When Too Many People Are in Prison

Opinion by Tehama Lopez Bunyasi - Assistant professor of political science at Ohio University.

October 19, 2012

If we’re worried about rising income inequality further dampening the nation’s economic growth, then we need to do something about the 2.2 million people behind bars in the country — 60 percent of whom are people of color — and the fact that once they serve their time they find little recourse for rebuilding their lives. Their absence from the economy, the voting booth, and most of all, their homes, has reverberating effects for their children, partners and fellow community members.

To address the huge incarceration rate in the U.S., Congress should repeal the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 that instituted mandatory minimum penalties for drug offenses, and produced the infamous 100 to 1 disparity between distributions of powder versus crack cocaine. Both practices have disproportionately affected black and brown communities, keeping these groups relatively impoverished in comparison to whites and ultimately increasing the inequality gap.

The Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 reduced the disparity to 18 to 1 but this is not enough. We need to bring the ratio down to 1 to 1, make it retroactive and release more people from prison so they can become productive, working members of society.

For fresh ideas on how to put ex-felons to work, our legislators could learn from the efforts of Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles which helps the prison-bound and the formerly incarcerated by developing their social and professional skills so that they can compete in a challenging economy.

By keeping more people out of prison and rehabilitating those who were in prison, growth is bound to follow.

http://www.nytimes.com