Crimes in the USA, Current Situation and Causal Factors - Essay Example

Introduction: “If one adds up the total number of people in prison, plus parolees, probationers, employees of correctional s, close relatives of prisoners and correctional employees, and residents in communities where jails and prisons are major employers, tens of millions of people are directly affected each day by the carceral state” (Magnani 283). This quote, although difficult to grasp the scope of, aptly illustrates the self-perpetuated problem that is the United States current policy towards incarceration. Sadly, this policy is not one that is rooted in data, as we will determine later in this analysis. Instead, this mind boggling number is at least partly the fault of the moneyed interests that are heavily invested in the prison system within the United States. Current Situation and Causal Factors The stooges of these moneyed corporate interests are oftentimes politicians. For instance, regardless of the political affiliation of a given politician, one of the very last things that he/she wants is to appear weak on crime to the electorate. Accordingly, politicians are perpetually pushing for stiffer and more draconian sentencing for even non-violent first time offenses. This self-perpetuating cycle of greater and greater numbers of incarcerated person, stricter laws, as well as corporate interests in the ever expansive and privatized role of correctional institutions in the United States bears witness to the failed policies of the War on Drugs and the War on Crime which date back to the early 1970’s. Perpetuation and Historical Analysis Interestingly enough, most Americans are unaware that the actual crime rate of the United States has actually been diminishing for over 20 years now. This is striking information when compared with the following: “Today’s 2 million prisoners (not counting the 5 million who are under supervision of the criminal justice system) represent a prison and jail system ten times larger than that which existed in the United States a mere twenty-nine years ago” (Thompson 39). Figure 1.0 aptly demonstrates the rapid rise in the prison population as a function of time. Figure 1.0 In their article entitled, “Punishment for Sale: Private Prisons, Big Business, and the Incarceration Binge” Selman & Leighton state the following, “War on crime is not rooted in rising crime rates but is rather the result of the rise in public’s concern over crime, which has been wrought not by the criminals in the real world but by the images of the criminals who now break into our living rooms nightly through the window of the television. This information begs the question, if crime rates are continuing to fall or remaining relatively static, then why is the incarceration rate growing so exponentially? The answer to this question lies in borderline illegal financial activity which was first initiated during the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. As the first few years of the war on drugs and the war on crime drew to a close, prisons all over the United States began to be filled to capacity. This influx of inmates necessitated that further facilities be built to house the incarcerated. Naturally, buying the land, erecting the facilities, investing in the technology, paying for more staff, building on-site medical facilities, and enclosing the area with ever more advanced security standards was not an inexpensive proposition. As such, the states went to their legislature for appropriations to build and staff these new facilities. As the economy began to slow during the late 1970’s, state legislatures became more and more reticent to appropriate further money to the criminal justice system as their constituents were beginning to chafe at the mention of such large sums of expenditures for new prison facilities. It is at this juncture that private industry stepped in to fill the void. Select private industries such as: companies such as GE, Wackenhut, American Express, Merrill Lynch, and Allstate offered to front the money to build and staff further facilities – providing the states agree to lease these facilities and their private staff for any further incarceration needs they may have in the future. What was in effect created was a system by which the state legislature did not have to ask for tax payer consent to agree to these deals; as the money needed per year was far below the threshold of the types of investment they were asking tax payers to front when the legislatures were first considering building these facilities themselves. However, what at first was thought to be a fiscal savings has degenerated into a fiscal nightmare with many states doubling and quadrupling their allotted budget to pay for their penitentiary programs. An analysis by the Rockefeller institute noted the following: “In many states, corrections expenditures have increased by more than seven times just since 1980, and they are still rocketing upward by at least 7 and up to more than 10 percent per year in many jurisdictions” (Smith 38). Big Business in the Criminal Justice System At the risk of sounding like a conspiracy theory, it should be noted that these private companies that continue to manage prisons across the United States