PRISON POPULATION TOO HIGH? RELEASE FEMALE INMATES!!

[Daanyeer]

Source: mensdaily
Robert Franklin
2009-02-20 at 9:45 am · Filed under blog

An Oklahoma Department of Corrections official has just gotten a bright idea about how to save the state money - reduce the number of female prison inmates. That's right, female inmates, and it's not just her; apparently it's state policy to reduce the number of female inmates. Read about it here (The Hays Daily News, 2/9/09). It also seems to be Michigan's policy, as this study says on page six.

Laura Pittman, Oklahoma's Deputy Director of female operations, rightly points out that many of the women are behind bars for minor drug offenses. So she suggests the state put more money into drug and mental health programs for its female inmates.

Don't get me wrong; I think the "War on Drugs" is manifestly a disaster in almost every imaginable way. I think incarcerating people for possession of small amounts of, for example, marijuana, verges on the delusional.

But if it's true for female inmates, isn't it true for males too? Actually it's more so. If you're going to save valuable tax dollars by releasing inmates doing time for nothing more than possession offenses, why not do it in a way that really saves money?

After all, nationwide, 93% of those under state and federal prison jurisdiction are male, according to the Department of Justice. In New York City, 90% of those arrested for simple pot possession are male, even though men and women use marijuana about equally, as this article makes clear (The New York Times, 4/30/08). Is it very different in Oklahoma? I doubt it.

So if Oklahoma wants to save money by reducing its prison population, freeing members of by far its smallest demographic group is hardly the way to go about it.

But somehow neither Pittman nor the State of Oklahoma thought of that. Somehow obvious facts directly related to that very issue escaped them.

The United States incarcerates more people per capita than any other country on the face of the earth. The "War on Drugs" is one big reason for that, and men and boys are overwhelmingly the victims of its draconian laws. The State of Oklahoma seems happy with that.

Thanks to Robert for the Michigan study.

Thanks to Perry for the New York article.