A tougher sentence is not a panacea

If so, one may think that keeping criminals in prison would be better. But correctional facilities are finite.

PARK HAN-SEUL The author is a pharmacist and writer.

After U.S. President Biden dropped out of the presidential race, Vice President Kamala Harris became the Democratic presidential candidate. If elected, she will be the first female president and the first African Indian president. It will be monumental in history, but such minority identity is under attack during election season. Some Republican voters criticize her for her gender and race, especially for being black.

Of course, data shows that the crime rate of black people is alarming. The incarceration rate of black people is about four times that of white people in the United States, and about 32 percent of those in state and federal prisons are black.

But this cannot be blamed on the racial characteristics of black people. In fact, the culprit is the severe American punishment system, which is often regarded as an exemplary case in Korea. Behind the drastic sentencing in America, which can go up to hundreds of years, are the failures in its criminal system.

Let’s take a look at a report released by the U.S. Department of Justice in 2021. After tracing 410,000 ex-convicts released in 2012 and observing them for five years, the department checked whether they were arrested after their release. The outcome is shocking. The cumulative recidivism rate within five years was 70.8 percent. The rate for violent crimes — such as murder, rape and robbery — during the same period was 65.2 percent, while that of drug and substance-related crimes was 69.7 percent. If the pool is narrowed to first-time offenders, the rate was 68.6 percent. It is a disastrous failure of correction.

What is the way to appease the public’s anger at the failed criminal system? The U.S. government chose to expand criminal investigation and the police force and apply severe punishments to create an illusion that its judicial system was working well. In reality, the imprisoned offenders learn new criminal knowledge and repeat crimes.

If so, one may think that keeping criminals in prison would be better. But correctional facilities are finite. For example, in California, the number of criminals is overwhelmingly larger than its correctional facility capacities, and the amount for theft charges was raised from $400 to $950. That’s why stores are looted in broad daylight.

How about Korea? As of 2022, the three-year recidivism rate is 23.8 percent, much lower than that of the United States. But as sentences are getting tougher, there are new criminal cases driven by personal vendettas on the people released from prison. Righteous anger is understandable, but innocent citizens suffer in the end.