The hidden scandal of US criminal justice? Rural incarceration has boomed
US prisons
While big cities are finally putting fewer people in jail, small towns and rural counties are locking up more people than ever
Jasmine Heiss and Jack Norton
Fri 13 Dec 2019 06.15 ESTLast modified on Fri 13 Dec 2019 09.10 EST
Since the 2016 election, many political observers have taken a greater interest in the social and economic crisis afflicting rural America.
As people who grew up in and then migrated out of small towns, we’ve noticed a conversation that goes something like this: rural America is a “land of self-defeat”, characterized by deepening poverty and despair, worsening infrastructure and public health, and collapsing industry. These depictions, however, miss an important part of this story: the rising criminalization and incarceration of people in rural communities.
In 2017, our colleagues at the Vera Institute of Justice issued a report on an underappreciated phenomenon: at the same time that economic change and policy reforms in America’s biggest cities have resulted in fewer people in jails and prisons, small cities and rural counties are incarcerating more and more people. This week, we’ve released new research on this changing geography of incarceration. Our study is the first recent estimate of the national jail population, and the results are troubling and urgent.
Jails both produce and respond to the litany of horrors recited weekly in media coverage of declining small-town America – overdoses, violence, suicide, joblessness. Research consistently shows that jail impoverishes people and communities; even short jail stays can shred social stability, causing people to lose their homes and jobs. Research also shows that economic decline and increased jail incarceration each lead to higher rates of drug overdose deaths, playing an even bigger role in the overdose crisis than the prescription rate of opioids.
More:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/dec/13/rural-incarceration-hidden-scandal-us-criminal-justice
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