America: Land of the Not So Free - Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts

The July 22nd issue of The Economist featured a cover story entitled “Rough Justice in America” that examines America’s love affair with locking up its citizens. The article makes a compelling case lowering both the rate and duration of criminal sentences resulting in imprisonment and increasing resources allocated to treatment programs, non-custodial punishments and probation. Chicago Appleseed Fund for Justice agrees.

America’s rate of incarceration is the highest in the developed world. Nearly one in every 100 American adults is behind bars and, if those on parole or probation are included, one in 31 is under correctional supervision. This is five times higher than Britain, nine times higher than Germany and 12 times higher than Japan. The effects of incarceration are immense. Those that spend time behind bars face a myriad of challenges reentering society, including difficulty finding employment, broken families and a lack of drug and mental health treatment services.

No doubt, there are criminals convicted of violent crimes that deserve to be behind bars and off our streets. However, there is also no doubt that Cook County spends an inordinate amount of time and money imprisoning many non-violent felons that pose little danger to our communities. We are not suggesting that these non-violent criminals should escape punishment for their crimes; they shouldn’t. Instead,we argue that judges should have a mechanism in place to tailor their sentences to give non-violent criminals the best chance of rehabilitation.

Our proposed Cook County Diversion Court does just that. Judges in the diversion court will have the flexibility to sentence non-violent criminals to intensive drug and/or mental health treatment programs and non-custodial probation that allows participants to remain active in both the workforce and their family life, to receive needed treatment for drug addiction or mental health problems and to pursue educational and vocational opportunities.

Lowering America’s rate of incarceration should be a goal for every citizen. Our proposal is a good first step.

To read the full Economist article, please click here.