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Harris Kenny Discusses Privately Run Prisons, Drug Policy, & Immigration on Al Jazeera's The Stream

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 00:00:00 EDT

Reason Foundation Policy Analyst Harris Kenny appeared on Al Jazeera's The Stream to discuss the complexities of introducing private-public prisons into America with the highest incarceration rate as well as open immigration and drug policy. Air date: April 4, 2012.

Approximately 37 minutes.

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Remy: Grandma Got Indefinitely Detained (A Very TSA Christmas)

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 10:00:00 EST

In seasons past, Grandma only had to worry about getting run over by a reindeer. With "Grandma Got Run Over by TSA," web sensation Remy gets us in the holiday mood with a song about Christmas, Homeland Security, and the joys of civil rights abuses.

"Grandma Got Run Over by TSA" is one of a series of collaborations between Remy and Reason.tv. To watch Remy's other videos, go here.

Approximately 2:25 minutes. Music by Remy. Video shot and produced by Meredith Bragg.

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Lyrics:

Grandma got indefinitely detained now
coming home to visit Christmas Eve
You could say she had a right to counsel
but some folks in the Congress disagree

she was flying home to our house
when she got checked by TSA
thought she might be Abdulmutallab
when they looked at her X-ray

Her hair had recently been colored
she paid cash for her Christmas gifts
two things apparently the Congress
says just might make you a terrorist

Grandma got indefinitely detained now
coming home to visit Christmas Eve
you could claim there's no right to due process
but check the 5th amendment and you'll see

they say they need to have these powers
to help protect this free country
but if it takes these steps to do so
what is it we are protecting?

Now she's an enemy combatant
as if that makes any sense
the only thing that she's combating
is her unpredictable incontinence

Grandma got indefinitely detained now
trying to come visit Christmas Eve
they took her rights in order to...protect rights..
the most genius plan ever in history

Grandma got indefinitely detained now
never made it home on Christmas day
she always wanted to live in Miami
at least now she's 90 miles away

Veronique de Rugy: The Facts about American Prisons

Fri, 24 Jun 2011 00:00:00 EDT

Editor’s Note: Reason columnist and Mercatus Center economist Veronique de Rugy appears weekly on Bloomberg TV to separate economic fact from economic myth.

Myth 1: Incarceration rates in the U.S. are comparable to the rates in other industrial countries.

Fact 1: U.S. incarceration rates are significantly larger than those in any other liberal democracy.

In 2009, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, there were 1,524,513 prisoners in state and federal prisons in the United States. When local jails are included, the total climbs to 2,284,913. These numbers are not just staggering; they are far above those of any other liberal democracy in both absolute and per capita terms. The International Centre for Prison Studies at King’s College, London calculates that the United States has an incarceration rate of 743 per 100,000 people, compared to 325 in Israel, 217 in Poland, 154 in England and Wales, 96 in France, 71 in Denmark, and 32 in India.

America’s enormously high incarceration rate is a relatively recent phenomenon. According to a 2010 report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), U.S. incarceration rates between 1880 and 1970 ranged from about 100 to 200 prisoners per 100,000 people. After 1980, however, the inmate population began to grow much more rapidly than the overall population, climbing from about 220 per 100,000 in 1980 to 458 in 1990, 683 in 2000, and 753 in 2008.

Myth 2: The rise in the incarceration rate reflects a commensurate rise in crime.

Fact 2: Crime rates have collapsed.

Why are American incarceration rates so high by international standards, and why have they increased so much during the last three decades? The simplest explanation would be that the rise in the incarceration rate reflects a commensurate rise in crime. But according to data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), the total number of violent crimes was only about 3 percent higher in 2008 than it was in 1980, while the violent crime rate was much lower: 19 per 1,000 people in 2008 vs. 49.4 in 1980. Meanwhile, the BJS data shows that the total number of property crimes dropped to 134.7 per 1,000 people in 2008 from 496.1 in 1980. The growth in the prison population mainly reflects changes in the correctional policies that determine who goes to prison and for how long.

Mandatory minimum sentencing laws enacted in the 1980s played an important role. According to the CEPR study, nonviolent offenders make up more than 60 percent of the prison and jail population. Nonviolent drug offenders now account for about one-fourth of all inmates, up from less than 10 percent in 1980. Much of this increase can be traced back to the “three strikes” bills adopted by many states in the 1990s. The laws require state courts to hand down mandatory and extended periods of incarceration to people who have been convicted of felonies on three or more separate occasions. The felonies can include relatively minor crimes such as shoplifting.

Myth 3: The drop in violent crimes is the result of “tough on crime” policies, particularly expanded prison sentences.

Fact 3: Only a small share of the drop in violent crime is the result of expanded incarceration.

