Overcriminalization significantly undermines human flourishing and social well-being by harming the family, social networks, and social citizenship. Additionally, it prevents capable men and women from utilizing their creative capacities in the marketplace. This creates vast issues involving relations with family while incarcerated and reintegration into society after release. On the economic side, draconian cash bail systems undermine justice through basing someone's ability to attain pre-trial release upon their wealth, not their actual threat to society.
"When Congress passed the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1865, ending slavery, it left open a loophole: Involuntary servitude could continue as "punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted." This effectively legalized slavery among imprisoned populations, allowing former slaveholders in the South to implement a convict lease system, contracting prisoners out to private firms."
Pacific Standard
August 22, 2018
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