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So mass incarceration isn’t working. Does Bernie agree?
Definitely. Bernie has been a long-time critic of our justice system’s over-reliance on incarceration as an answer to lower crime rates. Even in 1991, Bernie spoke against what he saw as a, “so-called crime prevention bill… let’s be honest, this is not a crime prevention bill this is a punishment bill”—
Tell me more about this “crime prevention bill”.
There were several “crime bills” proposed in the early 1990s. The 1991 bill that Bernie is talking about in the above video was an earlier version of the bill that was eventually signed into law. Introduced by Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) and signed by President Bill Clinton, The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (commonly referred to as “the Crime Bill”) was the largest crime bill in U.S. history providing for almost $10 billion in funding for prisons and $6 billion for crime prevention programs, among many other controversial provisions such as mandatory minimum sentencing and bans on certain assault weapons.
Did the bill work to reduce crime?
As mentioned above, most studies find that “tough on crime” laws only slightly decrease crime rates at the expense of devastating low-income communities of color. The National Academy of Sciences published an impressive, comprehensive study on the effects of increased incarceration on crime rates. They found “only a modest relationship between incarceration and lower crime rates.” For more info on the effects of mass incarceration, see above.
What did Bernie have to say about the bill at the time?
As seen in the above video, Bernie denounced an earlier version of the bill as “a punishment bill, a retribution bill, a vengeance bill.” He has always maintained that instead of putting our money into prisons, we should attack the root of crime by investing more in education and economic development. For more on this, see below.
If you have a few minutes, check out Bernie discussing the bill just months before voting on it:
If Bernie was so against this bill, why did he vote for it?
Bernie admitted that “this is not a perfect bill”, but he understood that certain parts of the bill were tremendously important. In particular, Bernie was passionate about passing the Violence Against Women Act, one of the key provisions of the Crime Bill. Bernie said at the time, “I have a number of serious problems with the Crime Bill, but one part of it that I vigorously support is the Violence Against Women Act. We urgently need the $1.8 billion in this bill to combat the epidemic of violence against women on the streets and in the homes of America.”
Listen to Bernie explain the importance of this provision as the reason for his support of the Crime Bill:
Got it. What else has Bernie said about mass incarceration?
More recently, Bernie has highlighted the “unspeakable tragedy” that, if recent trends continue, one in three black males born in this country can expect at some point in their lives to spend time in prison or jail.
Bernie ties criminal activity to lack of economic opportunities, and research shows that people behind bars are more likely to be young people of color who haven’t had access to good education or work training. As Bernie stated in a June 2015 Senate address:
“It is no great secret that, without work, without education, without hope, people get into trouble… the result is that, tragically, in America today we have more people in jail than any other country in the world.”
So what does Bernie propose we do about all this?
Bernie supports alternative sentencing in cases of non-violent drug crimes and objects to the current mandatory minimums for non-violent offenses. In 2000, he voted yes on an appropriations bill that supported alternative sentences in terms of rehabilitation programs. A 2012 National Criminal Justice Reference Service study reported that programs like these can have positive outcomes when it comes to reducing prison populations and providing effective drug treatment.
Generally speaking, Bernie sees the “war on drugs” as costly and destructive, and acknowledges that current drug laws have been futile. See, for example, the rising rates of heroin use. Bernie believes treatment, not punishment, is the answer. (Learn more at the Drug Policy issue page.)
Bernie also supports the COPS Program, which has increased the number of police officers in high-crime areas and has been shown to consistently reduce violent crime. Further, Bernie has argued that focusing on the economic roots of crime is a far more cost-effective and humane approach to crime reduction.
Most importantly, Bernie emphasizes that our nation’s youth, particularly in the black communities, are caught in an economic crisis. Because half of all black males will be arrested by the age of 23 and youth unemployment is so high, he advocates for focusing on early intervention in order to empower productive citizens rather than produce young criminals.
Lowering the staggeringly high incarceration rates for undereducated and underemployed youths requires providing meaningful economic opportunities. Bernie believes we need “jobs, not jails.”
To this end, he has proposed a massive bill that would put millions of Americans to work on rebuilding America’s crumbling infrastructure, another to provide job training for at-risk youths, and yet another that would raise the minimum wage — currently at $7.25 per hour, which he calls a “starvation wage” — to $15. (Learn more at the Youth Employment, Minimum Wage and Racial Wage Gap issue pages.)
Moreover, Bernie wants to increase access to education and job training, so that less youth — of color and otherwise — are pushed through the school-to-prison pipeline. In fact, America has over-invested in prisons to the point that there are more prisons than colleges in the country. To this end, Bernie’s also introduced the Free College For All Act, which aims to make all public colleges and universities tuition-free, so that everyone can afford a higher education. (Learn more at the Education and Racial Justice issue pages.)
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