[jvm]

Classic to see the correct take get downvoted.

If anyone's interested in actually learning about the causes of mass incarceration, I'd strongly recommend John Pfaff's _Locked In_: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01L6SLKK8/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?...

In short: a) It's not the war on drugs. b) It's not private prisons. c) It's not sentencing laws.

You could get rid of all of those and America would still lead the "free" world in incarceration.

[dougmany]

For the lazy:

Pfaff is convinced that aggressive prosecution is the biggest cause of over-incarceration. His argument here is compelling. He notes that while incarceration rates began to climb in the 1980s as a response to rising crime, those trend lines continued through the Nineties, even though crime was steadily falling. Why did that happen? Examining all the relevant variables (crime reports, arrests, charges filed, and convictions), Pfaff found himself looking squarely at the prosecutor’s office. As less crime was reported, arrests dropped proportionately, and among those who were charged with a crime, conviction rates held steady. But prisons continued to fill, because prosecutors were filing felony charges against ever-growing percentages of their dwindling arrestees.

From https://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2017/02/20/john-pfaf...

[smokelegend]

I strongly agree, the u.s. criminal justice system needs a overhaul of zealous prosecutors who want to threaten non-violent offenders with felony convictions just to make a name for themselves. Greed is still the primary motive, a young prosecutor knows they can command a 6 or 7 figure salary in the private sector if the have a substantial amount of convictions under their belt. Yes, private prisons are bad, yes prison guard unions and police unions are bad, but prosecutors are equally guilty of the same greed and profit driven motivation... when was the last time you heard a story of a former prosecutor getting unemployment insurance or food stamp assistance? I'll wait...

[t34543]

Look at Philadelphia Krasner. There is recent controversy but his agenda of plea reform is a fantastic start.

[jimclegg]

The change in monetary system caused a cascade of despair.

https://wtfhappenedin1971.com/

[celticmusic]

The government isn't going to be lobbying itself to pass minimum occupancy laws.

The motivations are better. No one is saying it's going to solve world hunger, but it's a good first step.

[dragonwriter]

> The government isn't going to be lobbying itself to pass minimum occupancy laws.

The government won't lobby itself; the prison guards unions may, however.

[the-pigeon]

Just being government run is just one ingredient in a successful prison system.

Next you need to find good people that strongly want to accomplish the organization's goals. And who are smart enough to actually do that.

And you need to make sure those leaders have adequate funding and time to make the necessary changes. As well as having a legal system that is at least half-way working correctly.

[philwelch]

The government itself, no. The correctional officers' union, yes.

Outlawing private prisons is probably a good step, but it's neither necessary nor sufficient to eliminate the vested interest in mass incarceration.

[x86_64Ubuntu]

The War On Drugs is a mechanism prosecutors use to get people into the system. We can't dismiss the changes in law brought about from a moral panic and how that affects who and how people are taken in.

[jacobush]

Also, total numbers aside, the War on Drugs was tailored from the start to affect blacks more.

[tyrust]

Then what is it?

[a1369209993]

Plea bargains.

Although the root fault is that a "guilty" plea costs the court less resources than a "not guilty" plea. If you wanted to solve this properly, you'd require that even if the defendant pleads guilty, there still has to be the full process of jury selection, presenting evidence and arguments (even if the defence's argument is "yeah, I did it") and deliberation (which, by design, gives twelve opportunities for someone to say "what the hell are we doing; this is clearly bunk" without that person being under threat of twenty-five-to-life for contempt of cop).

Edit: oh right, and you also need to make offering plea bargains (outside of state's-evidence cases) a twenty-five-to-life felony for the prosecutor.

[JesseAldridge]

According to the Amazon summary from the linked book:

"a major shift in prosecutor behavior that occurred in the mid-1990s, when prosecutors began bringing felony charges against arrestees about twice as often as they had before"