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.
“Fifty-four percent of the people currently held in state prisons have been convicted of a crime classified as violent. We will never slash our prison population by 50 percent — the goal of a number of current campaigns — much less get back to levels of incarceration that we had before the race to incarcerate began in the early 1980s, without addressing the one issue most reformers avoid: violence.“
New York Times
March 3, 2019
Read More“‘Instead of reporting in a way that exposes the tragedy of prison violence, we get headlines like, ‘Convicted rapist stabbed to death,’ he explains. ‘The media presents the victim as if he could only be the crime he was convicted of. It happens all the time, over and over again’.“
Columbia Journalism Review
January 22, 2019
Read More“We know crime stories are among the most popular content we can give our readers on our website and on social media. We have tools that allow us to see what stories readers are clicking on, and a high-profile crime story almost always shoots right to the top. And, for us, more clicks leads to more advertising revenue and more exposure for the Sun Herald. But what is good for us may not be what is good for South Mississippi. We need to re-evaluate.“
The Mississippi Sun Herald
December 17, 2018
Read More“‘I wish for once we would not put that on the individual,’ Clark said. ‘We need a second chance as a society to make things right. We’re all in this together. We all created this. If you put it on the individual, then you’re saying one out of three black males was born a criminal? What did we do to create this? And what do we have to do to unwind this’?“
New Haven Independent
November 23, 2018
Read More“Giving formerly incarcerated people the right to vote is a great first step in helping these men truly get a second chance. If we don’t take these other steps, we will inevitably see more crime and victims, and more ruined lives of the less dangerous ex-felons who should be welcomed back into American society.“
Florida Sun Sentinel
November 8, 2018
Read More“Alexander said there must be a shift in the paradigm with how criminality and incarceration are viewed. For instance, she said, if adults are honest, they’ve committed an illegal act at some point in their lives. The difference is in who gets caught and who doesn’t. “
Indianapolis Recorder
October 25, 2018
Read More“Mass incarceration is the result of the ‘criminalization of social problems related to racial inequality and poverty,’ Western said. More than just ‘shrinking the system’ is required if the problem is to be addressed, Western cautioned — the outlook of the criminal justice system needs to be ‘fundamentally changed’ to be less punitive and more restorative.“
Cornell Sun
September 18, 2018
Read More"Losing the right to vote is among numerous other consequences of being convicted of a crime. This so-called “civil death” suggests that person is considered dead to society. The larger political consequence is a lack of representation in government of a large group of citizens who are largely poor and people of color."
Truthout Magazine
August 2, 2018
Read More"Liberals look at mass incarceration and see structural racism. Libertarians see the denial of civil liberties. Fiscal conservatives see wasted resources. Religious activists see inhumane conditions and damaged lives. All these convictions converge at one point: We should treat offenders as humans, with different stories and different needs, instead of casting them all into the same pit of despair."
Washington Post
July 5, 2018
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