Mass Incarceration Myths Fuel Calls for Police Reform
Prison population is down 26% over the last decade, but the police reform industrial complex keeps that a secret
Getting into prison is actually difficult
Despite the current ‘mass incarceration’ narrative, getting into prison isn’t easy. One case when I was a career criminal investigator, the defendant, Shifty McCriminal (not his real name) and his public defenders, had used every trick in the book, including courtroom outbursts to delay his sentencing. The officer who made the arrest and I became friends as we attended a dozen hearings as the case made its way through the courts over 18 months. Eventually he pled and received an enhanced sentence. More than a decade later, that same officer, now an investigations sergeant, told me that he was notified that McCriminal had passed away in prison, but he was the only arrest where he feared for his family and himself if he ever got out.
Police reformers justify their advocacy regarding a biased justice system by using terms like mass incarceration. They describe the criminal justice system as a sticky web that ensnares citizens unfairly. Echoes of 1960’s activist Stokely Carmichael, who described the systems as racist, drive the narrative to this day.
But it’s still hard to get to prison. Ask the parents of a murder victim. There is no school-to-prison pipeline. In fact, the current structure even in law-and-order communities favors a system of interventions to avoid the stigma of custodial arrest. If you are an established community member with no criminal history, it’s likely that you could commit a felony without the repercussions of serving prison time. However, a habitual offender lacking strong community ties and a record of failure to appear may be held in jail until trial. This isn’t just true; it is the way things are supposed to be. (Or in certain jurisdictions with bail reform, not at all.)
Today, put ‘mass incarceration’ in the search bar of Google or YouTube and you will get same cluster of jumbled stats from Vox, The Atlantic, Tedx Talks, Al Jazeera, The New Yorker, RT (Russia Today), NowThis News, and taxpayer funded NPR. In their stories, vicious criminals and their families are victims of this horrific system designed to destroy marginalized communities.
Message wise, they have been extremely successful. Youth in college (and sadly, even younger primary school students) are familiar with the term and what it represents. If you are wondering why police recruiting at colleges are spinning their wheels, students have been indoctrinated to view police as the societal oppressors.
Have you heard that over five million people are under supervision by the ‘criminal legal system?’ The Sentencing Project would like you to believe that. They also say that nearly two million people, disproportionately black are living in prisons and jail instead of their communities. They claim this is an unreasonable increase from the early 1970s when there were only 360,000 prisoners. It's not true. It’s a lie.
What they probably meant to say was that there are over five million living their life in the community like they had never been busted for a felony. They are living with all the trappings of complete freedom, often supervised as low risk. If they were supervised more closely, with more random visits, it would reveal the active criminality in their lives and the risks to themselves and their families.
The US incarcerates more than two million of its own people?
Two million people, in prisons and jails, is true in the loosest sense possible. When we look at the end-of-year total of 1,230,143, we must understand that this federal data doesn’t include the churn – the intake and discharge of arrestees in booking offices, that activists use to swell data by up to a million additional people. It also includes those held awaiting trial, those arrested on technical and criminal violations of probation or pretrial release and those serving misdemeanor sentences. Arrestees, regardless of how little time they spend in a correctional setting such as a booking office processing bond, count as prisoners. Never mind they may spend more time in another government office getting their vehicle registrations renewed, that brief time is counted.
Do you remember this being widely reported? In 2019 the rate of imprisonment decreased 3% from 2018 to its lowest point in 24 years. The report published by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, Prisoners in 2019, says:
“The combined state and federal imprisonment rate for 2019 (419 per 100,000 u.s. (sic) residents), based on sentenced prisoners (those sentenced to more than one year), decreased 3% from 2018 (432 per 100,000 u.s. (sic) residents).”
It continues:
“In 2019, the imprisonment rate of black residents was the lowest rate in 30 years, since 1989.”
While imprisonment was trending downward, our society was sold the false narrative of prison populations growing and spiraling out of control. Not just that, but they were supervised by undertrained private prison guards practicing sadistic cruelty while people (citizens, not criminals) were receiving outrageous sentences for petty crimes was another expansion of unjust detentions.
They blame unfair incarceration for the lack of fathers in the black community. Another popular red herring, private prisons actually experienced a decline in population. The consequences of lawlessness and crime are never mentioned except for examples of drug possession, laws they plainly feel shouldn’t exist or be enforced.
The most recent report, Prisoners in 2022 has similar good news. “The imprisonment rate at yearend 2022 (355 sentenced prisoners per 100,000 U.S. residents of all ages) was down 26% from yearend 2012 (480 per 100,000) but up 1% from yearend 2021 (350 per 100,000).”
“At yearend 2021, private facilities contracted to states or the BOP held 96,700 persons, a 3% decrease from yearend 2020.”
This rate of decline occurred at a time of growing population where 21,638,536 people were added to the United States economy according to MacroTrends, a source used by our federal government. The enforcement pullback, due to lack of community support, poor police leadership, and criminal friendly policies will be the subject of many articles in the future. However, there is something that we can do today to counter these challenges.
Educate young officers
Many new cops think that mass incarceration is a real and unfair thing. We are embracing a generation that has a much more liberal view on drugs, and other social issues. It affects them greatly when they hear lies that prisons are full of non-violent drug offenders. As standards regarding drugs are relaxed, many young officers may relate sympathetically in their attitudes toward the validity of drug laws.
But more importantly today, we have young cops who don’t know that they can exercise any means to survive. We are seeing it in body camera videos where they are creating distance when they need to engage the threat. Friends, family, and loved ones, who have no police training, are discussing it with me; not me with them.
We must not do ‘back in the day’ conversations about what ‘real policing was like’ but we do need to equip the next generation with a knowledge that leadership must take place and be present at all ranks. We need to let them know how to recognize when leadership from the command staff is failing and they need to move to a supportive environment.
We need to get them listening to the right people:
is genuine risk-taking trailblazer in courageous leadership for all ranks, recruiting and retention, and survival tactics. He is concerned and passionate about this profession as I am. has forgotten more about confronting threats, dope-cop-magic, firearms training, and stress inoculation than I will learn in this lifetime. He has three Substacks and I hope you subscribe to all of them.
Daniel Carr (JD) of
is so sharp that I’m glad he was never my sergeant. He calls the game on these 15 second or less life or death encounters with his legal expertise and police experience. I always learn something from his takeaways.John Kelly uses his experience to keep everyone’s whole person intact through a demanding career. You can’t be an effective cop unless you know the pitfalls and all of the real threats to your wellbeing. His wellness program invades the leadership and tactics space, making it even more authentic and effective.
If there is a young officer in your world, find these leaders and share them via all means. The next generation of officers will find the means to thrive learning from these recently retired professionals who continue to serve.
Please keep all peace officers in your prayers, especially the officers of the New Mexico State Police.
Roland Clee served a major Florida police department as a Community Service Officer for more than 26 years. His career included uniformed patrol, training, media relations, intelligence, criminal investigations, and chief’s staff. He writes the American Peace Officer newsletter, speaks at public safety, recruiting and leadership conferences and helps local governments and public safety agencies through his business, Command Staff Consulting.
References
https://bjs.ojp.gov/document/p22st.pdf
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10128126/
https://bjs.ojp.gov/library/publications/prisoners-2019
https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/countries/USA/united-states/population-growth-rate
https://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/mass-incarceration-eye-beholder
https://www.yatesleadership.com
https://www.lawenforcementlifecoach.com