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Date: November 25, 2024 Mon
Time: 9:14 pm
Time: 9:14 pm
Results for incarceration (u.s.)
1 results foundAuthor: Chettiar, Inimai M. Title: Reforming Funding to Reduce Mass Incarceration Summary: The criminal justice system in the United States is vast. It touches every state and locality, creating a web of law enforcement and legal agencies. As with all complex enterprises, this system is honeycombed with incentives that steer or deter behavior, for good or ill. Changes to criminal law can only do so much in a justice system that relies heavily on the discretion of individual actors. One key factor affects individual behavior and agency policies: money. Funding structures of criminal justice agencies - direct budgets and grant awards - can create powerful incentives. This is true at all levels - federal, state, and local. Federal spending is one focal point. Washington spends billions of dollars each year to subsidize state and local criminal justice systems. Specifically, the Justice Department administers dozens of criminal justice grants. In 2012, just some of the largest programs, including the Community Oriented Policing Services and Violence Against Women Act grants, received more than $1.47 billion. The Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) program is the largest nationwide criminal justice grant program. Although JAG represents a small percentage of nationwide dollars spent on criminal justice, it retains an outsize influence on activities and policy. Because it funds a wide array of areas, rather than funding one kind of activity, JAG extends its reach across the entire system. Its dollars flow to local police departments, prosecutor and public defender offices, courts, and others. State and local actors rely on JAG funds year in and year out. JAG, in its original form, was created almost 30 years ago. Not surprisingly, it provides funding driven by criteria developed at a time of rising and seemingly out-of-control crime. JAG has not faced substantial overhaul since then. Today, the country faces very different criminal justice challenges. On the one hand, crime and violence have fallen sharply across the country. Fears for safety, and crises such as the crack epidemic, have receded into history. The murder rate is almost at its lowest rate in a century. At the same time, however, a far more disturbing trend has emerged: the growth of mass incarceration in the United States. With less than 5 percent of the world's population, we have almost 25 percent of its prisoners. More than 68 million Americans - a quarter of the nation's population - have criminal records. Over half the people in prison are there for drug or nonviolent crimes. One in three new prison admissions are for parole violations. The cost to taxpayers has soared: Today, the nation spends more than $80 billion annually to sustain mass incarceration. True social costs, such as the harms to families, communities, and the economy, are far higher. Fortunately, in recent years policymakers and the public have begun to advance a new approach to criminal justice, one that fights crime and violence but turns away from thoughtless criminalization and over-incarceration. A wave of innovative reforms, pioneered in cities and states, is starting to reshape criminal justice policy. These new approaches, grounded in data, seek to align public policies to target major public safety goals while reducing unintended consequences. They focus on major, violent crime without mindlessly punishing people. Significantly, these changes are uniting activists and leaders of all political ideologies. Details: New York: Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law, 2013. 72p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed November 26, 2013 at: http://www.brennancenter.org/sites/default/files/publications/REFORM_FUND_MASS_INCARC_web_0.pdf Year: 2013 Country: United States URL: http://www.brennancenter.org/sites/default/files/publications/REFORM_FUND_MASS_INCARC_web_0.pdf Shelf Number: 131705 Keywords: Costs of Criminal JusticeCriminal Justice PolicyImprisonmentIncarceration (U.S.) |