Some recent news articles have prompted the Law Librarian to think about prisons and incarceration. 
Recently Sesame Street unveiled its incarceration kit, which is designed to help children deal with the anxiety of having a parent incarcerated. No one would oppose tools to assist children going through this difficult event, but this might be little more than a band-aid tool for a serious problem. Incarceration is extremely detrimental to kids, considering that it deprives them of both a parent’s presence and their income stream. The result is often kids going from two-parent to one-parent homes, or from one-parent homes to foster homes. This leads to an overall effect on communities that is devastating. More can be read here.
There is also the sheer government expense that comes from incarceration, not only for the process itself, but for the fact that one cannot be a taxpayer while being a prisoner. (Despite criminal expungement options, this “lost taxpayer” effect can remain a problem even after the prisoner is released.) Government dollars spent on incarceration leaves less money available for projects like transportation, education, healthcare, etc. It’s no wonder that certain GOP leaders are deciding that their previous “get tough” platform is too expensive to be compatible with their principles of limited government and fiscal conservatism. Of course, government prison contracts are a major industry and revenue source in some communities.
The Law Librarian understands that some people are unfortunately dangerous, and that public safety may require locking them away. Yet this begs the deeper questions of whether such people were simply “born that way” or slipped through cracks of our social fiber somehow. Judges nowadays also have less leeway in sentencing, given the emergence of legislative constraints such sentencing guidelines and statutory sentencing mandates. To what extent are these forces in effect because of some psychological need we have to see “wrongdoers” punished or vilified? (Hint: Go to the Pioneer Press or Star Tribune and pick out a crime news story and then read the comments field entries – the vindictive tone is unmistakable.) Despite any emotional satisfaction it might bring us, incarceration is certainly the most costly and least effective way to address real social problems.
