Episode 15: Is our criminal justice system working?
EPISODE SUMMARY
Thanks for joining co-hosts Kara-Kae James and Elizabeth Oates for another Episode of Asking for a Friend. This week we are talking about the criminal justice system and answering the question, “Is the criminal justice system working?” We’ll talk about the problems we see in the prison system, racial and social class bias, prison reform, rehabilitation, and much more. We also discuss the book and recent movie, Just Mercy, by Bryan Stevenson.
THE LITTLE THINGS
In every episode we start out by talking about the little things in life.
Kara-Kae talked about starting a new diet that her doctor recommended, and she’s realizing how addicted she is to caffeine. Prayers appreciated!
Elizabeth talked about her 5-year-old playing basketball for the first time. Her daughter is her most strong-willed child, but it’s fun to watch her feisty spirit come out through sports.
THE CONVERSATION
Kara-Kae opened up the conversation with a quote by attorney, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, and author, Bryan Stevenson: “We have a criminal justice system that treats you better if you’re rich and guilty than if you’re poor and innocent.”
Elizabeth said she never really thought about this issue until they became foster parents and prison became a part of their lives.
Kara-Kae agreed that she never thought about it until a few years ago when she started reading books about it and watching documentaries about it. If you haven’t been directly affected by it, you probably don’t think about it.
I think we can agree that our justice system needs some work.
Criminal Justice Reform aims to fix these errors, and there are a number of organizations involved in the movement in various ways, including:
Reducing harsh prison sentences
Changing the drug sentencing policy surrounding the war on drugs
Decriminalizing certain laws, including drug policies
Prioritizing rehabilitation of offenders, especially juvenile offenders
Altering policies surrounding food assistance programs and voting rights for previous offenders
Changing minimum sentencing laws
Kara-Kae offered a shocking statistic: America holds only 5% of the world’s population yet over 25% of the world’s prison population.
“We live in the “land of the free” but have the highest incarceration rates in the world.”
She also identified three main things that our system needs reform:
1 -- Overcrowded Prisons
The war on drugs led to stricter drug laws that have caused the number of incarcerated drug offenders to soar 1200% between 1980 and 2018, and most of the offenders are driven by mental illness or drug addiction issues. Then, ex-offenders often wind up back in prison or stay in prison for extremely long sentences because rehabilitation efforts are ineffective.
Statistics show our prison population has reached astounding numbers, higher than ever before, with 2.3 million Americans incarcerated today and another 5 million released on parole or probation. These numbers mean that for every 31 adults, one will wind up in jail, which is a higher likelihood than most countries in the world face.
Elizabeth did not realize that prisons are for-profit, which also leads to overcrowding.
2 -- Mandatory Minimum Sentencing Laws
Mandatory minimum sentencing laws are designed as a basic rule-of-thumb for specific charges. Each crime comes with a certain number of years you would serve if found guilty in a court of law, and mandatory minimum sentences are held in many states today. Prosecutors use these laws to their advantage, sometimes threatening defendants with longer sentences in an attempt to secure a guilty plea in exchange for a reduced sentence. We saw this occur in the movie When They See Us.
Kara-Kae and Elizabeth agreed that there need to be consequences if someone is guilty, but there needs to be logic applied to sentencing and not blanket rules.
3 -- Racism
According to the Pew Research Center, in 2016 the racial demographics were as follows:
African Americans represented 12% of the US population, but 33% of the prison population
Caucasians accounted for 64% of the population, but only 30% of those in prison
Hispanics held 16% of the nation’s population, but over 23% of prison inmates
There is a serious problem with racism in the criminal justice system, whether at the state or federal level. With racial profiling, harsh drug laws and overcriminalization, mass incarceration rates, and institutionalized discrimination all to blame for these shocking numbers, the problem also relies on socio-economic status. The American system doesn’t favor lower class people, which in turn affects many people of color.
In the foster system, Elizabeth witnessed the cyclical nature of poverty and crime because people have difficulty pulling themselves out of these circumstances. There is medical and food assistance, but not much rehabilitation or job training.
Kara-Kae mentioned the case against Felicity Huffman and Lori Laughlin vs. an African American mom who did jail time for using a different address to send her kids to a better school. But she’s not the only one. There are other similar cases as well.
Kara-Kae recommended a Serial podcast that focused on criminal justice.
1 in 17 white men will do prison time, compared to 1 in 3 African American males.
Elizabeth recapped the book Just Mercy, which is now a movie. It’s the story of attorney and founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, Bryan Stevenson. Both Elizabeth and Kara-Kae saw the movie this weekend. Kara-Kae’s favorite quoate is, “No one is beyond redemption.”
The book sheds light on kids sentenced to life in prison and people on death row who are innocent or should receive a lesser sentence.
So many stories that were in the book but not in the movie. We encourage you to read the book and see the movie. There is also a student version of the book for your kids!
RESOURCES TO REFRAME OUR THINKING
Elizabeth is reading the book, Start with Your People, by Brian Dixon. It’s a great book about serving your people well and it applies to everyone, no matter your industry.
Kara-Kae recommends a documentary called 13th. It focuses on the criminal justice system and prison reform.