are operating just like any other business would in their situation. Any business in operation considers profitability in two ways; long term profitability and short term profitability. As such, these firms are behaving not dissimilar to the likes of any other business. These firms continue to lobby, continue to have deep effects on how the American public views crime and punishment, and continue to work to ensure that their business model will remain profitable for the foreseeable future. As one author aptly states, The motive behind the unprecedented growth in the U.S. prison population is the $150 billion being expended annually on criminal justice, much of which eventually winds up in the accounts of the shareholders of some of America’s best known and most respected corporations. The sad fact remains that the state and the citizens are those entities which are most heavily invested in crime and punishment as it relates to the criminal justice system. These two actors, one made up of the other, are the ones that benefit from a reduction in crime, these actors are the ones that craft the nation/state’s policies towards crime, and these actors are the ones that mete out the respective punishment that fits an infraction upon the law. As such, it does not stand to reason that private companies are becoming more and more heavily invested in the process of the criminal justice system. Their presence is a disservice to all involved in the criminal justice process as the motives for their entry are not the reduction in crime statistics or the creation of a better society; instead, their motives are purely profit driven. The United States as Compared to the Rest of the Developed World Comparatively, the level and extent of the privatization of prisons and penal institutions does not seem to be manifest worldwide. Although one cannot draw inference from the overall level of those imprisoned in other countries and compare that to the United States, it is worth noting that the United States imprisons between 5-7 times as many people as comparatively industrialized nations. In fact, the United States imprisons more people than any other country in the world. Figure 2.0 illustrates the incarceration rates in the US as compared with the rest of the world. Figure 2.0 Incarceration rates have little if any effect on crime prevention. Criminologists overseas doubtless view the US model of crime prevention through incarceration as peculiar. Instead of spending billions every year on ever more expansive prison complexes, the money would be more intelligently spent on tackling poverty as countless volumes of research has inexorably proven that crime stems from poverty. In effect, what is occurring is a political and economic chain reaction whereby the prison contracting groups lobby the politicians for further and increased funding. These politicians then in turn market themselves as being tough on crime, regardless of the amount of fiscal discipline they profess, and the electorate never ceases to fall for the same tired trick. Policy Recommendations/Conclusion With respect to policy recommendations that would help ameliorate this problem, there are several. Firstly, government institutions should be made increasingly resistant to the incessant lobbying/marketing that is applied to them by the private sector. Lobbying within the government has rarely produced a net positive and more often than not only serves to enrich one firm or group at the overall expense of another. In this aspect lobbying is a net loss for the constituents as their best interests are not being served whatsoever in the truest form of a democratic system. Additionally, the further definition of laws and drafting legislation that specifically lays out which entities are responsible for managing the penitentiary system and to what extent is a clear priority. In this case it is necessary to be as specific as possible with regards to the fact that the penitentiary system is an arm of citizen rehabilitation; therefore, private contractors may have their place in this process – but certainly not with being responsible for contracting to operate the entire penitentiary system. Lastly, the very tenets of the criminal justice system hinge upon the belief of the people that the law and its implementation/administration is impartial; hence the immortalized veil over the eyes of lady justice. If private companies and monied interests are allowed to continue to lobby and gain influence within this vital foundation of liberty, the belief of the people in the institutions which they have for so long supported may very well be shaken. Therefore, the necessity to remove the “for profit” arm of private industry from the penitentiary system is one of the utmost importance. Works Cited Magnani, Laura. "Market Values Permeate Both Foreign Policies And Prison Policies." Peace Review 23.3 (2011): 279-286.Academic Search Complete. Web. 9 Apr. 2014. Thompson, Heather Ann. "The Prison Industrial Complex." New Labor Forum (Sage Publications Inc.) 21.3 (2012): 38-47. Business Source Complete. Web. 9 Apr. 2014. Smith, Anthony. "The Prison Industrial Complex: A Growth Industry In A Shrinking Economy." New Labor Forum 3 (2012): 38. Project MUSE. Web. 9 Apr. 2014. Read More