Correcting Corrections

by Deborah Tobola

Comedian John Oliver, with the help of Muppets and music, recently did a segment on his show that skewers the country’s dysfunctional criminal justice system. In his piece, he takes on racism, solitary confinement, sexual assault and the imprisonment of mentally ill people. He ends with the song America's Prison System is Broken.

Prison on T.V. is nothing new, but the wildly popular Netflix series “Orange is the New Black” has brought attention to the realities of prison life and issues surrounding mass incarceration in the U.S. In fact, our broken criminal justice system is a hot topic almost everywhere you look.

The L.A. Times recently took Gov. Jerry Brown to task for failing at prison reform, pointing out that California's prison population is growing again, despite the thousands of prison inmates sent to county jails under “realignment.”

A federal judge recently ruled California's death penalty unconstitutional, calling uncertainties and delays surrounding capital punishment cases “cruel and unusual punishment.” That is a blessing—given the number of botched executions in other states of late.

Some psychologists believe that incarceration in a SHU can cause irreversible psychological effects in just 15 days of confinement. Sometimes people with pre-existing mental health problems are put in solitary. A prison rights group is suing the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections for the suicide of a mentally ill prisoner kept in long-term solitary confinement.

Prison reform is on the agenda in many states. The state of Nebraska, to avoid spending $150 million to build a new prison, has hired a full-time researcher to explore ways to reform the Nebraska prison system.

In Illinois, the Joint Criminal Justice Reform Committee is holding hearings to examine the state’s sentencing policies and the problem of prison overcrowding. Some are arguing that Illinois prisoners 50 and older who have served 25 years or more should be released on parole.

A coalition of churches is calling for prison reform in Wisconsin, including letting eligible prisoners out on parole, releasing aging inmates and ending solitary confinement.

A quick visual created by the Prison Policy Initiative shows incarceration rates in every state, compared to the rest of the world. America has 5% of the world’s population and 25% of its prisoner population. According to its website, if every state were a country, Louisiana would be the prison capital of the world. Not far behind are Mississippi, Oklahoma, Georgia, Texas and Arizona. (California is 25th on the list.)

The latest group to declare that the U.S. prison system isn’t working: the National Research Council has issued a 464-page report that concludes that locking up 1 in every 100 Americans has not been worth the cost to families, communities and state budgets. Mass incarceration neither deters nor reduces crime.

There has been piecemeal reform in the federal criminal justice system. The United States Sentencing Commission has just voted (unanimously) to allow almost one quarter of all federal prisoners—non-violent drug traffickers—to petition for sentence reductions.

Now there’s also a rare bipartisan effort to reform the country's criminal justice system. Tea Party darling Senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) has teamed up with liberal Sen. Cory Booker (D-New Jersey) to author the REDEEM Act, which restricts the use of solitary confinement for juveniles and seals the records of people convicted of non-violent crimes.

Perhaps this will pave the way for more bipartisan reform. It’s time we redefine doing time in America.