Last week, the Justice Department released about 6,000 inmates early from prison. This is the largest one-time release of federal prisoners in U.S. history. The Justice Department is aiming to reduce overcrowding in prisons and provide relief for drug offenders who received harsh sentences. This action is part of larger effort to reform the U.S. prison system, which is widely recognized as needing massive changes. There has been widespread criticism of the Justice Department’s move, but I believe it is a necessary and powerful step toward comprehensive prison reform.
There is a multitude of fears about releasing these prisoners. A Politico article pointed out that the release of prisoners could create a repeat of the Willie Horton incident in the 1980s. For all of us who didn’t live through the 1980s, Willie Horton was a convicted murderer who was allowed a weekend furlough under a program supported by then presidential candidate Michael Dukakis. During that weekend Horton assaulted a man and repeatedly raped a women. This led to an attack ad during the 1988 presidential campaign that destroyed Dukakis’ campaign. As another article points out, some of the prisoners who are to be released have been convicted for robbery, assault and other serious crimes.
Despite these concerns, prison reform is ultimately going to have to start through sentencing reforms like this. These prisoners are only getting released because of new sentencing guidelines that are being retroactively applied to non-violent drug offenders. Sentencing reforms alleviate one of the main issues for U.S. prisons: overcrowding. Overcrowding prevents effective policing of prisons and does psychological damage to the prisoners. As sentences for first time drug offenders are reduced and the focus shifts to rehabilitation, the number of people in prison will decrease.
More important than just taking on important issues, sentencing reform is the one change that can be made relatively quickly and unilaterally. Compare changing sentencing guidelines to dealing with the privatization of prisons, which many argue is a problem. But regulations for dealing with privatized prisons have to go through Congress. This could take years of battles as prison lobbying works to prevent change and legislators try to not look soft on crime.
In an argument against releasing the prisoners, a New York Times article points out there are very few opportunities for job skill training for these prisoners before release, setting them up to go right back into crime. Better rehabilitation of prisoners, preventing sexual assaults and providing adequate healthcare are all changes that need to be looked into when it comes to U.S. prisons. However, it is unrealistic to expect any of these change to come soon at the federal level. A huge institutional shift needs to take place in order to implement these changes, which could take decades. Focusing on sentencing reforms, which creates change now, is the best way to encourage additional positive adjustments to the prison system.
But what if the worst happens, and one of these released prisoners kills someone or commits another crime? That would be a tragedy, but it’s not a strong enough argument to stop the release of these prisoners. There are people who are serving sentences that are much too harsh, people who are no threat to society. These people should not be held in prison for fear of what a few people might do. This is an important consider, because the early release policy isn’t stopping with this initial group. Potentially 46,000 drug offenders could be eligible for early release. Odds are the media will be able to jump on a few repeat offenders as examples of how this policy has failed. While hearing about this, just try to keep in mind the thousands of other ex-convicts the media won’t cover, the ones who take this opportunity and go on to live productive lives.
Bobby Doyle is an Opinion columnist for The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at b.doyle@cavalierdaily.com.
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