Congress must follow through on proposed prison sentencing reform

On Thursday, the Senate took an important step toward ending America’s uniquely unreasonable system of mass incarceration. Republican and Democratic senators came together to put their support behind a bill that would make prison sentences more effective in a number of ways, including reducing mandatory minimum sentences for low-level drug crimes and providing prisoners with more options for rehabilitation. With support from both sides of the political aisle, the bill has a strong chance of retaining the support it needs in Congress and spurring real reform in our prison system.

The outrageous sentences and ballooning prison populations that have characterized the American justice system can be traced, in part, to the government's increasing tendency to contract its prisons to private, for-profit companies. This phenomenon, with its perverse incentives, is harmful not only to civil society, but to human rights generally. For-profit prisons directly benefit from keeping their facilities full; in fact, they are often contractually obligated to operate at a certain capacity. In order to turn the greatest profit, they cut costs and neglect rehabilitation programs, practices that the Journal of Criminal Law states increase recidivism rates of prisoners in for-profit facilities going back into crime. Research from George Washington University concludes, “Instead of encouraging inmates to leave prison free of addiction, with quality training and a desire to become productive citizens, the profit motive ensures that the inmate returns to prison as quickly as possible.”

Harsh mandatory minimum sentences have long been supported by the private prison lobby, as they allow these prisons to profit from each prisoner for a guaranteed amount of time. The Justice Policy Institute finds that from 1996-2011, while the total number of people in prison increased by less than 16 percent, the number of people held in private federal and state facilities increased by 120 and 33 percent, respectively. The private prison lobby derives incredible power and support from wealthy investors, which is an important explanation for why sentences have remained so harsh even for less severe crimes. The Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) alone spent $14 million in lobbying over the past eight years.

By reforming mandatory minimums and supporting rehabilitation and education programs, the bill in the Senate will begin to degrade the ability of for-profit prisons to incarcerate people without proving effectiveness or providing adequate services for their inmates. For-profit prisons not only threaten human rights, but also waste taxpayer money. Although eradicating the for-profit prison system as a whole will take far more action than this Senate bill, it is a vital beginning of what will hopefully develop into a broader, much-needed reform.