The Evidence to Support Incarceration Reform

DALLAS, Oct. 5, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A rare bipartisan consensus is growing in Congress on the need for reforming U.S. incarceration policy. The ideological rationales for supporting reform vary in predictable ways, but all factions depend on the same social science research to buttress their case. The fall edition of Issues in Science and Technology includes four feature articles by experts that explain the failure of current policies and practices to achieve their desired goals, the unintended detrimental effects on communities of color, the implications for public health, and the need to better manage the transition of former prisoners back into their communities.

The long-term trends in U.S. incarceration are alarming:

• From 1973 to 2009, U.S. state and federal prison populations rose from about 200,000 to 1.5 million. An additional 700,000 men and women are being held in local jails.
• This increase occurred during a period when there was no significant increase in the level of crimes committed.
• The U.S. incarceration is five to ten times higher than rates in Western Europe and other democracies.
• In 2010, the incarceration rate for African Americans was six times and for Hispanics three times that of non-Hispanic whites.
• More than 2 million U.S. children have fathers in prison.

These figures are particularly alarming because there was no social science evidence to justify the changes in U.S. policy that led to the precipitous increase in the prison population nor is there any evidence that this has deterred people from criminal behavior.

The articles in this issue dig deeper to understand what is happening behind these national statistics. How do states and cities differ in their approaches to criminal behavior, and are there best practices that could be adopted elsewhere? What happens to people when they complete their prison sentences? Some poor and minority communities have a particularly high percentage of their residents enmeshed in the criminal justice system; is there a tipping point at which efforts to keep these neighborhoods safe actually become harmful to the community's social fabric? What are the effects of incarceration on the mental and physical health of prisoners and their home communities?

ISSUES IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY is the award-winning journal of the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, National Academy of Medicine, the University of Texas at Dallas and Arizona State University. www.issues.org.

Contact: Kevin Finneran 202-641-1415  

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20151005/274036 

SOURCE Issues in Science and Technology

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