Mass Incarceration in the United States: at What Cost? Hearing
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S. HRG. 110–299 MASS INCARCERATION IN THE UNITED STATES: AT WHAT COST? HEARING BEFORE THE JOINT ECONOMIC COMMITTEE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES ONE HUNDRED TENTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION OCTOBER 4, 2007 Printed for the use of the Joint Economic Committee ( U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 39–645 PDF WASHINGTON : 2008 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512–1800; DC area (202) 512–1800 Fax: (202) 512–2104 Mail: Stop IDCC, Washington, DC 20402–0001 VerDate 11-MAY-2000 12:11 Mar 04, 2008 Jkt 039645 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 5011 Sfmt 5011 C:\JEC\39645.TXT CELINA PsN: CELINA JOINT ECONOMIC COMMITTEE [Created pursuant to Sec. 5(a) of Public Law 304, 79th Congress] SENATE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES CHARLES E. SCHUMER, New York, Chairman CAROLYN B. MALONEY, New York, Vice Chair EDWARD M. KENNEDY, Massachusetts MAURICE D. HINCHEY, New York JEFF BINGAMAN, New Mexico BARON P. HILL, Indiana AMY KLOBUCHAR, Minnesota LORETTA SANCHEZ, California ROBERT P. CASEY, JR., Pennsylvania ELIJAH E. CUMMINGS, Maryland JIM WEBB, Virginia LLOYD DOGGETT, Texas SAM BROWNBACK, Kansas JIM SAXTON, New Jersey, Ranking Republican JOHN E. SUNUNU, New Hampshire KEVIN BRADY, Texas JIM DEMINT, South Carolina PHIL ENGLISH, Pennsylvania ROBERT F. BENNETT, Utah RON PAUL, Texas MICHAEL LASKAWY, Executive Director CHRISTOPHER J. FRENZE, Republican Staff Director (II) VerDate 11-MAY-2000 12:11 Mar 04, 2008 Jkt 039645 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 C:\JEC\39645.TXT CELINA PsN: CELINA C O N T E N T S OPENING STATEMENT OF MEMBERS Statement of Hon. Jim Webb, a U.S. Senator from Virginia ............................... 1 Statement of Hon. Carolyn B. Maloney, Vice Chair, a U.S. Representative from New York ..................................................................................................... 3 Statement of Hon. Sam Brownback, a U.S. Senator from Kansas ...................... 5 Statement of Hon. Robert C. ‘‘Bobby’’ Scott, a U.S. Representative from Vir- ginia ....................................................................................................................... 6 WITNESSES Statement of Dr. Glenn C. Loury, Professor of Economics and Social Services, Brown University ................................................................................................. 11 Statement of Dr. Bruce Western, Director, Inequality and Social Policy Pro- gram, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University ............................ 15 Statement of Alphonso Albert, Executive Director, Second Chances .................. 17 Statement of Dr. Michael P. Jacobson, Director, Vera Institute of Justice ........ 19 Statement of Pat Nolan, Vice President, Prison Fellowship ................................ 22 SUBMISSIONS FOR THE RECORD Prepared statement of Senator Jim Webb ............................................................. 41 Prepared statement of Carolyn Maloney, Vice Chair ........................................... 43 Prepared statement of Senator Sam Brownback .................................................. 44 Prepared statement of Congressman Robert C. ‘‘Bobby’’ Scott, Chairman for the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security ................... 45 Prepared statement of Dr. Glenn C. Loury, Merton P. Stolz Professor of the Social Sciences, Department of Economics, Brown University .................. 47 Charts: Violent crime rates .................................................................................... 47 Direct expenditure by criminal justice function, 1982–2004 ................. 48 Figure 2.2, Drug offenses and arrest rate ratio ...................................... 51 Figure 2.3, High school seniors reporting drug use ............................... 51 Winning the war? Drug prices, emergency treatment and incarcer- ation rates: 1980–2000 .......................................................................... 52 Changes in the spatial concentration of incarceration in New York City: 1985–1996 ..................................................................................... 53 Marijuana possession arrests in New York City in three decades ........ 55 New York City marijuana possession arrests of Whites, Hispanics and Blacks in two decades .................................................................... 56 Responses by Dr. Glenn C. Loury to Questions from Representative Rob- ert C. ‘‘Bobby’’ Scott ...................................................................................... 54 Prepared statement of Bruce Western, Director, Department of Sociology, Harvard University .............................................................................................. 