Why Does the United States Have HyperIncarceration Christopher

U. S. Imprisonment Rates 1973: 96 per 100, 000 Today: 650 per 100, 000

Year Prisoner-years per murder 1910 1923 1933 1943 1953 1963 1973 1983 1993 2003

100 90 80 70 60 50 U. S. Totals 40 30 20 10 0

2. 3 million 1. 6 million U. S. China U. S. - China Population

• “Residual US punishment is not working” (Spamann, 2014) • “Incarceration since the

6 5 4 3 2 1 0 U. S. Imprisonment Rate European Imprisonment Rate

U. S. v. European Sentencing • Death Penalty (we have it; they don’t) •

Why, Again? Populism—Democracy Individualism—Freedom Religiosity—Faith War on Drugs—Safety Capitalism—Competition & initiative Localism—Decentralized power &

Positive Developments • Decarceration & Budgets (democracy, faith, free enterprise & local experimentation) –

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Why Does the United States Have Hyper-Incarceration? Christopher Slobogin Osher Lecture February 12, 2016

U. S. Imprisonment Rates 1973: 96 per 100, 000 Today: 650 per 100, 000

Year Prisoner-years per murder 1910 1923 1933 1943 1953 1963 1973 1983 1993 2003 10 8 11 20 23 25 10 21 38 65

100 90 80 70 60 50 U. S. Totals 40 30 20 10 0 World's Crime World's Prisoners

2. 3 million 1. 6 million U. S. China U. S. - China Population U. S. - China Prison Population

• “Residual US punishment is not working” (Spamann, 2014) • “Incarceration since the 1970 s had, at best, a modest impact on crime” (Mc. Crary & Sanga, 2012) • “Severe punishment in the U. S. has little to do with its crime drop, given analogous drops in many European countries” (Tselonia et al. , 2010)

6 5 4 3 2 1 0 U. S. Imprisonment Rate European Imprisonment Rate

U. S. v. European Sentencing • Death Penalty (we have it; they don’t) • Life Sentences for Juveniles (we have them; most of them don’t) • Life Without Parole for Adults (we love it; Europeans don’t) • Determinate Sentencing, Mandatory Minimums, and Truth-in-Sentencing (popular in U. S. ; Europe has mostly indeterminate sentences) • Use of prison (Europe: 20 -30% of offenders confined; avg. sentence of 1 year; U. S: 70%, 3 years) • Incarceration of non-violent offenders (our rate is 2 ½ times higher than theirs)

Why?

Populism

Individualism

Capitalism

Religiosity

Race and Drugs

Localism

Constitutional Rights

Why, Again? Populism—Democracy Individualism—Freedom Religiosity—Faith War on Drugs—Safety Capitalism—Competition & initiative Localism—Decentralized power & experimentation • Bill of Rights—Limits on all government power • • •

Positive Developments • Decarceration & Budgets (democracy, faith, free enterprise & local experimentation) – Michigan’s local re-entry programs (some faith-based) – Illinois, Texas and N. J. : community correctional programs (privately-run, with some faith-based) – Multi-systemic therapy for juveniles (private) • Decarceration & the Constitution (freedom, individualism, and experimentation) – Spears (2009); Plata (2011); Montgomery (2016) – Specialized courts (e. g. , drug courts) that offender chooses to enter