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Date: April 30, 2024 Tue
Time: 3:17 am
Time: 3:17 am
Results for imprisonment, economic impacts of
1 results foundAuthor: Florida TaxWatch Title: Over-Criminalization in Florida: An Analysis of Nonviolent Third-degree Felonies Summary: Over-criminalization is the new buzzword among criminologists and legislators looking for ways to reform federal and state criminal justice systems and reduce the cost of corrections. Headline stories once monopolized by tough on crime terminology and prison building and expansion plans, now ask whether over-criminalization is making us a nation of felons. This concern led the federal government in 2013 to create a bipartisan Over-Criminalization Task Force comprised of ten congressmen from large population states like California, Texas, and New York, and southeast regional neighbors Georgia, Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee. The work of this committee, which is focused on reducing the federal prison population, which has skyrocketed tenfold since 1980 (now 219,000 inmates at $7 billion annually), was renewed last month to review the 4,500 statutory federal crimes in the U.S. Code. Federal and state research regarding prison populations support the need for critical analysis. America leads the world in incarceration, with 760 prisoners per 100,000 compared to Britain with 153, Germany with 90 and Japan with 63.4 America incarcerates more than Cuba, China, Venezuela and Russia. America makes up 5% of the world's population, but has 25% of the world's prison Florida statistics reveal an even more acute situation than the national picture. The state prison population (102,225 as of January 2014) is projected to increase to 106,793 by 2017. To add context, in the last 35 years the state population increased 102.8%, but the prison population jumped 402.5%, resulting in state spending on corrections during this same period increasing by 1200%, to $2.4B. This despite the fact that crime statistics have steadily declined during this period, and have reached 30 year lows. Florida has 1.5 million felons living within the state, or one in ten adults. Prison populations are not the only numbers growing dramatically, so are the number of actions criminalized by Florida laws. Thousands of different offenses are now scattered throughout Florida statutes. Some drug and environmental laws do not even require criminal intent. Removing the element of intent means anyone found with illegal substances, or disposing of hazardous waste improperly, commits a felony whether the offense was committed inadvertently or not. Details: Tallahassee: TaxWatch, 2014. 8p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 20, 2014 at: http://floridataxwatch.org/resources/pdf/ThirdDegreeFINAL.pdf Year: 2014 Country: United States URL: http://floridataxwatch.org/resources/pdf/ThirdDegreeFINAL.pdf Shelf Number: 133745 Keywords: Cost-Benefit AnalysisCosts of CorrectionsCriminal Justice PolicyImprisonment, Economic Impacts ofPrisoners (Florida)Punishment |