I’m a year away from law school and I always get asked, “What kind of law do you want to practice?” I usually say I want to keep an open mind, but most likely somewhere in the human rights area. I recently saw a TED Talk that talked exclusively about how much power a prosecutor has and what they can do with it. I was intrigued.
According to BBC News, America has the highest rate of incarcerated people in the world, with 737 people per 100,000 currently in prison. We beat out China and Russia, who also have high rates of incarceration. Right now, according to a Bureau of Justice Statistics study, the U.S. also holds one of the highest recidivism rates at 76.6 percent within five years of being released. So where does all of this start?
I would argue our broken system starts failing Americans in adolescence. According to NCCP (Columbia University) in 2008 over two million individuals under 18 were arrested. Out of those crimes committed, 95 percent were non-violent. One out of five youths who go to court with a delinquency case is detained according to Campaign for Youth Justice. Stat after stat shows how over-incarcerated our prisons are for both youths and adults. Our prisons are overpopulated with little to no rehabilitation efforts.
I found the information horrifying. It’s almost as though our prison system is set up to keep people in and out of prison for life. It’s become a business. People are in jail so corporations can get rich, but that’s another discussion.
Of course, we will never have a perfect system. But there are steps that can be taken to sort out existing problems. We need better prosecutors. Prosecutors are the most powerful people in the judicial system. Prosecutors have the choice to either save lives or destroy them. Prosecutors are important in the battle to help Americans stay good citizens instead of staying in the cycle of the system. Instead of ‘prepping’ for a case they should be using that effort to come up with ways to rehabilitate certain offenders instead of putting them in jail. This could save tax payer money and make society safer. This creates love and compassion towards people that overall creates love and compassion in our society.
In the TED Talk, Adam Foss, a prosecutor, speaks of a story about a boy who committed a non-violent crime. He talks about his decision to take sympathy on the boy and the desire to help him, instead of jailing him — forever altering his life. Down the road, he runs into this boy, now a man, who comes up to him and thanks him. The man tells him how he went on to go to college and now lives a successful life. This summarization of an inspiring story stood out to me. Because of one choice this prosecutor made, he not only potentially saved this man’s life, but he made society a safer place. Statistically speaking this man had a very high chance of staying in the system. He could have ended up with a record and unable to get employment, go to school, teach others to be better, etc. This prosecutor helped the system.
We need more prosecutors like Foss. We need to look at people and find ways to help them instead of hurt them. We need more state-funded rehabilitation centers for people on the verge of staying in the system their whole lives, or becoming positive additions to society. Prosecutors have this power. Our prison system is disastrous. It’s corrupt. It’s dangerous. So why not fix the problem before it becomes worse? Instead of money going towards punishment, why not invest in someone’s future? Because of Foss, I’m seriously considering becoming a prosecutor. Because of the positive power a prosecutor has, we should all want them to use it in a way to better our society.