"Prison craze besmirches U.S. honor," by Neal R. Pierce, (The Oregonian, 10/5/99) is a damming indictment of our society which imprisons a higher percent of citizens than any other country on Earth. Pierce draws on a report published in The Atlantic Monthly, "The Prison-Industrial Complex," by Eric Schlosser. Both articles detail the unfairness of the long sentences disproportionately given to minorities and petty drug abusers.
Moreover, the incarceration rates continue climbing despite drastic cuts in rates of almost all categories of crime. Recent national crime rate statistics show homicides down 31%, robberies down by 32% since 1991. Despite similar reductions in most other categories and in all regions of the country, the study also documents that the public's fear of crime is undiminished.
Pierce writes, "The active partners in this self-perpetuating prison boom are politicians using fear of crime to garner votes, low-income rural areas clawing for new prisons as a cornerstone of economic development, private companies angling to share in the lucrative $35-billion-a-year prison industry , and government officials expanding their bureaucratic empires." For example, there are the stables of organized crime victims who are trotted out by criminal prosecutors and law enforcement officials whenever questions are raised about the costs and fairness of mandatory sentencing and harsh penalties for non-violent offernders and drug abusers.
Left out of Pierce's partnership list is the highly complicit media industry, which sells papers and raises viewer ratings by publishing and broadcasting sensational salacious stories calculated to entertain as well as frighten audiences. The media exploitation of crime stories is largely responsible for the continued public apprehension despite drastically reduced rates of crime.
As a consequence of the public thirst for extreme protection measures - as well as revenge - the criminal justice system incarcerates vast numbers of people who are mentally ill. Without any doubt this totally inappropriate response to mental illness results in even more mental impairment and irrational behavior. The ultimate fall-out of our "law'n order" extremism may be the impeachment charges against President Clinton for giving misleading answers to questions which many believe should have never been asked.