Topic: Incarceration Trends

Contrary to what fearmongers would have you believe, the Coronavirus has shown that crime doesn’t rise when jail and prison populations go down. This was well known even before COVID-19 caused cities to rethink their criminal justice policies.

The current COVID-19 crisis provides a real-time blueprint on how to vastly streamline our criminal justice system. Removing misdemeanor and traffic violations from the criminal code would reduce the number of arrests, jail bookings and court filings by at least 50%. Expediting the disposition of criminal charges for those jailed will reduce the jail and prison populations. And we now know that crime rates will be reduced as we shrink the $300 billion criminal justice system footprint.

The press has focused on a few isolated surges in shootings but in fact, a new study by Thomas Abt and Richard Rosenfeld shows that American homicide rates declined dramatically in April and May based on data from 64 U.S. cities: Homicide rates declined by 21.5 percent in April and 9.9 percent in May compared with the previous three-year average for those months. We’ve also seen abrupt drops in theft and burglaries since the Coronavirus took hold, and that’s against a backdrop of crime rates already dropping by over 50% since 1995.

The crime drop has also produced an arrest drop, and that’s been compounded as law enforcement has decided not to pay as much attention to misdemeanor crimes. Those arrests have dropped dramatically, producing reduced jail bookings and fewer people in jail.

As we talk about reducing the footprint and cost of police agencies (over $140 billion a year), the number one thing for us to learn is that we don’t need to physically arrest people for a misdemeanor crime. Instead, police should give them a field citation, with the exception of domestic violence and DUI charges. And police shouldn’t be doing routine traffic stops for the sole purpose of raising money for more policing. As an alternative, we should maximize use of cameras, and develop a corps of traffic officers who aren’t armed with guns but with tablets. If they catch you speeding, they take a picture of your license plate, and then send you the picture and a bill. That’s all.

The big challenge we’re now facing is people’s court appearances being delayed because the criminal courts have been shut down, or are working at a slower pace. Courts need to expedite the processing of cases for those folks who are still in jail. Defenders and prosecutors will have to change their old business practices of delaying sentencing until they get a deal they like. In particular, needless and lengthy court continuances need to be eliminated.

Courts may also need to declare a one-time amnesty for those who fail to appear over coming months on misdemeanor and traffic citations issued during the Coronavirus crisis. Otherwise, there’ll be a sizable backup of failure-to-appear warrants which will clog the courts, increase jail bookings, and do nothing to improve public safety.

—Dr. Austin has over twenty-five years of experience in correctional planning and research. He is the former director of the Institute on Crime, Justice and Corrections at George Washington University in Washington, DC. 

Earlier this month, the Independent Commission on New York City Criminal Justice and Incarceration Reform released A More Just New York City, a report detailing its recommendations for reforming New York City’s criminal justice system. Based on a full year of inquiry, the Commission unanimously recommended closing Rikers Island jail, reducing the city’s jail population by half, and moving towards a borough-based jail system.

The Commission’s report marks a landmark moment for criminal justice in New York City. Mayor Bill de Blasio has announced that it is now the city’s official policy to close the Rikers Island jail.

Written with support from three members of the Safety and Justice team—the Center for Court Innovation, the Vera Institute of Justice, and CUNY Institute for State and Local Governance—the report embodies many of the core elements of the Safety and Justice Challenge, namely the strategic use of data to keep individuals out of jail at every step of the justice process.

The Commission was convened in April 2016 following City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito’s call for an entity to explore “how we can get the population of Rikers [Island] to be so small that the dream of shutting it down becomes a reality.” Chaired by former New York State Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman and comprised of 27 members from a wide range of backgrounds, the Commission spent a year analyzing local data, engaging with experts and stakeholders, and studying national models for justice reform.

Due in large part to a well-documented culture of violence and the Island’s isolation, Rikers has become notorious as a national symbol of broken justice, making its closure a monumental step not just for New York City, but for the country. The Island’s seclusion from New York City communities has promoted an out-of-sight, out-of-mind mentality, created enormous operational inefficiencies, and taken a powerful toll both in financial terms—it costs $247,000 to incarcerate a person for one year—and in human impact, disrupting the lives of thousands of individuals along with their families, housing, education, and employment opportunities.

A More Just New York City outlines concrete strategies for reducing the current jail population from 9,700 to fewer than 5,000—a size that would enable the city to shutter Rikers Island and replace it with a borough-based system over the next ten years. On any given day, three quarters of the city’s jail population is detained pretrial without having been convicted of a crime, largely because they cannot afford bail. The report proposes reforms to the bail system, including the elimination of cash bail, and investments in pretrial diversion services that can substantially reduce the number of individuals detained in jail while awaiting a disposition.

