The year in crime

The year in crime

Several conclusions seem warranted upon close inspection of the world of crime and criminal justice over the past year.

First, the official crime statistics gathered from the bureaucrats in Washington known as the Federal Bureau of Investigation, via their annual Uniform Crime Reports, tell us once again that crime is dropping. And throughout the past year pundits galore have given us these numbers ad nauseam by uncritically reporting what the FBI tells them. Yet stories continue to circulate about various scandals revolving around police departments Acooking the books@ on their crime statistics. The infamous Ramparts scandal within the Los Angeles Police Department has called into question over 100 arrests so far - with more no doubt forthcoming. Few enterprising journalists seem to be taking these scandals to their logical conclusion that the yearly FBI crime statistics could be at best questionable, and at worst worthless. Is it not also interesting that, according to public opinion polls, people are just as fearful about crime today than 10 or 20 years ago. And crime still tops the charts on local newscasts - Aif it bleeds, it leads.@

Second, the number of people incarcerated in our nation=s jails and prisons passed the 2 million mark early in the year. The incarceration rate (per 100,000 population) surpassed the 700 mark this year, putting us ahead (at least temporarily) of Russia. While many pundits point to this increasing rate of incarceration as one of the main reasons for the drop in crime, a more careful examination of the data show otherwise. The fact of the matter is that 70% of those 2 million behind bars can be attributed to those who prior to 1984 changes in sentencing laws (mostly for drugs) would have never been in jail or prison - or never even arrested. And this is according to the conservative Cato Institute! The Awar on drugs@ - as I have repeatedly insisted - is having no effect on the use of illegal drugs, but having a huge effect on the number of people behind bars.

Third, expenditures on crime control - what many have called, rightly so, the Acrime control industry,@ have continued to soar out of control! According to the most recent official statistics (1996), total expenditures on the criminal justice system (police, courts, corrections) went from $35 billion in the early 1980s to $120 billion, an increase of 235%. (Current estimates say that we’ll pass the $200 billion point this year!) Expenditures on prisons and jails increased the most, going up by 356%! During this period of time, the overall crime rate decreased by a modest 9%, mostly accounted for by a decrease in property crime by 12% (it should be noted that proportionately fewer people are in prison because of property crimes than in earlier eras). As I reported in an earlier column, sentences are now longer, on average, for drug offenders than for murderers! Yet violent crime actually went up by 11% during this period! Many people might reasonable argue that they did not get much from such a huge increase in the investment in the criminal justice system.

Fourth, and related to the above point about expenditures, in one state after another (including Nevada) our educational institutions have to beg for additional funding, while corrections budgets continue to soar. Today, in the state of Nevada, the number one priority as far as state expenditures are concerned is the $35 million going toward the expansion of the Indian Springs Prison (we already have 10,000 prisoners, up from around 1,000 20 years ago, and rank in the top five in overall incarceration rates in the country). Many states have seen drastic cuts in education because of prison expansion. In Colorado, for instance, Jefferson County had to cut their school budget by $12 million for the 1999-2000 school year in order to accommodate paying for 800 more beds in their jail. In recent years Connecticut has spent around $400 million for new prison cells, while nearly every town and city has had to cut educational expenditures. One study found that 1994 marked the first time ever that per capita expenditures on corrections surpassed education. In Clark County, we see more and more millions spent on a 500 bed expansion of the county jail, a 200-bed juvenile detention center, a huge court complex in downtown, plus the $16 million Summit View Youth Correctional Facility near Nellis. (Yet the typical offender found at the local jail is far from the Adangerous@ felon jail-expansion supporters would have us believe. I’ll save my comments on this subject for a later column.)

Fifth, we have seen an almost total disregard for the needs of our juvenile offender population. In one jurisdiction after another, thousands of young offenders (mostly minorities) are finding themselves Acertified@ as adults and placed into the awaiting claws of the adult system - only to find themselves getting worse, not better. It is a variation of what I would call the ACharles Manson Syndrome@ where a few serious offenders determine public policy. Here in Clark County we have just recently seen this in evidence as Judge Robert Gaston - in charge of juvenile cases - tried to buck the trend (with plenty of evidence to back him up) by refusing to certify young offenders as adults, only to find himself being ousted by Alaw and order@ elements within the local system. Meanwhile, as I and some colleagues are trying to establish an alternative program for young offenders, we search in vain for suitable services for juvenile offenders, short of locking them up. That it is more profitable to build institutions is the only possible explanation that I can come up with as to why services for kids are of such low priority.

Will it get better the coming year? Probably not, unless more and more citizens become educated about what is going on and develop some critical thinking skills to break through the lies and half-truths we receive every day.