Report: MA’s Criminal Justice Policies Costly, Ineffective

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Ashley Klann, GoLocalWorcester Contributor

A Bay State non-partisan think tank and polling group, Massacchusetts Institute for a New Commonwealth (MassINC), says that the Commonwealth is spending too much on criminal justice and not seeing the benefits. They're proposing bold changes for the future including a moratorium on state and county prison expansion.

According to the group, the criminal justice system in Massachusetts is currently costing taxpayers $1.2 billion a year and “lags behind the country in implementing reforms proven to reduce costs and improve public safety.” In the wake of the Boston Marathon bombing, clearly public safety is a paramount issue for everyone across the state.

The report details how much each county in the Commonwealth is being impacted by the skyrocketing costs to jail the state’s offenders, as the percentage of the state’s jailed population has tripled since the 1980s.

“Crime, Cost, and Consequences”

MassINC and the Community Resources for Justice paired up on the study, saying that with their solutions, the state could save money and increase public safety.

The report, they hope, will “fuse research, public education, and civic discourse into a multi-year campaign to make the Commonwealth a leader in the field of corrections.”

Their aim to “get smart” on crime includes changing the state’s “get tough on crime” perspective for something more cohesive and effective.

“As crime rates continue to drop nationally and here in Massachusetts, the state’s prison population spirals ever higher because of outdated ‘tough on crime’ policies that have more political than practical value,” the authors state in the report.
Massachusetts, they say, has “passed the baton,” on its criminal justice program.

Skyrocketing Costs

MassINC says when comparing “the public safety gains against the direct cost to the taxpayer, Massachusetts’s current policies appear to carry a hefty price tag.”

The group estimates that at current spending levels and policies enacted over the next decade, the state will spend $1.5 billion incarcerating offenders for longer periods relative to 1990, $900 million incarcerating more drug offenders relative to 1985, $160 million moving inmates to higher security facilities relative to 1990, and $200 million in uncollected taxes from lost wages relative to 1987.

The reason? According to statistics presented in the report from the Massachusetts Department of Corrections, those who commit felonies are more likely to be imprisoned and will spend more time in prison, compared to the past.

“In this difficult fiscal environment, corrections budgets are unnecessarily crowding out other state spending, including funding for public health, higher education, and local aid,” the report reads. “Without a change of course, the Executive Office of Administration and Finance estimates that at least $1 billion will be needed for new facilities, with operating costs growing by $120 million annually.”

The organization also points out that these costs are not one-time-only payments, but funds that will be spent as long as the policies in place stay instituted.

“Massachusetts has resisted change,” they said, compared to other states in similar positions that have adopted a more “data-driven” set of policies and approaches to criminal justice.

Worcester’s Figures

The MassINC’s report breaks down each of the top ten “most impacted cities” in Massachusetts, showing the share of violent crimes, homicides, and Department of Corrections (DoC) releases.

Worcester was third on the list, with six percent of the state’s violent crimes, three percent of all homicides, and six percent of DoC releases. No other Central Mass. cities made the list.

Boston came in first with 20 percent of all violent crimes, 35 percent of homicides, and 18 percent of DoC releases. Springfield came next.

Lowell, New Bedford, Brockton, Fall River, Lynn, Lawrence, and Chelsea brought up the rest of the list, with a combined share of the top 10 cities accounting for 56 percent of all violent crimes, 67 of homicides, and 49 of DoC releases.

Solutions

The group’s report is loaded with solutions, including a radical suggestion to place a moratorium on the expansion of state and county prisons. “The moratorium will signal a commitment to ensure that future investment of the state’s finite public safety resources is grounded in rigorous cost-benefit analysis,” they said.

Additionally, MassINC suggests increased post-releases supervision. According to data from the state DoC, in 2011, 48 percent of releases were done under no supervision. Thirty-four percent were given probation, and 12 percent were given parole. The remaining number were given parole and probation.

They also suggest making Boston’s Emergency Reentry Program a model for urban centers across the state, and using a standardized data system and reporting protocols, while funneling information to a central research center.

They say the state needs to “develop a strategy to build a culture of data-driven decision making” if it expects the costliness of criminal justice and the levels of recidivism to decline.

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