DOJ Policies Will Increase Inmates: Institute
The President’s Department of Justice (DOJ) budget will likely lead to growing incarceration rates, according to an analysis by the Justice Policy Institute (JPI), a Washington, D.C.-based public policy organization.
JPI’s analysis of the budgets released by the Administration late last week points to increases in spending for law enforcement and decreases in juvenile justice expenditures … “Police serve an important role in the United States, but overpolicing can be just as problematic as underpolicing,” said Tracy Velazquez, executive director of JPI. “What we have seen is that the more money spent on law enforcement, the more people are arrested for nonviolent drug offenses. This results in millions of dollars in incarceration costs for states, with little impact on public safety or, for that matter, rates of illicit drug use” …
Velazquez indicated that the lack of investment in juvenile justice programs was especially troubling. “Back in 2002 we spent over $546 million on programs to prevent and address youth delinquency. Unfortunately, this Administration is choosing to keep juvenile justice funding at the levels of the last eight years — their 2010 budget is less than 60 percent of the 2002 budget, not even taking inflation into account. Getting and keeping kids on the right track is a proven way to improve public safety, and it means more kids going on to become responsible adults that contribute to their communities and the economy” …
“We have the highest rate of incarceration in the world, with little to no evidence that these increasing rates are improving public safety,” said Velazquez. “We can’t arrest and incarcerate our way to public safety. We hope the Administration takes a harder look at where they want to spend their money. While politicians may think that ratcheting up law enforcement spending is politically popular, it may not be the best investment if the goal is to build safer, healthier communities rather than more prisons.”
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