For many, America’s soaring incarceration rate and the drop in crime that began 20 years ago are connected. The theory is that if you punish people and make it very costly to commit a crime (expand incarceration), they will have an incentive to live a more virtuous life.

A good question then is whether or not tough sentences have accomplished this? Research by the Pew Center on the States suggests that expanded incarceration accounts for about 25 percent of the drop in violent crime that began in the mid-1990s—leaving the other 75 percent to be explained by things that have nothing to do with keeping people locked up.

If it wasn’t incarceration, what caused the drop?

As Reason contributing editor Radley Balko explains, “There is no shortage of theories: Scholars have pointed to everything from the legalization of abortion to the prohibition of lead-based paints. Other theories credit America’s aging population (the vast majority of criminals are under 30), President Bill Clinton’s program to put more cops on the street, and either stronger gun control laws or an increase in gun carrying by law-abiding Americans.”

He concludes:

More likely, crime scholars argue, we probably have less crime now not because of any anti-crime initiatives dreamed up by academics and politicians but because civil society has quietly churned out benefits independent of those policies. Basically, we are wealthier and the opportunity cost of being incarcerated is high at all level of income.

On that point, it is also worth reading this great piece by Reason Senior Editor Tim Cavanaugh about the drop in New York City’s crime rate.

Contributing Editor Veronique de Rugy is a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.

40 Years of Drug War Failure: LEAP's Neill Franklin

Fri, 17 Jun 2011 00:00:00 EDT

On June 17, 1971 President Richard Nixon launched the modern-day drug war, an effort perpetuated by every one of his successors.

As the reform group Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) documents in a new comprehensive study, the drug war has destroyed lives and property, shredded the constitution, and distorted American education, health care, and even foreign policy. That's why, notes LEAP, fully 75 percent of Americans and 69 percent of police chiefs agree that the drug war has failed.

Reason's Nick Gillespie talked with LEAP's Executive Director Neill Franklin, a retired major in the Maryland State Police. As Franklin explains, he was one of the most bellicose drug warriors around until a comrade was killed during an undercover operation. The best way, argues Franklin, we can pay tribute to his fallen friend - and all the other people whose lives have been laid waste by a war on drugs that has caused far more bad than good - is to turn away from prohibition and embrace regulation and control similar to that used for alcohol.

Shot by Jim Epstein and Joshua Swain, who also edited.

For more videos and information about drug policy, go to here.

For more information on LEAP and to read "Ending the Drug War: A Dream Deferred," go to http://www.leap.cc/40years/

Radley Balko Discusses the Death Penalty in Texas on Russia Today

Tue, 21 Dec 2010 00:00:00 EST

Reason Senior Editor Radley Balko appeared on Russia Today's The Alyona Show to explain the Texas court hearing on the state constitutionality of the death penalty. Air date: December 7, 2010.

Approximately 6.26 minutes.

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Five Ways the Drug War Hurts Kids: A Conversation with Neill Franklin of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition

Tue, 03 Aug 2010 10:00:00 EDT

Commentators like Bill O'Reilly claim that ending the drug war would lead to more children being abused by drug-addicted parents. But 33-year law enforcement veteran Neill Franklin sees it differently.

"These drugs in an illegal environment are more accessible to our kids," says Franklin, who serves as Executive Director Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, "because we leave complete control, regulation, and standards up to the criminals."

Reason.tv's Ted Balaker sat down with Franklin to discuss how battling drug dealers in Baltimore turned him against the war on drugs and why ending prohibition would improve safety for children, as well as the rest of us.

Approximately 8.2 minutes.

Interview by Ted Balaker. Shot by Alex Manning and Paul Detrick. Edited by Hawk Jensen and Sam Corcos.

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"You Are Your Brain": David Eagleman on Transforming The Criminal Justice System

Mon, 14 Jun 2010 11:00:00 EDT

"You are your brain," insists Baylor University neuroscientist and best-selling writer David Eagleman.

It's an insight that he argues should radically transform all aspects of our criminal justice system, from how laws are written to how punishments are levied to how juries are selected.

Reporting back from the bleeding edge of brain research, Eagleman takes viewers on a tour of the latest technological insights into how humans make decisions and whether free will exists anywhere but the pages of philosophy books.

The findings don't exculpate individuals from responsiibility for their actions, the libertarian author of Sum: 40 Tales From The Afterlives says, but they certainly complicate things. And they help to explain why governments double or triple down on failed policies such as drug prohibition.

Approximately 10 minutes. Shot and edited by Alex Manning and Dan Hayes; edited by Hayes. Interview by Nick Gillespie

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And go here for a 50-minute, multimedia presentation by Eagleman at Reason Weekend, an annual conference held by Reason Foundation, the nonprofit that publishes Reason.tv. This year's event took place in New Orleans from April 15-18 in New Orleans.

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