“We can reduce unemployment by incarcerating the jobless!

Budget Focuses on Incarceration Over Rehabilitation

Ryan Grim reports:

The Drug Enforcement Administration takes a bit of a whack in the president’s budget, seeing its
spending level trimmed from $2.05 billion to $2.012 billion. While it’s a negligible cut, the
downward trajectory indicates waning influence for the DEA.

Federal prison spending, meanwhile, will rise from $6.2 billion to $6.8 billion.

The investment in locking people behind bars is tremendously higher than what the president
proposes to spend on diverting nonviolent offenders from prison by investing in drug and mental
health courts. The budget offers a total of just $187 million for programs that help prisoners re-
enter society and for “drug, mental health, and other problem-solving courts,” according to the
budget. The latter’s slice of the $187 million pie is only $57 million.

Elsewhere in the budget, the president proposes to emphasize diverting nonviolent offenders
from incarceration and easing overcrowding by building yet another prison in Alabama.

Successful investigations lead to arrests, prosecutions and convictions—often resulting in

incarceration. The Administration proposes $8.4 billion for the operations of the Office of the
Federal Detention Trustee and the Bureau of Prisons, and will help stabilize the prison
population by advancing evidence- based sentencing reform legislation. The Administration will
continue to explore fiscally-sound, data-driven administrative procedures to address population
stress on the prison system such as expanded use of alternatives to incarceration, increased
reliance on risk assessments, and diversion for non-violent offenders. In addition, drug treatment
and prisoner re-entry programs will be expanded to enhance returning prisoners’ prospects for
successful re-entry. Prison overcrowding also will be addressed through the activation of a newly
constructed prison at Aliceville, Alabama, which will add more than 1,750 beds.