Written by Azali Jeffrey

Azali is a 2020 Leland Fellow and worked in the office of Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee.

The topic of incarceration is a sensitive one, especially with the United States having the highest rate of incarceration in the world. The Prison Policy Initiative reports that about $182 billion is spent each year in order to imprison almost 1% of the U.S. population. Our country jails 440 people out of every 100,000. The state of Texas exceeds that statistic by locking up 553 people out of every 100,000. Texas ranks sixth out of 50 states for its high incarceration rate, only to be exceeded by Louisiana, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Arkansas and Arizona.

Along with a steep incarceration rate, the state of Texas has an alarmingly high number of African Americans in its prisons due to years of misguided policy and messaging, such as Bill Clinton’s “three-strikes law” and Ronald Reagan’s declaration of the “War on Drugs”. African Americans make up 12% of Texas’ population, yet are 33% of Texas’ prison population.

Although legislation enacted by states has also had an enormous impact since the 1970s, the combination of Reagan and Clinton’s work during the 1980s and 1990s has created an almost irreversible spike in prison populations on a federal level.

Aside from the political and statistical perspectives, we must also consider the unfortunate social costs – the degradation of the mental, physical and emotional health of inmates, as well as the breakdown of family structures due to unnecessarily long sentencing. Texas is one of three states in the country that does not pay inmates for their labor, yet according to reports by the Daily Texan, their work is valued at about $2 billion a year. Although they do not receive compensation for their work, any items that are not food or clothing must be purchased. If an inmate does not have family or friends to deposit money into their accounts for commissary, there is no way to purchase or enjoy basic items that start to feel like luxuries, such as snacks or candy. The inability to generate income creates enormous financial hardship upon release. Without any savings, how can one move forward with finding stable housing, transportation or healthcare? For those with felony convictions, the federal government makes it incredibly difficult to apply for assistance programs such as welfare, food stamps and unemployment.

With barriers such as those listed above, homelessness becomes a rampant issue. People who have been incarcerated once experience homelessness at a rate seven times higher than those who have never been incarcerated. For anyone who has been incarcerated more than once, they are 13 times more likely to experience homelessness, which has also become criminalized. Police officers are taught to consider sleeping/sheltering in public places and panhandling as crimes, creating a revolving door between homelessness and incarceration. Formerly incarcerated Black men and women of color experience higher rates of homelessness than their white counterparts. Nine out of every 10,000 people are homeless in Texas, compared to 17 per 10,000 on the national level. According to the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s 2019 Point in Time Count, there are currently 25,848 homeless people in the state of Texas and Black men make up the largest sector of this population. Along with incarceration, the lack of affordable housing and rising health care costs are responsible for these numbers.

As a world leader, the United States has a personal responsibility to solve the injustice, lack of rehabilitation, and racial bias within its criminal justice system. Providing sufficient health care treatment to inmates, ending unfair sentencing requirements, and using state and federal resources to provide adequate reentry programs are just a few solutions to this complex issue.

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