Earlier this year, President Trump signed into law The First Step Act, a first step toward criminal justice reform. The goal is to reduce the sky-high U.S. incarceration rate, which is five times higher than other developed countries in the world.
The Mississippi Legislature is likely to pass similar reforms at the state level. House Bill 1352, the Criminal Justice Reform Act, passed 110-5 and now goes to the state senate. Phil Bryant called for criminal justice reform in his last state of the state address, so he is sure to sign any legislative efforts into law.
The state reforms are far more important than the federal reforms because two million prisoners are in state and local prisons compared to 225,000 in federal prisons. Mississippi has one of the highest incarceration rates in the nation, which means it has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world. There must be a better way.
The proposed reforms are significant, expanding interventional drug and mental health courts as a diversion from prison. People convicted of a violent crime, other than burglary, in the last 10 years will not be eligible.
The bill also eliminates the practice of suspending driver’s licenses for people who fail to pay fines and face minor drug charges. In our auto-based state, with practically no mass transit, license suspension has effectively forced minor lawbreakers into unemployment, making it even harder to get their lives back together.
Another aspect of the bill is to eliminate non-violent convicts from being banned from obtaining occupational licenses. Ex-convicts need jobs, not lifelong banishment.
All of this points to a profound political change in Mississippi and the nation. Lock ‘em up and throw away the key is losing ground. Politicians are no longer scared to death of being viewed as soft on crime. Numerous polls show voters are overwhelmingly in favor of reform.
This will be a long road with lots of bumps but the goal is admirable. In Europe, 90 percent of the prison budget goes to rehabilitation and 10 percent goes to incarceration. In the U.S. those numbers are reversed.
If we can do a better job at keeping people out of prison, we have a much better chance of reducing the $300 million a year we spend on incarceration in Mississippi – half as much as we spend on all forms of higher education.
Last year, I spent three weeks sitting through a federal trial involving the East Mississippi Correctional Facility. It was a huge investment of my time, but I realized I would never get a better opportunity to see inside the belly of our prison beast. I was shocked by the intricate and detailed testimony. Let me sum it up: Our prisons are run by gangs.
As a result, our prisons are gang factories. Once in prison, you have to join a gang for protection. When you get out, you are a gang member, forced into a life of crime. What an irony. Prisons are designed to decrease crime but they are doing the exact opposite.
Low pay for guards is a key problem. This makes it easy for the gangs to recruit the guards.
Private prison companies can cut costs by letting the gangs do the work of maintaining order. In return, the gangs get the contraband franchise – a money making machine. The gangs now have the ability to seamlessly operate both inside and outside the prison system.
Drive-by shootings for no purpose? Probably a gang initiation. Most murders are gangs fighting for drug turf. Just look at Mexico to see what happens if you let the gangs get the upper hand. We must nip this in the bud or the battle will be much harder down the road. It is a threat to our civilized society.
When Chicago gangland warfare spun out of control, our society was forced to abandon Prohibition. Similarly, we must begin the process of decriminalizing drugs. Profits from illegal drugs fuel the gangs. And just as bad moonshine killed thousands, street drugs are deadly, killing tens of thousands.
The War on Drugs was admirable in its intent but the cure has proven worse than the disease. This 50-year experiment has failed. We must begin to see addiction for what it is: A disease and treat it accordingly. Just Google “drug reform Portugal.” There’s the road map.
Wyatt Emmerich is president of Emmerich Newspapers. Reach him at wyatt@northsidesun.com.