A significantly reduced jail population would enable the city to transition to a community-based model with facilities located in close proximity to existing courthouses in each borough. Moving away from the outdated design of the Island’s current facilities, borough-based facilities would embody state-of-the-art principles in jail design that foster a healthy and humane environment for the people detained and working within them. The Commission also undertook a robust study of the future of the Island beyond its use as a jail facility, focusing on pathways to transform the Island from a place of harm to a site of progress and benefit for the city. The report recommends using the Island to expand LaGuardia Airport and locate greatly-needed green infrastructure that would meet the city’s growing needs, while producing significant economic activity and employment opportunities.

Despite national trends, over the past twenty years New York City has shown that it is possible to simultaneously reduce crime rates and the use of incarceration. Yet as has been well-documented, much more work is needed. Exemplifying the goals of the Safety and Justice Challenge, A More Justice New York City provides a roadmap for New York City and jurisdictions around the country to significantly reduce and re-envision their jail systems to embody basic human and civic values of fairness and justice.

New York City is a Safety and Justice Challenge partner site.

Depending on one’s perspective, the role of law enforcement is often summarized into catchy but vague terms; peacekeeper, guardian, warrior, gatekeeper, savior, and enforcer are some of the most common. But none completely captures the multifaceted role we often play in communities around the world.

To a survivor of domestic violence or a parent with a choking infant, a police officer, sheriff’s deputy, or trooper might be a welcome source of support. To someone who was swept up as part of a “tough on crime” initiative, law enforcement officers are often viewed as warriors or enforcers.

The history of law enforcement shows that these roles are dynamic and change over time. In many communities, law enforcement agencies are at a critical nexus of redefining their role as gatekeepers to the criminal justice system.

With this in mind, the Vera Institute of Justice recently released a report entitled “Gatekeepers: The Role of Police in Ending Mass Incarceration,” outlining a roadmap to change which includes a series of recommendations that go beyond encouraging the establishment of alternatives to arrest programs.

The report delves into the need to address structural factors to alleviate the pressure on law enforcement agencies to arrest, and outlines how to do this through partnerships with other stakeholders such as community-based service providers and elected officials.

It’s important that we reinforce this point— that while the title of the report focuses on police and other law enforcement officials as “gatekeepers,” the report’s substance goes much deeper, highlighting the need for community-wide collaboration, and making it very clear that responsibility for the shift away from mass incarceration goes far beyond law enforcement, alone.

In truth, most individuals enter the field of law enforcement to help people and would rather have other options beyond arrest to respond to public safety challenges. In simplest terms, law enforcement officers do not want to bring people to jail at all hours of the day and night any more than people want to be brought to jail – particularly when alternatives to arrest, if available, would be a far better tool.

In areas where alternatives to arrest and/or booking exist, law enforcement takes full advantage of these non-punitive options, which is better for the citizen with whom they’re dealing, and gets officers back on the street and able to respond to calls for service faster and interdict violent crime. However, when options and discretion are limited, jail becomes the default. Law enforcement cannot reduce custodial arrests alone; government at all levels must work to provide alternatives.

Alternatives to arrest practices, like pre-arrest diversion and the use of crisis response or triage centers, show great promise to reduce both the collateral consequences of contact with the justice system and recidivism. This paradigm shift to increase law enforcement discretion to use non-punitive options is growing in the work of both local police agencies and national entities.

There are plenty of good local examples, but here are two:

• Tallahassee/Leon County, Florida Pre-Arrest Diversion, Adult Civil Citation (ACC) program: A four-year evaluation of this program, which started in 2013, showed that law enforcement, working directly in partnership with community-based behavioral health professionals, reduced the recidivism rate by approximately 80% for program participants. In addition, the 84% of participants who successfully completed the program avoided arrest records and any accompanying collateral consequences. Legislation passed in Florida in 2018 mandates Adult Civil Citation programs in every Florida county, leading to improved public safety, reduced impact on human dignity, and future opportunities by avoiding the life-long consequences of an arrest record.
• Milwaukee, Wisconsin, The Sisters Program: From 2013 to 2015, 704 women were arrested in Milwaukee 1,292 times, and 83% of those arrests occurred in just two police districts. The Sisters Program is a community-police partnership that offers diversion from the justice system, giving women the opportunity to change their lives and avoid future incarceration, fines, or other judgements. The Sisters Program is designed to create a citywide policy that uses a public health-based approach to street prostitution and sex trafficking, rather than a criminal justice approach that criminalizes women. Women diverted by the Milwaukee Police Department to the Program are connected to a variety of resources, including crisis management, counseling, advocacy, assistance with obtaining housing, and other critical resources.

