Australia, Canada, England, Wales, Finland and Germany may have criminal justice policies that the U.S. might consider adopting, says a new report issued by the Justice Policy Institute. Finding Direction: Expanding Criminal Justice Options by Considering Policies of Other Nations looks at ways countries similar to the U.S. are making headway in maintaining public safety while reducing the incarceration rate of its citizens.
The U.S. has 2.4 million of its citizens locked up. Many people in the U.S. and throughout the world find this number unacceptable. JPI is convinced that the U.S. should examine how other countries’ criminal justice policies work, the operative word being work. The U.S. has received a scathing indictment of its current U.S. policies from London’s Will McMahon, the policy director of the Centre of Criminal Justice Studies. According to JPI, McMahon declared, “The criminal justice policies of the United States over the past 30 years have failed. Instead of ensuring that people do not become justice-involved in the first place, the U.S. has instead invested in mass incarceration and needlessly lengthy terms of imprisonment without a significant benefit to public safety. The criminal justice policies of the United States should be avoided by other nations and serve as a harrowing example of the problem of an excessively punitive system."
Finding Directions refers to England and Wales as one country. With respect to the people of Wales, Reentry Central refers to Wales as the sixth country in the study. Some of the major suggestions in the report include:
Consider responses other than incarceration: Germany and Finland both use a day fine system based on the seriousness of the offense and apply proportional punishment on all people, regardless of socio-economic status. The fine is generally levied based on the amount of money a person earns on a given day and is meted out over a specified number of days.
End commercial bail: In the U.S., states like Oregon, Illinois, Kentucky, and Wisconsin abolished commercial bail, which allows for-profit companies to bond a person for the cost of pretrial release. By instead requiring people to personally make down-payments to the court which are refunded when they return to trial, public safety can be better protected and the number of people unnecessarily held pretrial can be reduced.
Provide more treatment for more people outside the criminal justice system: Treatment for drug addiction should be widely available outside the criminal justice system and affordable for people who need it. In cases in which the offense is related to the personal use of drugs, treatment should be the first response rather than incarceration.
Scale back sentence lengths, especially for drug offenses: No other comparison nation has mandatory sentencing for possession of small amounts of illegal substances. Such broad sentencing structures are significant contributors to the number of people in prison in the U.S. and are not the best or most cost-effective way to protect public safety.
Improve reentry services: Other nations successfully put into practice an approach to reentry that includes both mental and behavioral health, as well as sociological factors like housing, employment, and education. Such a holistic approach could be cost effective in terms of keeping people from returning to prison and improving life outcomes.
Raise the age of criminal responsibility and end transfers to adult courts: Other nations don't consider children as young as six to be mature enough to be criminally responsible for their actions; raising the U.S. age would reduce the number of youth in secure custody in the U.S. and reinforce the concept that youth are not developmentally the same as adults and therefore should not be treated as such. Also, no other comparison nation transfers as many youth adult criminal courts as the United States at such young ages. This has a negative impact on community and individual well-being, as it decreases the chance a youth will be able to avoid future justice involvement and increases the risk of harm while in custody.
Invest in positive institutions: The U.S. would do well to prioritize spending on strengthening and expanding institutions like education and employment, especially as they have been shown to not only decrease incarceration, but also improve public safety.
With one out of every two Americans incarcerated (Bureau of Justice Statistics), JPI Executive Director Tracey Valasquez is hoping that the people of the United States particularly, our politicians and the taxpayers they represent, will heed the call for immediate, and humane, criminal justice reform.
To view the complete report click here to go to website
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