State Prison Populations Get Downsized

by Te-Ping Chen · 2010-03-03 12:00:00 UTC
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What's the matter with Kansas? Actually, when it comes to criminal justice, it turns out that Kansas (home of one of the most endearing mottoes out there: "To the Stars Through Difficulties") is doing a lot of things right.

According to a new report by the Sentencing Project, the state is one of four around the country that since 1999 have reduced prison populations by 5 to 20%. In addition to Kansas, prison reductions also occurred in Michigan, New York and New Jersey, all without any increases in crime -- and even as the national prison population grew 12%.

Each state found there own way of getting there, but some similar themes emerge: amping up support services and treatment-based prison alternatives, for example, and whittling down drug penalties. Michigan got rid of most mandatory minimum sentences for drug convictions. New Jersey increased parole releases through electronic monitoring; New York invested in alternative drug treatment programs and scaled back drug penalties. For its part, Kansas beefed up support services for people on parole supervision, and allowed people brought in on low-level drug cases to be sent to treatment, not prison.

Here's another dose of good news: They're not alone, either. While these states have seen unusual success since the 1990s, the Sentencing Project reports that 19 other states are also primed to start reducing their prison populations (for example, through initiatives to enhance prisoners' eligibility for parole).

For the past few decades, prisons may have grown at a breakneck pace, but at the start of a new decade, statistics from the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics also suggest that the trend is actually stabilizing. From 2007-2008, for example, fully 20 states achieved at least "modest" reductions in the size of their prison populations.

How much promise do these shifts hold? Drug Policy Alliance founder Ethan Nadelmann has written here about how public support for marijuana's decriminalization is cresting. Likewise last month, Benjamin Todd Jealous of the NAACP blogged about how Congress faces a historic opportunity to capitalize on the demand for change. When it comes to criminal justice reform, the states are already leading the way. Will the feds catch up?

Photo Credit: Pearly V

Te-Ping Chen Te-Ping Chen is a freelance writer and U.S. Truman Scholar whose writing has appeared in the Nation Magazine, the South China Morning Post magazine, Le Soir, and Slate.com.
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