With 5% of the world's population, our country now houses nearly 25% of the world's reported prisoners. We currently incarcerate 756 inmates per 100,000 residents, a rate nearly five times the average worldwide of 158 for every 100,000. In addition, more than 5 million people who recently left jail remain under "correctional supervision," which includes parole, probation, and other community sanctions. All told, about one in every 31 adults in the United States is in prison, in jail, or on supervised release. This all comes at a very high price to taxpayers: Local, state, and federal spending on corrections adds up to about $68 billion a year.The movement is long overdue. The growth of the prison system, and its increasing cruelty, is a shame of the nation. To read this New Yorker piece on the growth of solitary confinement, despite the fact that the practice is torture, despite evidence that it doesn't work, and despite proof that it creates even more violent prisoners, is to cringe.
The answer is obvious. Shut down prisons. But it's not easy. One thing not covered in Webb's Parade Magazine article is the fate of corrections officers, and the communities that have become dependent on them. Are there retraining programs in the works? Severance deals? How will the government, in essence, buy off these powerful unions who've grown in response to public and political demand, however misguided and bloodthirsty that demand is?
The hope is that someone will figure out a way to put the manpower to use, close to home, perhaps on long-overdue government maintenance projects, or in some other crime-fighting capacities. But smooth and efficient re-allocation of resources hasn't been this country's strong suit lately.