57 Charts: Figure 1. Employment-to-population ratios for African American men without college education ...................................................................... 58 Men with prison records by age 30–34 .................................................... 62 Prevalence of life events for men b. 1965–1969 ...................................... 63 Pay and employment among ex-prisoners (NLSY) ................................. 64 Responses by Dr. Bruce Western to Questions from Representative Rob- ert C. ‘‘Bobby’’ Scott ...................................................................................... 60 Prepared statement of Alphonso Albert, Executive Director, Second Chances .. 65 Responses by Alphonso Albert to Questions from Representative Robert C. ‘‘Bobby’’ Scott ............................................................................................ 65 Prepared statement of Michael Jacobson, Director, Vera Institute of Justice ... 66 (III) VerDate 11-MAY-2000 12:11 Mar 04, 2008 Jkt 039645 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 C:\JEC\39645.TXT CELINA PsN: CELINA IV Page Prepared statement of Michael Jacobson, Director, Vera Institute of Justice— Continued Responses by Dr. Michael P. Jacobson to Questions from Representative Robert C. ‘‘Bobby’’ Scott ................................................................................ 67 Prepared statement of Pat Nolan, Vice President, Prison Fellowship ................ 68 Prepared statement of Congresswoman Sheila Jackson-Lee, of Texas ............... 73 VerDate 11-MAY-2000 12:11 Mar 04, 2008 Jkt 039645 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 C:\JEC\39645.TXT CELINA PsN: CELINA MASS INCARCERATION IN THE UNITED STATES: AT WHAT COST? THURSDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2007 CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES, JOINT ECONOMIC COMMITTEE, Washington, DC The Committee met at 10:04 a.m. in room 216 of the Hart Senate Office Building, the Honorable Jim Webb and Vice Chair Carolyn B. Maloney, presiding. Senators present: Webb, Casey, and Brownback. Representatives present: Maloney, English, Scott, and Hin- chey. Staff present: Christina Baumgardner, Stephanie Dreyer, Chris Frenze, Nan Gibson, Gretta Goodwin, Rachel Greszler, Colleen Healy, Aaron Kabaker, Israel Klein, Michael Laskawy, Zachary Luck, Robert O’Quinn, Jeff Schlagenhauf, and Robert Weingart. OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. JIM WEBB, A U.S. SENATOR FROM VIRGINIA Senator Webb [presiding]. The Committee will come to order. I would like to thank Chairman Schumer for agreeing to hold this important hearing, and for allowing me the opportunity to chair it. I would also like to thank our witnesses for appearing today and, following my remarks, I would ask Vice Chair Maloney and Sen- ator Brownback to make some opening remarks. We also have Con- gressman Bobby Scott over from the House side who has worked long and hard on these issues and would like to say a few words. Then if Congressman English would like to say something, we will get an opening statement from him. Then we will turn this over for up to 8-minute summaries of statements from the panel, and then we will go into questions. Over the course of the period from the mid-1970s until today, the United States has embarked on one of the largest public policy ex- periments in our history. Yet this experiment remains shockingly absent from the public debate. The United States now imprisons a higher percentage of its citizens than any other country in the world. In the name of getting tough on crime, there are now 2.1 million Americans in Federal, State, and local prisons and jails, more peo- ple than the populations of New Mexico, West Virginia, or several other States. Compared to our democratic advanced-market economy counter- parts, the United States has more people in prison by several or- ders of magnitude. All told, more than 7 million Americans are (1) VerDate 11-MAY-2000 12:11 Mar 04, 2008 Jkt 039645 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 C:\JEC\39645.TXT CELINA PsN: CELINA 2 under some form of corrections supervision, including probation and parole. America’s incarceration rate raises several serious questions. These include: The correlation between mass imprisonment and crime rates; the impact of incarceration on minority communities and women; the economic costs of the prison system; criminal jus- tice policy; and transitioning ex-offenders back into their commu- nities and into productive employment. Equally important, the prison system today calls into question the effects on our society at a broad level. Winston Churchill noted in 1910, ‘‘The mood and temper of the public in regard to the treat- ment of crime and criminals is one of the most unfailing tests of the civilization of any country.’’ With the world’s largest prison population, our prisons test the limits of our democracy and push the boundaries