Here’s a trivia question for you…

Which country has the largest prison population in the world?

Take a guess.

Answer: The United States

Are you surprised? I was, at first, but now I understand. In the past few decades, the United States has been very “tough-on-crime,” adopting laws and policies that places millions of offenders, including non-violent ones, in prison. This statistic makes me feel…ashamed…and uncomfortable.

Here’s an excerpt from an article published by The New York Times entitled “U.S. Prison Population Dwarfs that of Other Nations” by Adam Liptak…
‘Indeed, the United States leads the world in producing prisoners, a reflection of a relatively recent and now entirely distinctive American approach to crime and punishment. Americans are locked up for crimes — from writing bad checks to using drugs — that would rarely produce prison sentences in other countries. And in particular they are kept incarcerated far longer than prisoners in other nations.’

Now when I consider the enormous incarceration population in this country, I am not surprised to learn of the enormous number of minor violations doled out by the police. I think “excessive” is a good word to describe the punishment for low-level crimes such as fare evasion and public intoxication. Reading the Daily News articles about “surging fare evasion arrests” and “racial disparities in summonses for minor violation” made it clear to me that the negative effect of broken windows policing is evident. I also noticed that the articles were published about two years ago. This made me wonder if anything has been done to reduce the broken windows effect in New York City.

Apparently, changes are on the way. Here’s an excerpt from an article also published by The New York Times entitled “New York City is Set to Adopt New Approach on Minor Policing Offenses” by J. David Goodman
‘Mr. de Blasio and state court officials have tried to address the same problem, altering criminal court procedures to expedite cases and to reduce the number of warrants.
The bills cannot address the way the courts treat minor crimes covered under state law, such as marijuana possession. Instead, they focus on several types of offenses covered by the city’s administrative code, including littering, public urination, public consumption of alcohol, excessive noise and breaking certain park rules.

Such violations, while minor, made up a huge portion of the roughly 300,000 criminal summonses issued by city officers last year, many of them written in minority neighborhoods where the police must also address more serious crimes.’

I think this proposed legislation, although premature, is a good start to change the criminal justice system, and to increase the efficiency and distribution of resources. Ultimately, its important to remember the importance of rehabilitation over punishment. Criminal justice laws and policing should be a reflection of these values.