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.
"The majority of people held in state and federal prisons are parents of minor children. One in 14 American children , most of them younger than 10, has seen a parent incarcerated. These children are sometimes referred to as the “invisible” victims of mass incarceration, and their suffering has been characterized as its most pernicious ancillary effect."
Washington Post
July 1, 2018
Read More"Of course, our stubborn insistence on incarceration-as-policy doesn’t end with immigration. Homelessness, poverty, political dissent — you name it, we’ll jail it. Indeed, many of those who oppose the over-criminalization of American life simultaneously hope that special counsel Robert Mueller can jail us out of President Trump himself."
The Hill
June 30, 2018
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