One good way to reduce wrongful convictions is to stop passing more arcane criminal laws and funding more police officers to enforce them. But politicians in many countries have been doing just the opposite for the past 30 years.
In the United States, legislators have increased the number of federal offenses by 50 percent since the 1980s and state legislators have been following suit. They’ve also raised funding for increasingly militarized police forces to enforce those laws. This has had dubious impact on public safety while greatly increasing the chance of putting innocent people behind bars, often for mid-level drug offenses that usually don’t earn the attention of those who fight wrongful convictions. A disproportionate number of the innocents swept up in this process are minorities.
It’s time to try a different approach, according to a study released today by the Justice Policy Institute. Rethinking the Blues: How we police in the U.S. and at what cost documents how overpolicing contributes to “a criminal justice system that disconnects people from their communities, fills prisons and jails, and costs taxpayers billions.” You can read more here.
