Major U.S. cities reported spikes in their homicide rates over the past year. Such news is understandably sobering and frightening; we all want safe places to work and live and for those responsible for murder to be brought to justice. But some leaders are already claiming that these murder increases in isolated cities reflect a nationwide crime wave and are using this as rationale to halt or call for a reversal of all recent criminal justice reforms. This short-sighted, wholesale backlash fails to advance solutions that meaningfully address murder and violent crime and would only further jeopardize public safety.
Rather than frightening us into reversing course on all criminal justice reform, the rise in murder rates in some cities should prompt us to re-evaluate how we respond to murder and other violent crimes. In 2014, more than one-third of America’s murders did not even result in an arrest, leaving perpetrators at large and victims’ families in limbo. In the same year, more than half of all violent crimes went unsolved. This is the status quo that remains if we do not change our criminal justice public policy at the local, state and national levels. In order to respect murder victims and protect public safety, we need to prioritize solving more violent crimes and address the disproportionate and sometimes unnecessary terms of incarceration the justice system metes out for less serious crimes.
If lengthier terms of incarceration for all types of offenses were the solution to public safety, we would expect crime rates to rise in states that lowered their prison populations. Instead, the opposite appears to be true. From 2009-2014, crime rates dropped 16 percent in the 10 states that had the biggest reductions in imprisonment rates; crime rates dropped 13 percent in the 10 states that had the biggest imprisonment increases.
In Texas, which has pursued some of the most significant criminal justice reforms in recent years, the incarceration rate is down 12 percent, and the crime rate has returned to levels not seen since the 1960s.
Abandoning the currently proposed criminal justice reforms would be a costly mistake, especially since the opponents of reform have not offered any new ideas. The tough-on-crime policies of the past have already proven to be dead ends; they have gotten us the highest incarceration rate in the world, with disproportional sentences for nonviolent and drug-related crimes being primary drivers of the exploding population.
The policy “solutions” of the past don’t make sense from a budgetary standpoint, either. In 2015 alone, the incarceration bill will likely total over $70 billion. That doesn’t even include the policing, prosecuting and court costs. Nor does it factor in the impacts of having nearly one in 34 American adults under state control (incarcerated, on parole or on probation). This also means that 2.7 million children today have an incarcerated parent, and they are among the most at-risk population in our country. The financial and human costs of failed policies are astounding, and they seem to grow each day.
Without investment in education or moral rehabilitation, “correctional facilities” often don’t correct or restore those who serve time, instead allowing them to return to the same behaviors or graduate to even more serious offenses. Law enforcement, courts and prison administrators don’t carry the blame for this underperformance; the era of over-criminalization and over-incarceration has left them over-extended and under-resourced. It’s an inefficient, costly system that fails to serve the public interest.
For too long, taxpayers have shouldered the cost of the fastest-growing area of government and greatest increase of centralized state power in America’s history outside of healthcare. What’s needed now is not a return to the past, but a fresh vision for criminal justice. A restorative, values-based framework, advocated for by Prison Fellowship and many of its peers, is gaining consensus at the state and national levels.
A restorative approach to justice reform is based on the inherent value and dignity of each person impacted by crime and incarceration. Reforms that respect victims, hold responsible parties accountable and involve the community are more efficient, as states that adopt them are finding. They allow low-level offenses to be dealt with in the community, freeing up police, prosecutors, courts — and scarce resources — to bring resolution to the most heinous crimes.
The goal of criminal justice reform is to increase public safety. In the face of tragic reports, fear might tempt us to retreat from reforms, but that would be a critical mistake. We become safer not when we pursue the policies that have failed us in the past, but when law enforcement officers are freed up to solve serious crimes and take dangerous people off the streets. We become safer when correctional facilities are environments where those who regret their crimes have genuine opportunities to make amends and pursue moral rehabilitation. We become safer when our criminal justice policies are guided by solid comprehensive evidence and enduring values — not the headline of the day.
Craig DeRoche is Senior Vice President for Advocacy and Public Policy at Prison Fellowship. Thinking of submitting an op-ed to the Washington Examiner? Be sure to read our guidelines on submissions.
