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\n\t\tPC: Anthony Ramos
\nVia Wikimedia Commons\t\t<\/p>\n
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\n\t\tPC: Anthony Ramos
\nVia Wikimedia Commons\t\t<\/p>\n
A \u201clistening session\u201d for the Sacramento County Jail Master Plan (PSJA@saccounty.gov<\/a>) just occurred. It sought to shape the jail\u2019s future, and a presentation, eventually, to the County\u2019s Supervisors. The county is motivated to change because it lost the Mays Decision, a federal lawsuit filed on behalf of mistreated prisoners.<\/p>\n The Mays Decision itself doesn\u2019t request bigger facilities; jail personnel are the problem. Public comments said this remains unchanged, and jailers remain abusive, even denying inmates their medication.<\/p>\n In fairness to the County, the jail is full. However, the County did not mention that 60%-80% of the prisoners are not convicted of anything except being too poor to afford bail. The US and the Philippines are the only two countries that require cash bail. Illinois and Washington, D.C., have abandoned it for selected crimes without bad consequences. The public, not the County, brought up eliminating cash bail.<\/p>\n The US incarcerates at five times the world\u2019s per-capita average, seven times more than Canada, and Canadian crime rates are lower. Prisons do not prevent crime.<\/p>\n The only prisoners described in the County\u2019s presentation were mentally ill or addicted. There was no mention of anything to address the poverty that prevents prisoners from posting bail. That\u2019s despite the largest homeless population since the Great Depression\u2014driven primarily by poverty, not mental illness; in a country where 40% of the population can\u2019t afford a $400 emergency, and 60% of workers live check to check.<\/p>\n Santa Clara County has Destination: Home<\/a>, which supplies emergency funds to those on the verge of homelessness. It took the public, not the County, to bring this up.<\/p>\n Will the \u201clistening\u201d produce any change in the County\u2019s willful ignorance about poverty driving people to desperate behavior like crime? Let\u2019s just say I\u2019m not holding my breath.<\/p>\n \u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014-<\/p>\n The above is my writing. To add to that,\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0is from William Murphy:<\/p>\n The United States does not have a \u201ccrime problem\u201d in the way it\u2019s usually framed. It has a social organization problem\u2014a system that reliably generates the conditions under which crime becomes rational, predictable, and, in many cases, unavoidable\u2026.<\/p>\n When large sections of a population face economic precarity, unstable housing, inadequate healthcare, and underfunded education, those conditions shape behavior. Not in a simplistic, deterministic way\u2014but in a probabilistic one. The more pressure you apply to a system, the more predictable its outcomes become.<\/p>\n In the U.S., those pressures are intense:<\/p>\n Wages that lag far behind the cost of living<\/p>\n Housing markets that function as speculative assets rather than human necessities<\/p>\n Healthcare tied to employment or priced out of reach<\/p>\n Education systems stratified by zip code<\/p>\n A labor market that oscillates between exploitation and exclusion<\/p>\n Under those conditions, \u201ccrime\u201d is not an anomaly. It is one of several adaptation strategies.<\/p>\n The key point: these outcomes are not bugs in the system. They are features\u2026..<\/p>\n And it leads to a fundamental contradiction:\u00a0the same system that produces the conditions for crime also deploys force to contain its consequences\u2026<\/p>\n Under [our current system], certain social conditions are not just tolerated\u2014they are functional:<\/p>\n Cheap labor requires economic vulnerability<\/p>\n High rents require housing scarcity<\/p>\n Private healthcare profits require limited access<\/p>\n Consumer markets thrive on debt and instability<\/p>\n These dynamics generate inequality. And inequality, in turn, generates crime.<\/p>\n At the same time, entire industries profit from the management of crime:<\/p>\n Private prisons<\/p>\n Surveillance technologies<\/p>\n Security services<\/p>\n Insurance markets<\/p>\n This creates a feedback loop where the system has no structural incentive to eliminate the root causes of crime. It only has incentives to manage and monetize its effects.<\/p>\n If the problem is structural, then the solution has to be structural. Not cosmetic reforms, not rhetorical shifts\u2014material changes.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s what the evidence shows works:<\/p>\n 1. Economic Stability \u2014 Cash transfers, wage increases, and employment programs consistently reduce property crime and, in some cases, violence.<\/p>\n 2. Housing as a Right\u00a0\u2014 [Also] lowers overall system costs<\/p>\n 3. Universal Healthcare\u00a0Mental health issues and substance use are deeply intertwined with crime, particularly at the street level. Treating these as criminal issues rather than health issues produces predictable results: cycling people through jails without addressing the underlying causes.<\/p>\n 4. Education and Youth Investment \u2014\u00a0These are not quick fixes. They are long-term investments.<\/p>\n 5. Community-Based Violence Reduction \u2014\u00a0\u2026don\u2019t rely on coercion. They rely on legitimacy.<\/p>\n 6. Justice System Reform\u00a0 \u2014 The current system often exacerbates the very problems it claims to solve.<\/p>\n Ending cash bail for low-level offenses<\/p>\n Reducing excessive sentences<\/p>\n Expanding parole and reentry support<\/p>\n Using restorative justice where appropriate<\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0The goal is not to eliminate accountability \u2014 but to make it constructive rather than purely punitive.<\/p>\n 7. Redefining the Role of Police \u2014\u00a0Not every social problem requires an armed response. The Real Question\u00a0\u2026The deeper question is this: What kind of society are we trying to build? One that manages inequality through force?\u00a0Or one that reduces inequality so that force becomes less necessary?\u2026. Crime is not an isolated pathology. It is a system output.<\/p>\n Follow the Vanguard on Social Media \u2013 X<\/a>, Instagram <\/a>and Facebook<\/a>.\u00a0 Subscribe <\/a>the Vanguard News letters.\u00a0 To make a tax-deductible donation, please visit davisvanguard.org\/donate<\/a> or give directly through ActBlue<\/a>.\u00a0 Your support will ensure that the vital work of the Vanguard continues.<\/p>\n Categories: Breaking News<\/a> Civil Rights<\/a> Sacramento Region<\/a> Tags: Cash Bail<\/a> Criminal Justice Reform<\/a> Jail Reform<\/a> Mass Incarceration<\/a> prisoner rights<\/a> Sacramento County Jail<\/a>
At the same time, accountability for the use of force must be real, not symbolic.<\/p>\n