In Prison Reform, Money Trumps Civil Rights
Those who believe that righteous indignation and protest politics were appropriate in the struggle to end Jim Crow, but that something less will do as we seek to dismantle mass incarceration, fail to appreciate the magnitude of the challenge. If our nation were to return to the rates of incarceration we had in the 1970s, we would have to release 4 out of 5 people behind bars. A million people employed by the criminal justice system could lose their jobs. Private prison companies would see their profits vanish. This system is now so deeply rooted in our social, political and economic structures that it is not going to fade away without a major shift in public consciousness.
Ponder that for a moment.
Our current rate of incarceration is 5 times that of a time less than 4 decades ago.
Our increased incarceration is responsible for 1 million jobs - that is out of a total current workforce of about 152