On the national level, beyond participating in the MacArthur Foundation’s Safety and Justice Challenge, the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) has worked on several projects to promote justice system change and support law enforcement efforts to build stronger community-police relationships. Through these projects, IACP has created resources to support law enforcement in pretrial justice reform, conducted a study of citation-in-lieu of arrest programs that demonstrates widespread support for this practice, and created the One Mind Campaign to ensure successful interactions between police officers and people affected by mental illness.

So, how does this shift in culture and practices occur?

The reality in many communities is that few services are available all day, all night, and all year round, as law enforcement are, so they become the default resource for immediate help. Incidentally, that’s why people tend to call upon the police for so many different things.

Growing the capacity and availability of community-based treatment and services in order to create options for police—like diversion programs and community drop-off centers—takes collaboration among several local systems, including justice, behavioral and public health, medical, and local government. To be clear, having these resources available will reduce the reliance on a criminal justice response.

Additionally, creating 24/7/365 non-emergency help hotlines in communities can also reduce the reliance on law enforcement so that their calls for service are for instances in which there are public safety concerns.

These recommendations may seem simple and straightforward, but the process of implementing them can be complex. By working collaboratively with community-based partners, stakeholders can begin to identify gaps in treatment service capacity and combine expertise to work on system-wide solutions to fill those gaps, including identifying sources of state and federal funding and combining or co-locating local resources.

For many justice system agencies, the need for alternatives is evident, but the path to establishing them is uncertain. The wide variety of alternatives to arrest that communities and law enforcement are using can be overwhelming; it raises questions of what is the “best” or “most effective” approach.

There are also competing interests between addressing the real need for restructuring how communities seek and provide help versus gaining traction and showing progress by tackling the low-hanging fruit. New approaches might be difficult to introduce to the rank and file, such as the concept of harm reduction, which is a set of practical strategies and ideas aimed at reducing negative consequences associated with drug use. Alternatives to arrest that incorporate harm reduction may be foreign to law enforcement who were trained to act on a binary choice – whether or not the person they are dealing with has “done wrong”.

This uncertainty should not be a barrier to exploring alternatives to arrest, however. It should be an incentive. When there is uncertainty, innovation can thrive. The climate is ripe for new ideas that go beyond low-hanging fruit and create deeper structural changes.

In the end, criminal justice reform is not simply police reform. We welcome and encourage all efforts to provide law enforcement officers meaningful alternatives to arrest to better serve our communities.

—Dr. Ronal Serpas retired in 2014 as Chief of Police in New Orleans, Louisiana. Previously he was Chief of Police in Nashville, Tennessee, between 2004 and 2010, and Chief of the Washington State Patrol between 2001 and 2004. He is now a Professor of Practice in the Criminology Department at Loyola University, New Orleans, and is the Executive Director of Law Enforcement Leaders to Reduce Crime and Incarceration. He is a past Vice President and member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP).

The Hampden County, Massachusetts correctional system has in its custody offenders who have been sentenced to two and a half years or less, pretrial detainees for all crimes, and state and federal inmates who are reentering their communities in Hampden County. The system, which includes four separate facilities at four different levels of security, is a member of the Large Jail Network, meaning it has an average daily population of 1,000 inmates or more. But the Hampden County system used to be even larger—it has reduced its inmate population by 30 percent since 2008, resulting in an annual savings of 13.1 million dollars compared to what the annual budget would be if the inmate count had not been reduced. The current inmate count is 624 people fewer on a daily basis than it was in 2008, and the three-year recidivism rate has been reduced by 27% since 2001.

This reduction of inmates, resultant cost savings, and dramatically reduced recidivism is a direct result of the broad and deep effort that the Hampden County Sheriff’s Department staff makes to support those in its custody in picking up the tools and directions needed to build a better life. Specifically, the Hampden County Correctional Center has a policy whereby those in its custody are expected to spend up to 40 hours per week in activities, such as work within the institution or in programs that prepare them to be productive citizens. These programs address important issues such as substance abuse, education, employment readiness, housing placement, victim impact awareness, and spiritual growth.

The sheriff’s department has also developed a three-month long continuum of gradual, supervised, and supported community reentry by offenders and has partnered with 300 community nonprofits to assist in its offender reentry effort.

As one example of reentry programming, our Day Reporting program—the first of its kind in the nation, begun in 1987—allows people at the end of their sentences to live at home as they are monitored by GPS and Day Reporting staff. They adhere to a strict daily schedule of community programs and work, report in daily, and are subject to urine and breathalyzer substance use screening tests. The cost to supervise an offender in Day Reporting is considerably less than the cost of 24/7 incarceration in a correctional facility.

Hampden County’s recent history offers verifiable, measurable, quantitative proof that a focused concentration on “corrections,” rather than warehousing of offenders, can be hugely successful for both individuals and cost savings, while maintaining public safety.