I am a licensed attorney in Alaska, although I went inactive for my license a number of years ago and no longer actively practice law. But I have had experience practicing criminal law and being active in public policy issues surrounding criminal law for decades. A number of years ago, I noted that in addition to Alaska Native men being overrepresented in Alaska jails by almost 100%, women were becoming an increasing part of the population that was incarcerated. As this study indicates [LINK HERE], we don’t really know why the increase is happening, but one plausible suggestion is that we are handing social service provision off to jails, just as the provision of mental health services have been handed off. All of this is done without serious policy discussion about the cost to women, their families and the jurisdiction imposing the higher levels of incarceration.
The statistics cited in the study are compelling for redirecting our policy discussions away from punitive solutions and more towards intervention services, as early as we can achieve it. The opening discussion on this article [LINK HERE] focuses on a woman in jail for violating the terms of her probation, not the original offense of shoplifting. Add to that the fact she wasn’t given pants to wear to court led to the video of her court appearance going viral. ACEs are very prevalent in this population and generally go unrecognized. [LINK HERE TO STUDY]
“According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), 75 percent of women in jails reported having had symptoms of a mental health disorder in the past 12 months. Jailed women also report very high rates of victimization—including childhood sexual abuse, sexual assault, and intimate partner violence—and almost a third had experienced post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in the past 12 months.” (Page 10 of the study)
We do tend to put people into for unnecessary reasons. Think about the prospect of 75 jail days for shoplifting. Is that fair? And have we looked at the reason for the shoplifting? Probably not. What develops the thinking behind justice policy when it focuses just on who is caught for a rule violation. In my experience, the number of people who actually get caught for breaking a law or rule is minimal. I think of it as being incredibly unlucky. According to this article [LINK HERE], only 4,000 arrests are made out of 300,000 violations daily for drunk driving. So .013% of perpetrators are arrested. To go through the criminal charge and trial phase isn't even mentioned, but it’s not likely a very high number. I think of the system as unfair, full of problems and issues and excessively punitive for those who are unlucky enough to get caught.
Now, if we add in the fact that even fewer of the 4,000 will actually be prosecuted, it appears even more unfair. Why, instead, don’t we focus on possible root causes for the driving while intoxicated perpetrators and fixing that root cause?
As we move forward with our advocate for recognizing and eliminating perpetration of childhood trauma, we have to work with the adult who experienced it already. Their behaviors are predictable, and when we identify that behavior as trauma derived, we should move towards healing the trauma that causes the behavior.
The Safety & Justice Challenge is an initiative that is focused on changing the way jails are used [LINK HERE]. It's sponsored by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. I believe we should consider this effort as one to work towards when we advocate for policy solutions to the problem of excess incarceration. Instead, it seems we are just including more women in what was once almost exclusively a male, minority and poor problem, excess incarceration.
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