The One Percent Solution
The Pew Center's new report, One in 100: Behind Bars in America 2008, is a humiliating admission of our failure as a society. The greatest nation on earth incarcerates 2.3 million adults in jails and prisons—more than 1% of its population? What does that say about our vaunted American values, social fabric, educational system and economic opportunities?
One way to look at "1 in 100" is that 1 out of 100 Americans reach adulthood without having learned what it takes to get along in the modern world. Another way to look at this is that we have a society that doesn't know what to do with one out of every hundred adult citizens. This is not to say that convicts are innocent victims of society, but surely such a high percentage—counted domestically or globally—is a strong signal that something isn't working. It says something more than "We're tough on crime."
The number of Americans incarcerated is both a higher total and a higher ratio than any other nation. The People's Republic of China, which was runner-up, imprisons few people overall, despite more than four times the population. By comparison, the 26 European nations with the largest prison populations have only 1,842,115 inmates combined, or 2.3% of the 802.4 million people. Americans are incarcerated at eight times the rate as Germans.
While keeping repeat offenders off the streets may make this country feel safer, there is no evidence that locking away first-time convicts yields a benefit in public security that is worth the staggering $54 billion economic cost, compared to diversion alternatives that are less expensive and equally effective. For example, Florida's prison population almost doubled between 1993 and 2007. Its crime rate dropped, but New York's crime rate dropped as much and its prison population is actually a little less than it was in 1993.
It's a bad investment as well as bad policy. One percent of Americans in prison (one out of nine black Americans between 20-34) is also 1% not contributing to society: not working, not paying restitution, not paying child support, not paying taxes -- 1% on top of the existing unemployment rate. Oregon, for example, spends about 11% of its general fund on corrections—a state's discretionary budget that would otherwise be available for other uses, such as transportation, healthcare, public safely and education. Between 1987 and 2007, inflation adjusted general fund spending on corrections by all 50 states increased an average of 127%, while spending on education rose only by 21%.
Maybe one reason is that five US states spend as much or more on corrections as they do on education. Averaged over all 50, they spend 60 cents on incarceration for every dollar they spend on schooling. But if our schools aren't equipping 2.3 million Americans with the life skills they need to stay out of prison, prison certainly doesn't teach those skills either. You might say from this study that schools have 1% failure rate. But in terms of rehabilitating offenders, about 50% of parolees are subsequently convicted of committing crimes.
At long last, 
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I haven't been blogging much lately. First we were on vacation in Sweden. Last week was KMWorld in San Jose. 
As I look back on those days spent with you in the community, they have been some of the best gifts.
