25 Mar 2016
The scene is not all that unusual. An inmate at a Texas prison is taking a shop class – rehabilitation is important – but he can’t really progress in the class because he can’t read a tape measure. This is the sort of problem that is often encountered when penal institutions try to teach literacy and offer job training. In other cases, the issue involves dealing with the huge number of inmates suffering from mental illnesses. And finally, but certainly high on the list, is drug-related recidivism.
While some people assume that the bulk of the enormous number of people incarcerated in the country are in jails and prisons because they are just “bad people,” the fact is that those who are illiterate, jobless, suffer from mental illness, and are addicted to drugs, form a large part of the inmate population. To get an idea of the magnitude of the problem, consider the following statistics published by the National Association of Drug Court Professionals:
- Eighty percent of the country’s offenders abuse drugs and/or alcohol.
- Almost half the inmates in our prisons and jails are clinically addicted to drugs and/or alcohol.
- Well over half of those arrested for the most crimes test positive for drugs and/or alcohol.
- Between 60% and 80% of drug abusers commit another crime after being released from incarceration, most of the crimes being those associated with drug abuse.
Those statistics are staggering, and when combined with the number of inmates who are functionally illiterate, and those with no job skills, one gets a different picture of who it is we are actually imprisoning. The bottom line is that statistics such as those above have caused many people to re-evaluate the question of mandatory minimum sentences and other policies that lead to incarceration – as opposed to rehabilitation and training – particularly for nonviolent offenses. They are also taking a hard look at the fact that Congress has tended to manufacture more and more offenses.
The result of the current policy, at least on the federal level, is that the federal prison population has increased more than 300% over the last three decades, and now eats up a quarter of the Justice Department budget.
Time for a change?
Law Office of David D. White, PLLC
1201 Rio Grande Street #200
Austin, TX 78701
(512) 369-3737