In many of the poorest sections of American cities, the imprisonment of people (usually young men) who would otherwise be residents of the communities constitutes the largest form of public or private investment, and this spending is controlled most clearly by prosecutors.
Quote from Jonathan Simon’s book, Governing Through Crime. Via Liliana Segura.
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Incarceration rates have risen to such extreme levels due to minimum/mandatory sentencing guidelines, three strikes legislation, changes to substantive law (e.g. Rockefeller laws), and reduction of opportunities for paroles, all of which are products of legislation. Prosecutors might, through their discretion, simply stop doing their jobs, but short of this they don’t have that much influence on overall levels of incarceration. It’s interesting to remember that incarceration constitutes a form of social investment. But that investment decision, for better or worse, is being made by the people that are in fact charged with that decision, the legislatures.
Striking. All the more so as I had just read this:
Lee Baca Wants to Educate L.A.’s Prisoners