Question

What would you suggest to lawmakers as a means of decreasing the overall prison population? Explain your reasoning.

Answer 1

Prison is often the default penal sanction for criminal justice when someone breaks the law. That should not be the way it should be. Prison is not just unfair to those who commit a lower-level crime like drug possession, petty theft, or selling marijuana, it is also a bad sanction for society at large. Prison costs $31,000 a year per prisoner, which also does nothing to prevent re-offending for such offences. For many lower-level crimes, probation, treatment or community service are all the more appropriate, not to mention much cheaper. State legislators and Congress will amend sentencing legislation to make the mandatory sentence for such lower-level offences, such as drug trafficking and small-scale robbery, alternative to jail.

State and federal policymakers will popular the requirements for minimum and maximum sentences, to make them more proportionate to the crimes committed. In the study, we recommend that lawmakers consider a 25 percent reduction as a starting point for the six major crimes (aggravated assault, drug trafficking, murder, non-violent gun offenses, theft and serious burglary) that make up the bulk of the total prison population in the country. It would make our network smarter while helping to protect public safety.

If we know that a good policy is something then we will follow it. Criminal justice changes also only affect potential offenders. If the law is the right approach, however, then we will abide by it. Present prisoners will be willing, on a case-by - case basis, to ask judges for retroactive implementation of the above two laws.

In our report, prosecutors should make use of their discretion to implement the recommendations. Their recommendations on sentencing should not simply be aimed at placing the defendants behind bars for the longest possible time. The best way to keep us all safe is to search out the most proportional sentence for prosecutors – one that suits the offense – not just the harshest.