At a hearing this morning before members of the US House of Representatives’ Judiciary Committee, Alabama State Senator Cam Ward described what he called the “failed corrections system” in his state: Alabama, with the eighth highest violent crime rate in the United States, has a prison system at 192 percent capacity, that is the most overcrowded in the country.
Ward rightly wants to reform Alabama’s prisons. He testified about his state’s push to adopt alternative sentencing programs, such as work release, specialized courts, and community corrections programs.
However, the measures advocated by Ward and others are only addressing one part of the prison problem – how a state manages the size of its prison population. Prison reform in Alabama and other overburdened states will falter unless it also addresses how long each prisoner remains in the system. That means tackling over-incarceration: excessively severe sentences and harsh sentencing enhancements.
People do need to be held accountable for their crimes, but fairly. Stringent Alabama drug laws, such as low-weight thresholds for drug trafficking charges, mandatory minimum sentences, and five-year enhancements for selling illegal substances within 500 feet of a school or public housing, routinely result in disproportionately long sentences –even for first time offenders. Laws that allow for life-without-parole sentences for burglary and other property crimes, as well as life sentences for habitual offenders, are also part of the problem. Alabama ranks third in the nation for inmates serving life sentences for nonviolent crimes, largely as a result of these practices.
Human Rights Watch recently described similar problems across the nation. The US embrace of incarceration as a one-size-fits-all solution to various social problems has come at a very high cost to the health, safety, and dignity of prisoners, as well as the well-being of their families and communities.
It is therefore heartening to see that US lawmakers want to engage on the issue of responsible prison reform. They should encourage states to do so in a meaningful manner, by working to develop proportional sentencing, eliminate mandatory minimums and life without parole sentences for nonviolent offenses, and provide more opportunities for compassionate release. States should also potentially amend harsh drug laws, and work to implement measures that better promote a person’s liberty, autonomy, and privacy.
