Policing the Politics
By: P. Lee Spears
Tags: Term Limits, Politics, Criminal Justice Reform, Law Enforcement, Police Reform

Policing the Politics

I spent nearly two decades working in law enforcement and the criminal justice system. What I discovered in those two decades is that the root of America’s criminal justice problem is not the police but the political system which oversees it. This is certainly not intended to diminish the fact that bad cops exist. They do and should be punished to fullest extent of the law. I personally feel that an officer who tarnishes his or her badge should be held at a higher standard than the general public but I digress.

Mandatory sentencing laws enacted in the 1990’s overwhelmed our prison system and created a revolving door for crime. Research by the National Research Council reveals that, between 1980 and 2010, the 222% increase in the rate of incarceration in state prisons was a function of changes in policy, not changes in crime rates.We have a major issue when a man convicted of vehicular homicide serves less time than man convicted of a drug crime.

Additionally, during that time the private prison industry was born. According to the Marshall Project, while the prison boom of the 1980s and 1990s has slowed, today, private corporations have funded much of the 21st century’s prison construction. Almost all new prisons that opened their doors from 2000 to 2005 were private; the share of private facilities increased from 16 percent (264) to 23 percent (415) of all institutions during those years.

The United States has long been in the midst of a psychiatric bed shortage that worsens every year. By early 2016, the practice of closing state mental hospitals, often called “deinstitutionalization,” had eliminated more than 96% of the last-resort beds that existed in the mid-1950's; after a brief period of expansion in the 1990's, private hospitals, too, are shrinking their psychiatric inpatient capacity. These individuals often find their way to prison rather than getting the mental health treatment needed.

So where does reform begin? I think that this is really three fold and will include reforming the legislative and judicial branches of government, modernizing mental health treatment, and once we fix those two we can address policing.

We are a nation of laws. So many laws that we can’t keep up with the laws created. At the federal level, there are an estimated 15,000-50,000 laws. So many laws that an accurate number is unknown. Laws can be rescinded and yet rarely done. I have personally witnessed countless laws that contradict each other.

The first step to changing law is via the legislative branch. We must begin there in order to effectively overhaul the criminal justice system. A good first step would be the institution of term-limits for representatives and senators. Every four years we hear the same spill about how they can change the world yet have been serving for decades. I truly believe that by instituting term limits that it will encourage these elected officials to work harder for positive change and focus less about being re-elected. Many of the elected officials complaining about the need for criminal justice reform were the ones who voted for mandatory sentencing laws and harsh penalties.

Additionally, judicial discretion has been halted in many jurisdictions. Common sense sentencing is needed rather than a lock them up mentality. In the past, judges have had the discretion to order military service or other options rather than jail time. With such stringent sentencing laws, judges have been censured and threatened with debarring if such an order is conveyed. This is absurd as it creates a potentially lifelong detriment to the offender.

Felony convictions have cost Americans many rights that would otherwise afford them with opportunities to succeed upon reformation. This alone has contributed to high recidivism rates.

There are countless ways to curb crime and punish those individuals who commit them. But lengthy sentences and lifelong criminal branding is not always the answer. So how do we fix it?

First and foremost we begin with the legislative process and begin the overhaul of the penal code. This does not mean that we eliminate the courts or prisons. We need to simplify the process and create a justice system of common sense.

According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, more than half of those in the criminal justice system suffer from a mental illness. In 1955, there was one psychiatric bed for every 300 Americans; in 2005, there was one psychiatric bed for every 3,000 people. Today, the nation’s largest mental health warehouses are the jails in major metropolitan areas, not hospitals, producing more persons with mental illness in jails than in mental health institutions. The second step is that we capitalize on creating a more successful mental health system. A system that addresses the root of the problem and allows for specialized care which is not and should not be left to correctional institutions.

Law enforcement is routinely called to assist and or handle complaints with mentally ill people. We cannot expect these officers to be specialized mental health case managers. We can however, arm them with the tools and resources to better assist such persons by routing them to the appropriate means of assistance.

We have set American law enforcement up for failure. They have had more and more responsibility added to their job description that quite honestly shouldn’t be. We can not expect an officer to be a school monitor, psychiatrist, social worker, and law enforcer and be proficient with each duty.

American law enforcement is still the best of the best. It needs to be reformed from time to time. Not only is it good for the officer but for those that they serve. The same politicians have created a system of injustice and inequality yet demand the law enforcement officer to enforce these laws. The officer is the one who deals with the backlash on the front lines. Not the seven term congressman who voted for the very crime bill which he now blames as the problem and yet scolds American law enforcement with enforcing.

As Americans we must police the politics. It is our responsibility to demand not only change at the legislative level but the judiciary as well. We must educate ourselves as to how we got to where we are and it is not at the hands of a front-line employee. It is systematic and it starts with the halls of the Capitol in Washington, D.C. and each state capitol.