By the early 1990's, as the prison population boomed,
the federal government began to push down their approach to their tough on crime,
touch on drugs approach into the state systems.
States began in the early 1990s to pass their own version of
tough on crime legislation.
These included approaches like mandatory jail time for
multiple drug offenses, three strikes and you're out laws.
Though in Georgia, we have two strikes and you're out, requiring jurisdictions to
prosecute juveniles as adults when charged with certain offenses.
As the legislatures made sentencing, sentence is required and
longer, the federal government gave money, more money to the states to pay for
police officers, more police officers.
And the courts reduced constitutional protections,
which increased arrest powers while increasing conviction rates.
All of these things, working on both the federal level,
as well as on the individual state levels, led to increased arrest, prosecutions, and
ultimately, the imprisonment of more and more Americans.
But this momentum didn't just affect the average or
an average cross section of our community.
Many in the criminal justice,
justice system said that it is better to be guilty and rich than innocent and poor.
Why?
Because roughly 90% of those arrested and charged in this country are poor.
75% of all arrestees in this country are African American.
Over 95% of all cases prosecuted end in plea bargains.
In the criminal defense community,
there is an expression that reflects this quick type of justice.
Meet 'em, greet 'em, and plead 'em.
Regardless of who is arrested, convicted, and
sentenced to prison, the violence doesn't stop there.
It gets worse.
Let's talk about the conditions of our prison system.
Who gets sent to prison in this country?
Most of us believed that the system saved prison for the most violent offenders.
We believed that we would use the most severe form of punishment for
the worst, that is, the most violent offenders.
A generation ago, that was true.
Prior to the war on drugs, it's estimated that 80%
of inmates in the prison system were there for violent offences.
We use prison for those members of our society that we were afraid of,
those who physically harmed other members of the community.