Smart Decarceration: Achieving Criminal Justice Transformation in the 21st Century, by Matthew W. Epperson and Carrie Pettus-Davis (Eds.)

《Smart Decarceration: Achieving Criminal Justice Transformation in the 21st Century, by Matthew W. Epperson and Carrie Pettus-Davis (Eds.)》

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来源: JOURNAL OF URBAN AFFAIRS,Vol.41,Issue2,P.266-268

语言: 英文

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作者单位: Minneapolis Police Department

摘要: The public perception of the American criminal justice system is informed mostly by the media, with scant understanding of the realities of policing, prosecution, adjudication, and imprisonment. A business major constructing a Gantt chart following an individual from being the subject of a 911 call, to the laying on of hands by an officer of the law, to being shuffled from holding cells to courts would probably end the chart at the penitentiary. Plotting the rest of the chart through the so-called corrections end of the system might crash any software trying to illustrate how prisons and parole bring the accused to the desired end:rehabilitated and restored to society.Smart Decarceration offers a welcome reality check regarding prisons and the failure of the “encarceral state” to reform those convicted of serious crimes. This anthology presents a brief history of prisons in the United States, with many forgotten facts (e.g., prisons were a tourist destination in the 18th century) and catalogs the efforts of a growing number of criminal justice reformers to reduce the likelihood that the accused serves prison time or to reduce the time actually spent behind bars. Voices of the formerly incarcerated inform this anthology and amplify the findings of researchers.Public safety executives and managers would do well to read the book’s wide-ranging conversations about strategies to reduce incarceration and consider parallel tracks toward reform in their own agencies. Smart Decarceration comes very close to illustrating the above-mentioned Gantt chart, with accounts of problems in the criminal justice systems before, during, and after incarceration. Taken as a whole, the book discusses six needed reforms.Bail reformThe inconsistent and at times intentionally punitive practice of setting bail for defendants is researched and excoriated. “Recent studies show that extended pretrial detention, which can be more dangerous than prison, can lead to increased likelihood of recidivism …” (p. 184). Observers of pretrial and arraignment can easily observe how the accused can end up serving an unofficial and seemingly endless sentence, often due to the tardy appearance of defense counsel.Eliminate prosecutorial misconductProsecutors might be surprised to be considered well funded but, in comparison to defendants, their resources are relatively unlimited. With the state behind them, they can overwhelm the defendant with far more legal resources: Simpson-Bly, Chisholm, and Altenburg outline multiple reforms for prosecutors that would promote decarceration. For example, eliminating or weakening “lack of intent” laws—where fellow travelers with offenders during serious crimes get the same serious sentences, even if unaware of the crimes their companions committed—can reduce the number of inmates without previous histories of serious crimes.Shortening prison sentencesChisholm and Altenberg outline several principles that prosecutors and judges can follow to reduce sentences given current court rules and that can be applied to future sentencing guidelines and legislation. Though shortening sentences may seem the most obvious of steps, it isn’t simple, becausethere are thousands of individual justice systems that vary in size and complexity; from urban to rural areas, and from offices that focus solely on felony offenses and others that handle a mixture of forfeitures, misdemeanors, and felonies, there are substantive differences in criminal justice processing. (p. 73)But the earlier a prisoner is released, the less harm is done and the sooner real rehabilitation, in the real world, can begin.Accelerate postsecondary education in prison and following prisoners’ releaseVivian Nixon notes that prisons don’t reform individuals but, rather, incarceration intentionally dehumanizes them. By setting conditions that stunt their social skills, their chance for success “outside” is diminished and recidivism is virtually guaranteed. “[I]n prison I became aware of the educational disparities among the women incarcerated with me. … They had not failed to pull themselves up by their bootstraps; they had been left barefoot by lack of access to quality educational resources” (p. 91). Education in prison can’t make up for all of the lost ground ceded by public education, but it can increase the released prisoner’s capacity to find employment and reclaim some social capital.Remove civil disabilitiesBeyond the corrections’ grasp of released prisoners through parole conditions, other dehumanizing restrictions await the freed offenders Though Maine and Vermont allow felons to vote in prison, many states take away the felon’s right to vote during their parole period, and one state, Virginia, disenfranchises felons for life. Adding insult to injury, the “prisoner reentry industry … extends involvement in the criminal justice system rather than shortens it” (p. 95). When you’re “on paper”—subject to the terms of parole—you’re still a ward of the carceral state, with a virtual jailor’s hand on your shoulder at all times. This diminishes the level of citizenship of those leaving prison, bringing about what’s now being called the Age of Mass Supervision—millions living in a de facto prison without walls.Legislation to mandate components of successful reentryReuben Miller sheds light on marginally successful attempts to increase a prisoner’s chance of success after returning home: … the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act of 2015 calls for an end to life sentences and a modest reduction in mandatory minimum sentences for some nonviolent offenses. It expands the ability of formerly incarcerated people to seal and expunge juvenile records, also for nonviolent offenses, and eliminates most cases of juvenile solitary confinement. Finally, the act enhances support for drug treatment, mental health services, job training, and vocational counseling. (p. 101)Bundled with a cutback in civil disabilities, such assistance following incarceration is indeed cause for hope that a second chance awaits those released from prison.So, what’s missing from this compendium? The book focuses on the dehumanizing effects of prison and the lack of support following incarceration. But civil actions that don’t necessarily lead back to prison can also destabilize the lives of offenders. Housing laws and legal property management practices provide many stumbling blocks to convicts and even those merely arrested and not charged. The growing success of “ban the box” legislation, which restricts the use of criminal records in the job application process, has prompted the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to regulate to some degree the same box on a rental housing application (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, 2016).What else? The book could have given more attention to preventing incarceration to begin with—that is, “smart noncarceration”—although this is such a big subject that it is best covered in a separate volume. I’d make this point based on the impact of the homeland security mantra of “see something, say something” has been around and promulgated since the establishment of the 911 system—long before the events of September 11, 2001. The stated goal is to prevent a crime, but this practice may suggest to neighbors without training in reasonable suspicion and probable cause that some lawful but misperceived behaviors deserve the attention of police officers. This can expand an officer’s definition of what behavior the community feels constitutes a threat to the public, with the result of overpolicing in neighborhoods filled with the formerly incarcerated. And many communities insist that overpolicing is a phenomenon that must be checked, because it leads to an increase in arrest for minor crimes that limit offenders’ options for housing and employment, even if many of those arrests don’t lead to convictions and imprisonment. Reducing the dependence on 911 as the starting point for interaction with law enforcement would reduce the likelihood of an unjustified arrest, unsubstantiated charges, an unsustainable conviction, and an unwarranted jail term.Including such topics would expand on an already rich volume that not only provides insights into the nature of the incarceration problem but offers detailed solutions within and outside the criminal justice system.ReferenceU.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. (2016). Office of General Counsel guidance on application of fair housing act standards to the use of criminal records by providers of housing and real estate–related transactions. Retrieved from https://www.hud.gov/sites/documents/HUD_OGCGUIDAPPFHASTANDCR.PDF [Google Scholar]