If you count the populations of federal and state prisons, local and regional jails, juvenile detention centers and immigration lock-ups, Virginia has at least 60,000 people behind bars. That’s 679 people for every 100,000 state residents.
“If Virginia were an independent country it would have one of the highest incarceration rates of any country on Earth. It would have the third highest incarceration rate in the world.”
Wanda Bertram with the Prison Policy Initiative says only El Salvador and Rwanda lock up more people per capita than Virginia. We hold more than four times as many prisoners as the U.K. and more than five times as many as Canada. One reason: we put people in jail, even if they might be innocent.
“We have a system that determines people’s fitness for release pre-trial, based on their financial situation. If you pay bail you can get out. If you can’t pay bail you stay locked up.”
Of course, some experts argue holding more people means greater public safety, but Bertram doesn’t buy it.
“If high rates of incarceration were an adequate response to harm in our communities then states like Virginia + would see lower levels of crime, right? States like Louisiana and Mississippi and Oklahoma, which have some of the highest incarceration rates in the country, would have some of the lowest crime rates. Unfortunately we know that is not the case.”
So what does reduce crime? Bertram claims good public education, jobs, affordable housing and healthcare make a huge difference. She argues states should stop holding people in jail, just because they can’t afford bail and should review long prison sentences, especially for people locked up during the War on Drugs when being tough on crime was a popular political mantra.
