Ya Gotta Wonder – Law, Limits, and Lohan

Several loosely related things come together for me here:

The state of California, subject to a 2010 Supreme Court ruling that the state’s efforts to cram in more prisoners constituted cruel and unusual punishment, a violation of the Eighth Amendment, is responding with actions intended to reduce the population of state prisons;

Lindsay Lohan has violated the terms of her probation but probably won’t be sent to jail;

A look at statistics about crime and prison in the US is interesting, amazing, and puzzling.

Ms Lohan has been charged with drunken driving and shoplifting, sentenced to rehabilitation, probation and performance of community service.  Recently, she returned to court, charged with having “blown off” her community service assignment at a women’s shelter, having missed nine appointments and having left after an hour on another occasion. She was taken from court in handcuffs, then released on $100,000.00 bail, pending another hearing in about two weeks. She has been released from jail due to overcrowding four times in the past. The judge is quoted as having said, “If jail meant something in the state of California now, maybe I’d put her in jail.” A day or two later, Ms Lohan was turned away from her community service assignment at the city morgue when she arrived an hour late. The next day, she was cleaning toilets and performing other menial tasks at the morgue. We’ll have to wait to see what happens next.

It’s clear California has a lot more to worry about than Ms. Lohan. The state is required to “decrease its inmate population by 11,000 over the next three months and by 34,000 over the next two years.” Only those convicted of crimes deemed serious or violent will be incarcerated while others will be released on probation or into “alternative community programs.” In many cases, the convicted criminals will become the responsibility of the local community rather than the state. Some are questioning the ability of the local communities to handle the workload. A “revolving door system” has already been in place. Prisoners are released due to overcrowding; they violate parole and are returned to prison; they are released again. This is an expensive and sorry state of affairs.

Who are these felons and prisoners, anyway? Here’s what Wikipedia says.

In 2008 approximately one in every 31 adults (7.3 million) in the United States was behind bars, or being monitored (probation and parole). In 2008 the breakdown for adults under correctional control was as follows: one out of 18 men, one in 89 women, one in 11 African-Americans (9.2 percent), one in 27 Latinos (3.7 percent), and one in 45 whites (2.2 percent). Crime rates have declined by about 25 percent from 1988-2008. 70% of prisoners in the United States are non-whites. In recent decades the U.S. has experienced a surge in its prison population, quadrupling since 1980, partially as a result of mandatory sentencing that came about during the war on drugs. Violent crime and property crime have declined since the early 1990s. In addition, there were 86,927 held in juvenile facilities as of the 2007 Census of Juveniles in Residential Placement (CJRP), conducted by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.

Wikipedia also tells us, “The United States has the highest documented incarceration rate in the world (743 per 100,000 population).” Russia and South Africa are next in line.

According to the Justice Research and Statistics Association,

the index crime rate, which includes the reported crimes of murder/nonnegligent manslaughter, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny, and motor vehicle theft … was fairly level during the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, before sharply increasing until the early 1970s.

According to the FBI’s uniform crime reports for 2010, arrests for drug abuse violations accounted for 12.5% of all arrests in the United States in 2010. This count was negligible as recently as 1965. 31.8% of those arrested for drug abuse in 2010 were black. 28% of those arrested for all types of crime tracked were black. In 2010, 12% of the United States population was black.

So, what can we make of all this? We have a lot of people in jail. Many of them are in jail for drug abuse. A disproportionate number of people arrested for drug abuse and for all crimes are black. Our prisons are bursting. It’s a minor point that Lindsay Lohan may well be staying out of jail because there is no place to put her. The real question is what is going on here. Are people in this country so much worse than those in other countries? Are we overly zealous about putting people in jail? Could the system be improved? Could we be fairer in deciding who to arrest and who to incarcerate?

Why do we put people in jail anyway? Some figure it’s to punish them for having done wrong and that, having been punished, they will do wrong no more. Things don’t seem to be working out that way. Some figure we incarcerate them in order to rehabilitate them so they will become better citizens. This seems like a good idea, but it does not appear we are really implementing it; we’d have to do a lot more than just lock them up, wouldn’t we? Some people are so violent, dangerous, and antisocial, we probably don’t want them anywhere but in jail. We do then have to ask if want them to be mingled with and teaching people who might actually be rehabilitated. Sadly, I doubt that any major changes to the system are likely. I do, however, wonder if we couldn’t find ways to help those who can be helped. We’d have to identify them, lead them to see the error of their ways, motivate them to change, and help them learn to become more productive members of society.

Well, as it says in the title of this article, ya gotta wonder.

© Charlie Wertz, October 2011

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