William Henderson and B. McGraw talk about prisons in the United States. Why are so many people in prison? What are some resolutions to this? This is Part 2 of 2 episodes.
We first start going over the various actual causes of the incarceration problem in the US. This mostly revolves around tough on crime legislation, to include three strike laws, mandatory minimums, and strict probation and parole violation punishments. Interestingly, the research tends to suggest these policies also do not decrease the crime rate.
We then talk about racial dynamics, to include disparities in arrest vs incarceration rates. Then we go over recidivism by type of crime. Following this, we go over the various mental health conditions which disproportionately affect incarcerated individuals, to include mood disorders and schizophrenia. Then we look at the correlation between personality disorders and incarceration. Finally, we talk about some reform ideas, to include better social support programs which reduce crime rates, less severe punishments for minor parole and probation violations, replacing short prison stays with community service or house arrest, replacing cash-bail with risk-based bail decisions, reducing private prisons, etc.
0:29 Public safety
2:45 Three strikes laws
5:30 mandatory minimums (2)
6:52 Probation
8:07 Racial dynamics (2) (3) (4)
11:11 Rate of being pulled over during the day and at night by race
12:15 Recidivism
12:47 Mental health and crime (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8)
17:18 Dark triad (2)
20:32 Cluster A/B/C disorders (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6)
26:10 reform ideas