PSCI 010 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Prison Litigation Reform Act, Community Oriented Policing Services, Federal Prison Industries
2 Jul 2018
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Department
Course
Professor
Critiques of New Jim Crow II; Political Econ in US, 3 R’s of Penal reform
Justice Reinvestment: improve public safety, reduce corrections, reinvest savings in strategies that can decrease
crime and strengthen neighborhoods.
Recidivism: The tendency of a criminal to reoffend → is this a way to gauge success of the criminal justice system?
●After 3 years, 60-65% of offenders recidivate
○But this often means that people commit minor violations of the terms of their release, not that
they commit major offenses again. These violations can be things such as missing a probation
meeting or failing a urine test.
●Shapes public mind of a failing system; portray those returning as predatory.
●Biggest determination of how you act once you are released from prison is your state before you entered
prison.
○AKA education, where you come from, socioeconomic status.
●The system doesn’t care about inmates once they’re released, they only care about public safety.
○No regard for the fact that they are 13x more likely to die in the first two weeks than anyone else
in society.
●Prison programs that focus on improving individual, personal characteristics (literacy, compassion) don’t
really affect the recidivism rate.
Reentry:
●Programs meant to aid prisoners in getting a job once returning to society
●Focuses currently on individual traits like behavior, instead of education, skills etc.
○Without improvement in this regard, it is substantially more difficult to secure employment and an
income once released.
●People often return to the neighborhoods and societies they lived in before entering prison; without
improvements in education or jobs, their opportunities/prospects remain immensely low.
●Moreover, the lack of mental health care for inmates when they leave is worrisome → no proper treatment
heightens the instability they already face when leaving the prison.
Penal Keynesianism: Government needs to go in deficit during economic lows to result in economic highs (using
prisons as means to solve economic lows). However, this doesn’t make sense because the idea that putting money
into prisons that benefits many industries and therefore creates many jobs, ignores the unemployment and economic
status of those in prison.
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009:
- Controversial economic stimulus package
- Penal Keynesianism was a major factor for the construction of this act
- The stimulus money was used by some states to expand or maintain their penal facilities
- This act brought back the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) and the Byrne Justice Assistance
Grants - both law enforcement programs were very controversial and were phased out by the Bush
administration
- The funding for these two programs was due to the fact that the government wanted to prevent crime spikes
during times of economic crisis and wanted to create more jobs in order to help fix the economy
COPS (Community Oriented Policing Services):
- Provides federal grants to local police forces
- Was one of the signature programs of the Clinton administration's 1994 crime bill
- Was created to reduce crime by promoting community policing - the goal was for police officers to act
more like members of the community than aggressive outside forces
- The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 put $1 billion into this program
- It also funded SWAT teams and encouraged the broader use of paramilitary tactics and equipment
- Over the years Democrats have been supporters of this program, while Republicans wanted to phase it out
Document Summary
Critiques of new jim crow ii; political econ in us, 3 r"s of penal reform. Justice reinvestment: improve public safety, reduce corrections, reinvest savings in strategies that can decrease crime and strengthen neighborhoods. After 3 years, 60-65% of offenders recidivate. But this often means that people commit minor violations of the terms of their release, not that they commit major offenses again. These violations can be things such as missing a probation meeting or failing a urine test. Shapes public mind of a failing system; portray those returning as predatory. Biggest determination of how you act once you are released from prison is your state before you entered prison. Aka education, where you come from, socioeconomic status. The system doesn"t care about inmates once they"re released, they only care about public safety. No regard for the fact that they are 13x more likely to die in the first two weeks than anyone else in society.
