Recently, the Vera Institute and the Prison Law Project completed a report examining sentencing and prison practices in Germany and the Netherlands as compared to the United States.
As the report highlights, there is little doubt of the failure of America’s criminal justice system. Over the past forty years our prison population has grown by 705%, (meanwhile our crime rate has dropped by only 20%). Our recidivism rates (which as the report points out are a key indicator of systemic success) stand at an abysmal 40%, meanwhile our state corrections expenditures are through the roof – second only to healthcare.
Germany and the Netherlands, on the other hand, incarcerate proportionally far less people. They accomplish this by offering a broad range of alternative sanctions such as diversion, community service or fines that are used in place of jail or prison. When offenders are incarcerated, their sentences are much shorter. While prisoners in America spend on average 3 years behind bars, in Germany 92% of prison sentences were less than two years (75% were under 12 months).
The primary goal of the criminal justice systems in both Germany and the Netherlands is re-socialization and they focus much of there programming around maintaining connections with society. Many inmates are allowed to spend time outside of the prison while serving their sentence. In the Netherlands, prisoners are often allowed to “report” to their prison sentence during the week, and spend the weekends with their families. Furthermore, unlike in United States where offenders face a slew of collateral consequences following a conviction, in Germany and the Netherlands, offenders retain their right to vote, are not denied welfare benefits and are not barred from public housing. All these factors contribute to successful reintergration into communities.
In addition to this report, on Monday, the Guardian published an article focused on the closure of four prisons in Sweden - due to plummeting numbers of prisoners. While the exact cause is unknown, Nils Oberg, head of Sweden’s prison and probation services attributes some of the decline to Sweden’s liberal prison approach and investment in rehabilitation practices. Still, in an opinion piece he authored in a Swedish paper, he called on Sweden to work harder on rehabilitating prisoners and better support their transition back into their communities. In 2012, out of a population of 9.5 million, Sweden had 4,852 people behind bars.
While there is no doubt the United States is facing a long road towards reforming our broken system of justice, there is no doubt we can look, learn and share best practices from our European neighbors.
