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Incarceration and Self-Interest in America

-- By WyattLittles - 25 Feb 2013

Punishment and Capitalism: Problem and Solution

With only 5% of the world’s population, and 25% of the world’s prisoners, the United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world. To a capitalist, these figures may seem insignificant, until they are substantiated by the body of evidence demonstrating the deleterious effect that the nation’s failing criminal justice system has on the economy as a whole. This country not only locks up more individuals annually than other country in the world, but also has the highest costs of incarceration. $63.4 billion dollars a year is spent on maintaining the nations correctional facilities and programs according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

There are numerous principles for which American’s prescribe to justify their beliefs and behaviors. While it is claimed that America is the home of the “free”, this freedom is merely a token nomenclature to justify the unrestricted pursuit of self-interest. Nowhere is this principle more evident than in the system of Capitalism. Supporters of the capitalist system argue that as a framework, when the proper analysis is applied, it has the ability to solve modern day problems. Therefore, it stands to reason that the principles of capitalism should be applied to cure America’s current incarceration epidemic, either with Congress’ power to regulate interstate commerce or through economic measures.

Principles of Punishment & Putting Commerce to Work

To both cut the costs of imprisonment and net a possible profit from incarceration, the current system must be drastically altered. Fundamentally, criminal law is meant to regulate social conduct that endangers the health and safety of the general public through punishment for those who break laws. It is argued that there are generally five objectives that criminal law advances, retribution, deterrence, incapacitation, rehabilitation, and restoration. In theory, criminal law achieves most of these objectives. However, the fundamental flaw in the American system is the focus on incapacitation at the expense of rehabilitation. From a capitalist perspective, the incapacitated violator is substantially less productive than the rehabilitated violator. This is especially significant given that it currently costs over $47,000 a year to house each inmate. The insignificant return on these costs is contradictory both from an economic and rehabilitative standpoint.

Similar to the role that economics played in the Civil Rights movement, in preventing businesses from discriminating against black customers when it began to affect interstate commerce, see Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States, American history has demonstrated, that the effects of racial bias and discriminatory animus can be partially mitigated when this behavior becomes particularly “bad for business”. The same way that Congress was able to pass and enforce many of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, relying on the Commerce Clause, similar steps should be taken, appealing to the maxims of capitalism to address the issue of incarceration in America. In a down economy, programs implemented, which could cut into the incarceration burden, would ultimately benefit the aggregate. Being a nation so invested on the capitalism doctrine, economics should lead the charge to incite change.

From an economic standpoint, mandatory and disproportionate sentencing should be repealed under the commerce clause. While stringent mandatory sentencing requirements may increase judicial efficiency, they not only create significant due process concerns, but also affect the national economy. Similar to the line of reasoning employed by the government in NFIB v. Sebelius regarding the affect that the uninsured have on the national economy, increasing the time violators must be imprisoned, when combined with a lack of proper rehabilitation and preparation for a return to civilian life, create a cycle of recidivism. In the aggregate, this cycle ultimately works to increase the number of tax dollars spent on housing criminals and has significant implications for interstate commerce.

Realities and Practicality of Change

If a prisoner has no opportunity to return to the civilian world, what is the point of wasting resources on keeping them alive? While some would make the argument that life sentences are more “humane” than capital punishment, the ends are essentially the same. A more economic use of this human capital would be to transform these violators into productive individuals. To use the example of violators sentenced to life without parole, the incentive to be productive decreases significantly where there are limited prospects for release. Prisoners do not stop being human merely because they are imprisoned. One of the main tenants of capitalism and free trade is the notion that individuals will naturally work to pursue their self-interest. When incentives are lost, so is productivity. Therefore if a system implemented a correlation between a violator’s productivity and his time remaining to serve, there would be greater returns on the investment. The current system of paying people to sit on timeout is an ineffective means of both rehabilitation and re-entry into civilization.

While there have been efforts to create greater “exit” or career training for freed violators, the full range of these benefits cannot be enjoyed unless they are further reaching and the lengths of sentences are reduced. These programs must be combined with an elimination of “life sentences”, mandatory sentencing, and greater protection for violators returning to the public. Career training for violators is a positive alternative to the current system, given the net profit that these programs could ultimately garner, in terms of the number of productive individuals created. When accounting for the total costs of preparing violators for viable careers following their release, the analysis must take into account both the costs of housing violators and the opportunity costs, i.e. what these individuals could add to the economy were they not incarcerated. Educating inmates for careers at a basic community college or associates degree level for example would be one step in the right direction. The average costs of an associates degree at current is between $25,000 and $30,000 according to Kaplan University, less than what tax payers currently pay to merely “house” and not rehabilitate violators. Capitalists would clearly be against paying people to be on “time out”, while there is a more productive use of both the human capital and monetary investment.

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