Ryan Lugalia-Hollon is a Texas-based writer and strategist. Cooper is the Co-Executive Director of the Institute of Social Exclusion at Adler University, where he actively supports community-based alternatives to incarceration and detention. Ryan Lugalia-Hollon, with the guidance and hands-on support of DataMade. 6 Thus, reducing incarceration and reinvesting in improving communities holds the best promise for improving neighborhoods. 5 Another recent study indicates that incarceration, at best, likely had zero effect on crime between the years of 2000-2013. 4 What’s more, recent research shows that prison cycling - the constant cycling of people in and out of prison in neighborhoods like Chicago’s west and south sides - may actually lead to more crime. In Illinois, more than 50% of prisoners eventually return to prison within three years. Incarceration has been shown to be an ineffective solution to reducing crime, and now more so than ever These factors work together to shape who gets portrayed as a criminal, and who escapes such portrayals. And, without question, we are punishing them for the darkness of their skin. We are also punishing them for the places where they live, the schools that failed them and the employers that rejected them. 3 In other words, we are not simply punishing people for the crimes they commit. Research has made clear that local crime levels are not purely responsible for incarceration rates. Though mass incarceration definitely targets specific places, it is driven by much more than the behavior of people within any given locale. We are unjustly punishing people for their circumstances, not just their actions In parts of Chicago’s West Side, nearly 70 percent of men between ages 18 and 54 are likely to have been subject to the criminal justice system. Not only are the highest incarceration rates concentrated on the city’s west and south sides, but this spatial unevenness has held constant for more than two decades.ġ As a result, most urban residents with felony convictions come from and return to a small number of neighborhoods. Nowhere is this national trend more clear than in Chicago Meanwhile, more affluent and white areas have gone largely unscathed. From this analysis, an emerging consensus has developed: incarceration has had a devastating impact on low-income African-American neighborhoods. Starting with the identification of "million-dollar blocks" in the early 2000s, researchers have been identifying “hot spots” for mass incarceration. Incarceration has had a devastating impact on low-income African-American neighborhoods A more successful reform agenda will include deeper reforms for all types of offenses, and stronger reinvestment into solutions that will actually improve communities. Although this is an important component of reform, drug reforms alone will not go far enough to reverse the effects that incarceration has had on urban neighborhoods. True justice system reform must go beyond common-sense, low-hanging fruit options such as reductions in sentences for low-level drug offenders. As demonstrated by organizations like the Delancey Street Foundation, rebuilding local economies requires a more fundamental approach to criminal justice reform. While addiction treatment and mental health diversion programs are absolutely essential, they do not actively rebuild healthy economies in high-incarceration areas. Meanwhile, there are many interventions that have shown promise in reducing crime, reducing government expenditures and improving cities, neighborhoods, and human lives.įor example, the following interventions are more cost-effective than incarceration, and have all been shown to produce successful results: Justice Reinvestment is realized differently in the various states that have adopted the approach. For more background on the successes and challenges of each of these projects, see the Justice Center at the Council on State Government. The Justice Reinvestment approach has been successfully launched in many states, including : Alabama, Arizona, Connecticut, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Washington, West Virginia, and Vermont. At its core, the approach is committed to shifting government dollars from the unproductive use of mass incarceration to more effective and uplifting investments. Justice Reinvestment is an approach that identifies key drivers of state incarceration rates, and develops practical solutions to reduce or altogether eliminate those drivers. Reinvesting tax dollars to address root causes, not just symptoms
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