Senator Jim Webb introduces legislation to reform America's prisons

On March 26, 2009, U.S. Senator Jim Webb (D-Virginia) introduced the National Criminal Justice Commission Act of 2009. This legislative act is designed to create a blue-ribbon national commission that will undertake an 18-month review of all aspects of America’s criminal justice system in order to restructure the entire system. Webb envisions that the Commission would be a bipartisan effort. The legislation recommends that the Commission seek policy changes that would decrease prison violence, improve treatment of the mentally ill, and improve responses to international & domestic criminal activity by cartels & gangs, and other major reforms.
The necessity for restructuring the system is dire. With a population of 307 million the United States has 5% of the world’s population; however, the U.S. houses 25% of the world’s reported prison population. Four times as many mentally ill people are in prisons than are in mental health hospitals.

Senator Webb has presented his research about the American criminal justice system to other members of the Senate. Webb highlights several structural problems with the current system. Webb says, “America’s criminal justice system has deteriorated to the point that it is a national disgrace.” Senator Webb argues that the American prison system is wasteful. Billions of dollars are misallocated. In 2008 for example, the state of California spent nearly $10 billion dollars on its prison system. American neighborhoods have not become safer despite the nation’s prisons becoming overpopulated. Senator Webb has highlighted several components of the prison system that should be addressed in order to reform the beleaguered institutions. Webb argues that the high number of incarcerated people causes more financial stress on taxpayers. Furthermore, post-incarceration programs are insufficient and in some cases non-existent.

Since 1980, America’s prison population has rapidly increased. Despite the trend of higher incarceration rates, Senator Webb claims that American communities have not necessarily become safer. Approximately 1 million gang members live in the United States. Every community in the country is at risk for potential illicit drug activity and thus the consequences of illicit drug use. Gangs are the primary distributors of illicit drugs.
Senator Webb’s office also points out racial disparities. Despite using drugs at the same rate as other racial & ethnic groups, African Americans are more likely to be incarcerated for drug offenses than any other racial or ethnic group. Although African Americans comprise 12% of the U.S. population, they represent 37% of all drug arrests. African Americans also represent 59% of all people convicted on drug charges; and 74% of drug offenders sentenced to prison are African Americans.

Not only are prisoners at risk in the current prison system, employees of prisons are also at risk. Senator Webb acknowledges that many prison systems are plagued by violent working conditions, high administrator turnover rates, low administrative & employee accountability, and inadequate employee training. In his March 2009 speech Senator Webb explained that the Japanese approach to prison administration is different from the U.S. method. In 1984, Webb visited Japan to write a story on that country’s prison system. Webb states that in Japan there is better career progression and more suitable training for prison employees than in the United States.

Dahlia Lithwick commented on the American criminal justice system in an essay titled Our Real Prison Problems: Why are we so worried about Gitmo? The essay appeared in the June 15, 2009 edition of Newsweek magazine. Lithwick writes: “We incarcerate 756 inmates per 100,000 residents – nearly five times the world average. Approximately one in every 31 adults in the United States is in prison, in jail or supervised release.” The American incarceration rate is five times the worldwide average which is 158 inmates per 100,000 residents.

• More than 2.38 million Americans are now in prison; and another 5 million remain on probation or parole.
• International criminal activity mostly from Asian, European, and Latin American gangs and cartels have permeated American communities. Mexican cartels reportedly operate in more than 230 American cities.
• Our prison systems are overcrowded which creates environments where prejudice, physical abuse, and violence are commonplace; Minor drug offenders are swamping American prisons.
• According to the U.S. Department of Justice, 16% of the adult inmates in American prisons and jails (more than 350,000 people) suffer from mental illness.
• In 2007, 60,500 prison inmates reported being sexually assaulted. Sexual and physical assaults are estimated to be 5 to 10 times higher than what is actually reported.
• Another problem area for the American prison system concerns prisoners who are criminally ill – prisoners who become inflicted with diseases such as Hepatitis and HIV/AIDS while in prison.

Once the commission has thoroughly examined the American prison system, I would be curious to find out what solutions they deem necessary to fix our ailing prisons. While reading about the National Criminal Justice Commission Act, I thought about contrasting facts regarding the American prison system. The U.S. houses more prisoners than any other country, however, the U.S. also has a large population and a strong economic infrastructure that can build prisons. There are probably other countries that do not have the economic resources to actually build a substantial amount of prisons and thus cannot incarcerate people. Therefore, I think it would be helpful for the Commission to study prison systems of other countries. I think it would also be important for the Commission to study the ramifications of the death penalty on the criminal justice system.
To see excerpts of Senator Webb’s speech introducing the National Criminal Justice Commission Act of 2009 to the Senate visit: http://webb.senate.gov/email/criminaljusticereform.html