The risk of releasing prisoners during the coronavirus crisis
Bottom Line: As prison systems in California and Ohio have begun to release, what they refer to as “non-violent” prisoners and as officials in parts of Florida continue to weigh the same – how about looking at the risks of these decisions? First, if we’re talking about someone incarcerated for smoking pot, ok – I'm willing to have the conversation. For any crime that involves a victim or victims however – absolutely not. Officials might try to hide behind the term “non-violent” but try telling victims of property theft, financial theft, etc. that the damage doesn’t take a physical and mental toll. Before these decisions are made it’s important to realize what the risk looks like in Florida.
- 47%, or 46,000 of all of Florida’s inmates are repeat offenders
That should be the first place to start this conversation. Half of the “non-violent” offenders didn’t just have a one-off indiscretion that they perhaps have learned from while in prison. Early release of repeat criminals during good times wouldn’t seem to serve the public interest in any context. Of course, these aren’t good, or normal times. On back of record unemployment claims being filed in Florida, and across the country, we’ve been provided federal government estimates that suggest unemployment could go as high as 32%. The highest recorded rate in American history was 24.9% during the Great Depression. Now what happens when we have higher unemployment than we’ve ever had and we’re releasing convicted criminals back into society, half of which are already repeat offenders?
This is why it’s important that we don’t error on the side of criminals over law abiding people who’re already trying to cope with extremely difficult circumstances. It’s outright wrong for any officials to release prisoners early into our society right now. Do everything you can to keep the virus out of the prisons, but rewarding prisoners with early release during a national crisis is insanity in my book.