How incarceration is causing crime

author : Marco Rosaire Rossi topic : FBI | prisons

by Marco Rosaire Rossi

For almost a decade, the crime rate in the United States has been steadily declining. The reasons for this decline are varied, but most criminologists have pointed to the continuous increase in prisons and jail populations as the primary cause. The rationale is that we have less crime because we have fewer criminals on the street. However, something important happened in the last two years that has forced many criminologists to question this theory: in almost all major cities in the country, crime rates -- especially violent crime rates -- have gone up despite the fact that prison and jail populations continue to expand. According to a preliminary FBI report released in June of this year, non-negligent manslaughter increased 4.8% nationwide, the largest jump in 15 years. Murders from last year were up 38% in Cleveland, 42% in Kansas City, 44 % in Charlotte/Mecklenburg County, and an unbelievable 76% in Birmingham. In July, the Senate Appropriations Committee declared that the US is seeing "the largest increase in violent crime... since 1991." These facts negate the "fewer criminals equals less crime" hypothesis, and may show that the continuous expansion of prisons and jails, and the continuous cutting of social services and rehabilitation programs, is causing crime.

William Baker knows crime, and he knows the criminal justice system. Baker, a 47-year-old black man living in Pennsylvania, has been involved in criminal activity ever since he was a kid. Growing up in the ghetto, he started selling marijuana to make money for his parents. He left school in sixth grade and started dealing heroin and cocaine. He became an addict, and easily kept his habit alive during his three terms in prisons -- which included a 15-year sentence for armed robbery. Now, having been out of prison for almost two years, he is working a $10/hour job and wants to turn his life around. "I don't want to be a criminal at 50," he told the New York Times. However, it is not easy. He led a Times reporter down the Pennsylvania Ave. strip, pointing out the various difficulties and obstacles that exist for black men: addicts, hustlers, fortress-like liquor stores, aimless loiterers with no jobs, and crushing poverty. "I don't understand," Baker tells the reporter. "If a man wants to change, why won't society give him a chance to prove he's a changed person?"

Criminologists are starting to put experiences like William Baker's into perspective, concluding that the system may cause more problems than it fixes. A report released by the Bureau of Justice Statistics revealed that the more often people are arrested, the more often they commit crime. According to the report, prisoners who have one prior offense have a 40.6% recidivism rate within the first 3 years on release. From there, the chance of recidivism dramatically increases with every additional arrest, topping off at fifteen with an 82.1% chance. In addition, the problem of committing a serious crime once released from prison seems to be getting worse over time. In 1983, a first-time offender had a 5% chance of committing a serious crime within the first 3 years of being released from prison. By 1994, that figure had jumped to 67%.

There are several reasons why this occurs, but two stand out. The first and easiest one to quantify is the economy. The lost of factory jobs in the United States throughout the 1980s seriously affected unskilled laborers from all demographics. The increase in job competition makes it difficult for prisoners, who have the stigma of their convictions working against them, to find jobs with sustainable wages. The situation is particularly troubling for African-Americans, who experience a tremendous amount of racism that helps them get into prison and keeps them from getting out. Bruce Western, a sociologist at Princeton University, has compiled data showing that in 2004, 72% of black men in their 20s who dropped out of high school and 50% of those who lacked a college education were jobless. The trouble with finding jobs in the legal economy eventually attracts participants for the illegal economy, thus increasing the likelihood that people will find themselves back in prison. There is an ongoing cycle, at least for African-American communities, where high jobless rates leads to high incarceration rates, which leads to high jobless rates. The cycle between poverty and incarceration is also backed by examining recidivism rates for particular crimes. Offenders who commit crimes involving money are more likely to return to prison (around a 70% chance) than those who commit rape or murder (around a 40% chance.)

The other major factor is the breakdown of community -- particular family bonds. In March of 2000, Jeffrey Fagan and Tracey L. Meares of Columbia Law School published a paper showing how incarceration disrupts important social bonds which are the principle factor in developing healthy relationships. Joseph T. Jones, the director for The Center for Fathers, Families, and Workforce Development, agrees. Not just the economy, but also terrible education, absent parents, a lack of good role models and leadership -- all perpetuated when a parent is incarcerated -- has a major influence in increasing crime rates. "Many of these men grew up fatherless, and they never had good role models," Jones said about the men who visit his center. "No one around them knows how to navigate the mainstream society." The added stigma and shame that prisoners feel when trying to reintegrate back into society worsens the situation. Again, there is a vicious cycle with a breakdown of important social bonds leading to incarceration which leads to a greater breakdown of social bonds.

All this information leads to a very simple idea, but still is very difficult for most policymakers and criminologists to grasp: criminals aren't born, they're made. The simplistic notion of "fewer criminals equals less crime" ignores the reflective and dynamic relationship that the criminal justice system has with various communities, and how those communities struggle with other sociological factors. The idea that we can simply "lock up" our problems through tougher punishments and longer sentences obviously isn't working, and is making the problem much worse. In this way, bad policies are the real culprit behind the rising crime rate, with mass incarceration still being one of the worst.