The Green Party is constantly reviewing our policy platforms as new information becomes available so that we can use the latest information in making an educated decision on the best way to govern.

In Illinois, as in the rest of the nation, our criminal justice system is in dire need of an overhaul. The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world. As of 2005, there were nearly 2.2 million people in prisons and jails nationwide. Hundreds of thousands more are on probation or parole. The United States incarcerates seven times as many people per capita as Canada or Germany and more than triple the rate for Mexico. Yet massive imprisonment has had little, if any, impact on the rate of violent crime.

Our nation spends approximately $60 billion a year on so-called corrections. Yet despite the millions spent on new prisons annually, our prisons are still bursting at the seams with overcrowding. The dehumanizing treatment experienced by most prisoners makes it all the more likely that they will commit violent acts upon their release. The current theory that our society can solve the crime problem by punishing or “incapacitating” criminals through massive, long-term incarceration isn’t working.

The crime problem needs to be attacked on several levels. The most important step is to address the causes of crime by creating a healthier economic system that can provide well-paying jobs for all who need them. Poverty and economic insecurity are not the sole causes of crime, but they are probably the most important single factor. Economic insecurity also breeds domestic violence and child abuse which, in turn, perpetuates violent behavior when abused children become adults.

Another important step is to redefine the kinds of conduct that are regarded as “criminal.” Eighty-four percent of the increase in the prison population since 1980 is attributable to persons convicted of nonviolent offenses. One survey of state prison inmates showed that 53% were convicted of crimes that most people would regard as “petty” — such as shoplifting $10 worth of merchandise or possessing small amounts of marijuana.

Indeed, much of the prison-overcrowding problem stems from our society’s misguided attempt to legislate morality by criminalizing the use of drugs. It is senseless to punish people for using a relatively benign substance like marijuana while the use of more harmful substances like alcohol and tobacco is being encouraged through mass advertising. The prohibition of more addictive drugs such as cocaine or heroin only ensures that the price remains so high that many addicts must turn to theft or prostitution in order to feed their habit. We advocate a more sensible policy: Cannabis should be legalized, although its legal use should be restricted to adults. The penalties for simple possession and use of other drugs should be greatly reduced.

Serious substance abuse problems of all kinds, including alcohol and tobacco, should be dealt with as a public health matter, not as a criminal matter, with more resources devoted to drug education, treatment and social intervention. A sensible policy on drug abuse and crime should also eliminate the hypocrisy, double standards and injustices that permeate the criminal justice system today, such as:

1. The hypocrisy of the federal government proclaiming “zero tolerance” on drug abuse when the CIA for years has employed the “services” of organized crime and has winked at, if not aided, major suppliers of heroin and cocaine.
2. The injustice of “civil forfeiture” laws, which have allowed law enforcement agencies to rake in millions of dollars by seizing the property of persons who have merely been accused of drug offenses and retaining it even when the accused is later found innocent.
3. The double standard of specially targeting African-Americans for arrests and tougher prosecution, resulting in a disproportionate rate of convictions, longer sentences and a higher rate of capital punishment for African- Americans than for white Americans.
4. The double standard of imposing severe punishment for victimless crimes, while much corporate, “white-collar” crime — including violations of environmental and worker safety laws that can kill hundreds or thousands of people — often goes unpunished or is punished by “slap on the wrist” fines.
5. The injustice of providing inadequate resources to public defenders’ offices, resulting in wrongful convictions and incarceration of poor people.
6. The injustice of allowing private enterprise to exploit prison labor, a policy that eliminates real jobs from our communities, while undermining unions and the wage standards of all workers.

Finally, when people must be incarcerated for committing violent or other serious crimes, our criminal justice system must make serious attempts to rehabilitate offenders, not just punish them, by providing better counseling, psychiatric evaluation and therapy when needed, and better educational and vocational training opportunities to inmates. The use of alternatives to prison, such as “half-way houses” and programs that help convicts find jobs and manage their lives successfully, should be expanded. Persons convicted of crimes should be encouraged to turn their lives around, not brutalized and degraded.

Similarly, in keeping with its values of nonviolence and social justice, and in light of recent experience showing that the State’s criminal justice system has put innocent people in danger of being executed, which in turn prompted a moratorium on the death penalty, the Illinois Green Party is opposed to capital punishment.

This does not mean that Greens are “soft” on crime. The Illinois Green Party recognizes that our society, at least at present, does create some people who have become so violent that they must be separated from the general population through some form of incarceration. However, to be truly “tough” on crime means attacking the causes of crime as much as possible, focusing on crimes that truly harm society, and focusing on turning offenders into productive, law-abiding citizens. It means recognizing the human potential for redemption and rehabilitation.

This Green policy on crime and criminal justice will be far more effective at eradicating crime than the policies of those who talk “tough” but who lack the political courage to attack this complex problem with integrity.