This past week I saw two notable new reports from pubic policy groups about criminal justice problems in southern states. Here are links to the reports and excerpts from them:
About Alabama via the Equal Justice Initiative, "As Prison Spending Increases, So Does Violence and Misconduct":
A new study by the Equal Justice Initiative on Alabama’s prisons concludes:
- In the first 10 months of 2019, twice as many Alabama prisoners have been murdered (13) than the entire 10-year period between 1999 and 2009, making Alabama’s current system the most violent in the nation
About Mississippi via FWD.us, "We All Pay: Mississippi’s Harmful Habitual Laws":
Mississippi has an incarceration crisis, driven in large part by its use of extreme sentences. In fact, long prison sentences have become the norm in Mississippi. First-time drug possession can land you in prison for 20 years. Stealing tools from a garage can result in 25 years behind bars. These excessively long sentences weaken Mississippi’s families and workforce and waste tax dollars since they also do nothing to make neighborhoods safer....
Of the more than 2,600 people in prison today who have been sentenced with a habitual penalty, one-third (906 people) have been sentenced to more than 20 years in prison. Nearly half of that group (439 people) has been sentenced to die in prison through either a life or virtual life sentence of 50 years of more.
The impact of these laws is not felt equally across communities: Habitual penalties are applied overwhelmingly and disproportionately to Black men. Despite making up 13 percent of the state’s population,75 percent of the people with 20+ year habitual sentences are Black men.
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