Who’s in Jail?

The issue of jail overcrowding in the Boise Valley has been in the news again. Canyon County voters have twice now told the law enforcement industry that they don’t want to pay for another jail. That has led to calls to create a new “regional” jail that we could all pay for. Dave Frazier loves this idea; I hate it. Ada County Sheriff Gary Raney also likes this idea since his jail will be full by 2014, he says.

BSU Criminal Justice Professor Mike Blankenship has written that sentencing reform is the way to go. BSU Criminal Justice Prof Bob Marsh is doing the consulting study for the law enforcement industry to determine the feasibility, etc. of the regional jail. We’ve got a regular ding-dong fight going here.

In my mind there’s one real issue - who we are locking up. The answer is damn near everyone. This is foolish. The government is responsible for protecting the safety of our person and our property. That is why we lock up murderers and thieves.

But the law enforcement industry is locking up everybody. In fact, only 12% of those housed in the Canyon County jail have committed either a property crime or a violent crime. The rest are dopers, drunks, and probation violators. The sad reason for this is that there simply isn’t anyone else for the law enforcement industry to lock up.

The fact is that property crimes and violent crimes have been falling for 20 years - and it has little to do with improved police activity. From the FBI’s website, I compiled the following charts to show that the wurl we live in is really quite a safe place, and that there is simply no reason to think that we need to spend MORE incarcerating misdemeanants. That is simply ridiculous. So here’s the crime picture in America:

Folks, we don’t need to spend more on jails. We need to spend less. Economics has long held that governments need to take into account the value of services that the public provides for themselves at their own expense. The number one reason for the decrease in property crimes is deadbolt technology, and the fact that people use them. There is also the “abundance” factor. Things like iPods, VCRs, TV’s, and digital cameras have no street value anymore because they are ubiquitous, and pawn shops don’t take stolen goods. We’ve spent 20 years “hardening the target” by adding security lighting, security systems, pit bulls, guns, and forming neighborhood watch committees. Thus, we need less police protection since we have taken security into our own hands.

If the demand for any other public good had dropped in the way that the demand for police protection had, that public good would be offered less. But for some reason people still believe that they are in mortal danger of being beaten and robbed, even though those fears are almost completely unfounded. Truth is violent crime is very, very rare.

I say NO to a regional jail, or any other new jail because the crime rate does not justify it. In fact - it’s just the opposite. Sentencing reform that would send dopers and drunks through treatment using dollars currently used for incarceration would empty the jails, and we’d be left with HUGE overcapacity. We don’t need another jail now or in 2014. It just makes no sense.

Regional Jails a Bad Solution to Overcrowding

There is simply no reason that tax payers should spend one dime to incarcerate non-violent offenders because it does not lead to an increase in public safety.

I’ve largely stayed away from issues other than growth and development since those are my bread and butter, however, historically crime has been at the forefront of urban policy. The reason it isn’t at the forefront of anything today is that violent crime, already exceedingly rare, has been dropping for 20 years. The amazing thing about that is that it has little to do with better policing, more cops on the street, mandatory minimums, and the like. But those are discussions for a later day.

What we need to understand is that “criminal justice” policy is crippling our cities, counties, regions, state, nation, and world. I wanted to make sure to get all those levels of government in there because poor criminal justice policy, I believe, is increasingly the most important issue that we as a collective global society face. Our criminal justice policies, at all levels, are simply as unsustainable as many other government policies and programs, they just don’t get the same attention.

A local case in point: the failed Canyon County jail bond, and new calls for a regional jail.

This is a terrible idea.

Look: if the current jail is now at capacity (it is), how long will it be before a regional jail is at capacity? The Ada County jail is projected to be at capacity by 2014. Should we just continue to build more and bigger jails, and create more and more specialized courts (we already have drug courts, now some are talking about alcohol courts)? This is a prescription for disaster - it cannot be financially sustained.

The figures for Idaho, I do not have at hand, but they probably mirror figures in the State of Oregon that show that from 1989 - 2007, higher ed funding has declined 44% while spending on the criminal justice system has increased 50%! 50%! Soon, we’ll be “safe” from all the petty shop lifters and weed smokers, but we won’t be able to get our kids through college. We simply cannot afford to continue increasing spending at this level.

And who is this that we are protecting ourselves from? It isn’t dangerous criminals. In fact, only 12% of the offenders housed in Canyon County committed either a violent crime (rape, mayhem, battery), or a property crime (burglary, theft). No, the vast majority of those incarcerated in the state of Idaho are drug and alcohol - NON VIOLENT offenders and simple misdemeanants. This is a travesty.

It is high time that we address the root cause of jail overcrowding - stupid criminal justice policies that DO NOT lead to increases in public safety.