive ways to spend the billions they allocate for corrections.

Even for those who are deaf to the social well-being arguments, can we get your attention if we just talk about the dollars?

Alyssa Giachino is an economics writer for TheLoop21.com. She has worked as a reporter in New York, New Jersey, Mexico City and California covering stories on labor, the environment, immigration and politics.