A Proposal to Release The Non-violent Prisoners

Roughly speaking – and this is only a general estimate – there are some 2 million people incarcerated in the United States. The hallmark of any good justice system is mercy. For those who did not commit acts of violence, we should arrange a one-time grant of amnesty and release them. It would save the taxpayer enormous expense. 

There are approximately 7 million people who are either incarcerated or under the parole system or the like. A very high percentage of these people are men. In a nation of 310 million people, about 155 million are men. Using a rough figure of 6 million men, that is about 4% of the male population that is under the penal system, or about one in every 25 men. 

It’s true that America has a lot of crime. I am a victim of armed robbery. It happened before dawn one morning as I left my house in an American city. Two guys pulled up in a truck, one said, “Give me the money”, and when I refused he got out of the truck, walked up to me with a gun in his hand and said something like “Give me your bag or I’ll shoot you.” He didn’t shoot me but got the bag, some books, and about $20. The police never caught the guy. 

If you’re a victim of crime like me it’s easy to be consumed by reactionary stupidity. In my opinion, that’s a big mistake. 

It would be absurd to repeat the mistakes of the Germans during the Nazi era. In that era of German history, the elite chose a fatalistic political ideology (socialism), followed a militaristic, insane fanatic (Hitler), and persecuted an ethnic minority (the Jews) while the system collapsed. They enslaved themselves to a theater image of an insane criminal leader and followed him to their destruction. 

Our prisons aren’t concentration camps, but there are some alarming developments. The Mariel Cubans are a group of people who were incarcerated without Due Process in the U.S. after fleeing Communist Cuba. After years of incarceration without trial according to the Due Process clause, prison riots erupted. They were first incarcerated in the 1980’s, and it is a blight on the American legal system. They should be released to any third country that will take them. 

The Guantanamo Prison threatens to leave the country with a legal system that includes indefinite detention without trial, a horrible injustice that is unacceptable to voters. They have rejected it. 

As I write, people are in jail for thefts, non-violent sales of marijuana, tax issues, gun ownership issues, prostitution and many other non-violent offenses. A one-time grant of amnesty would relieve the taxpayer of a tremendous financial burden. It would show this world that the United States really is a place where people believe in mercy. 

Of course, no legal system works without judgment. On the very day of the grant of amnesty, there is nothing to stop the arrest and trial of those who have committed crimes, violent or non-violent. The murderers, rapists, kidnappers and armed robbers aren’t going anywhere. There will be more resources in the prison system to deal with such people, and costs can be reduced.