jueves, 29 de abril de 2010

Are bar the answer? - Yes, but does it work?

Panel debates the efficacy of the U.S. criminal justice system, which imprisons more than 2.3 million people

By Amelia Rivera

One percent of the U.S. population today is behind bars, more than any other country in the world. Yet there seems to be no proportional reduction in crime rates when compared to the amount of people imprisoned.

“We are still operating a criminal justice regime of random severity, getting just the worst of all possible worlds. Lots of punishment, and lots of crime,” said Mark Kleiman, professor of public policy at UCLA during a presentation at Town Hall on April 22. A public panel discussion followed.

According to Kleiman, crime rates have fallen by 50 percent since 1994, but the population in prison has increased by 400 percent, which means that there is five times more punishment than there was then. And the reason, he explains, is the lack of predictability in the punishment offenders receive when they recommit. Long stays in prison without any follow up, and consequences for reoffending don’t solve the problem most of the time.

“All things to do with criminal justice are a means to an end, and are costly,” Kleiman said. “We want to do as little punishment as possible, not as much as possible.”

Kleiman presented the experience of Hawaii’s Opportunity Probation with Enforcement, a pilot program meant to reduce probation violations and recidivism by drug offenders and others in high risk populations that was launched in 2004. HOPE is still in place today after reducing arrests for new crimes by 50 percent.

The program has a hotline offenders have to call every weekday to check if they are scheduled to take a drug test. If they test positive, don’t show up or violate any other term of the probation, a warrant for their arrest is issued immediately. They generally spend a couple of days in jail until their probation is modified, and if they reoffend, their jail time either increases or they are ordered to residential treatment.

According to Kleiman, severity is the least important of the principles of punishment in this program, and with its emphasis on probation, it allows the offenders an easier reentry into society, and saves the money that otherwise would be spent for incarceration.

After Kleiman’s presentation, King County Deputy Prosecutor Mark Larson and the rest of the panel started the discussion. Larson said that programs similar to the HOPE probation had been used to reduce car theft in King County. Offenders were warned, and punitive measures for car theft increased, lowering the number of car thefts from 18,000 to 7,000 per year, due to prosecuting a couple hundred more cases.

State Department of Corrections Secretary Eldon Vail mentioned the use of GPS on high risk offenders on probation as one of the supervision technologies used in King County to reduce prison populations safely. He said the act of polishing supervision resources like GPS is “the biggest single thing we can do to reduce prison population.”

Drug Policy Director of the American Civil Liberties Union Alyson Holcomb, and a participant in the dicussion, said that programs like HOPE could reduce incarceration rates and crime, “But a really effective way to stop crime is to stop calling everything a crime” — a statement applauded by the audience.

Holcomb mentioned, in support of her belief, the 1.7 million drugs arrests per year nationwide, half of which are marijuana offenses, with 90 percent of those being for possession only. She pointed out that if marijuana were legalized, it would help save money and allow police departments to focus on prosecuting other crimes.

However, Holcomb questioned the rehabilitation and drug testing aspect of HOPE, because she said that not all drug users were criminals or all criminals were drug users.

Kleiman disagreed, explaining that ”HOPE is not about arresting people for drug possession, and then later drug testing. The whole probation is for felony probationers who have done something actually wrong, and wouldn’t stop unless they stop doing drugs.”