According to NAACP and Prison Policy, the USA still has less than 5% of the World population but close to 25% of people in prison. As of 2015, the number of people in prison is around 2.2 million for the USA which would indicate that there are 8.8 million people in prison worldwide for a population of 8 billion. Prison Policy states there are 2.3 million and that's 20% of the world population and NAACP states the US prison population has increased to 3 million since 2015.
In either case, that is a small amount compared to the Earth's human population.
And all the prisons are full.
Even with 3 million people incarcerated throughout the whole United States, that would add up to 12 million people worldwide if the the incarcerated population increased consistently over a fixed period of time globally.
The point is less than 15% of 1% of the entire human population is incarcerated.
Prisons are meant to solve specific problems, however those problems are often ignored or not addressed.
In Los Angeles, a 4,000 person prison will be built and completed by 2028. And, at that point an aging 4,000 person prison will be shut down. The older prison is known as Men's Central Jail and most places don't distinguish a difference between jail and prison at that scale.
For most purposes, a jail is something that would be at a police station that normally holds less than 50-100 people. Whereas a prison is anything meant for short to long term detention as opposed to just detention for processing.
Men's Central Jail (prison) - 4,000 beds
Twin Towers Correctional Facility (prison) - 7,000 beds
Metropolitan Detention Center - 1,000 beds
Terminal Island, Los Angeles - 1,000 beds
Chino Institution for Men - 3,000 beds
San Quentin - 3,000 beds
This has created a dilemma for the government because there is not enough jails to control the population. A prison of only 4,000 beds is most likely designed for a town of around 30,000 to 50,000 people because a government would normally require housing 10% to 15% of a population to make any significant change to a population through prison programs. For Los Angeles, this would mean 5 prisons of 300,000 capacity or 7 prisons of 200,000 capacity with a 100,000 capacity visiting center or alternatively; 200-250 prisons the size of Twin Towers. Just for Los Angeles.
This means that nationwide, the US needs enough prison capacity including food, water, communications or secure visiting center, attorneys, investigators and auditors for about 50 million people and globally that number would be 1.2 billion prison accommodations. That's quite a bit of construction, estimating, budgeting and ongoing maintenance costs; not including personnel and family benefits plans.
Most people however, are well behaved and don't engage in criminal activity even if it may not seem this way based on where you live. For example including parolees and probation and prison/jail; the US has over 6 million people in detention. Parole and probation are considered detention as freedom of movement and right to travel are restricted under duress of jail time.
So about 1.8% of the US population is justice involved, justice affected or justice impacted. The rest of the US population, excluding the 3.3% of the US population that is illegally immigrated is well behaved with their life mainly consisting of going to work and paying bills on time or going to school or college if they are under 25-28. And 3-4% of the population is on welfare. The unemployment rate is usually between 2% to 4% in the USA.
Overall, around 85% of the US population has no contact with the government outside of public school and an occasional speeding ticket or traffic infraction. This number can be as low as 92% without government contact meaning only 8% of the population requires some type of government service such as housing vouchers, job training, court services or welfare such as free or low cost utilities, food, clothes, shoes, work tools etc.
In this case, Government Policy has gone from an aggressive and highly militarized policy of mass incarceration, processing, surveillance and economic crashes to force government registration or contact to a more civilian policy of economic stability heavily focused on job training and home ownership. A home does not necessarily mean a house but being able to own a home and pay bills out 1 year ahead can make a major difference between staying at home and watching television during an economic crash and having to put all your belongings in storage to sleep on the sidewalk until the economy picks back up.
Most people just do not require government contact and a lot of people don't even vote. This does not mean they do not like a government, it usually means they don't have a need for contact at the moment.
Where community oriented policing comes in is: what to do with all the trouble makers and what to focus on as far as people that will go to jail and stay there for a while. Obviously people can't go to jail for things that aren't illegal and in this regard, there is ex-post facto rights, right to due process, freedom from unreasonable bail (release costs/ undue jailtime), and right to assistance of counsel. But the jury will be based on the district where the alleged crime occurred, usually near where most people live or work.
A lot of trouble makers can be dealt with without jail or with only detention during initial court processing. Thefts can be dealt with more effectively with job training, personal budgeting, garnished wages, restitution and cleptomania therapy than with jails. Similarly drug abuse can be dealt with more effectively with job training, personal budgeting, 3 years financial monitoring per incident of documented drug use, regular therapy to discover the reason for seeking drug consumption and behavioural modification therapy to help with quitting drug use.
Again most people just go to work and pay their bills on time and save money for economic crashes. A lot of good paying jobs now also require drug testing to maintain employment. Most jobs pay enough to afford an apartment alone or with a roommate as a minimum standard of living in an area so people have little reason to steal or use drugs.
In these more stable environments, stress that can lead to committing assault or crimes of desperation such as armed robbery are greatly reduced and there is usually therapy available for things such as job loss or relationship counseling that can help reduce other crimes like spousal assault and even rape or child abuse. It's safe to go to a therapist in these environments and say I am having thoughts that I am not comfortable with as it might lead to jail and job loss and most often effective treatment can be offered preventing a crime from occurring and allowing the individual to find an outlet that is not illegal for their compulsions or desires.
Despite that, crimes still do occur. It can be from someone from out of town or someone that lives in the town and snapped about their financial situation or home life and committed a crime.
And in places like the inner city in big metros, crime is a way of life that is often perpetuated by old time law enforcement for their job security and for their pursuit of happiness of chasing bad guys and putting them in jail.
Community Oriented Policing is a way for the people that live in a certain area to decide when it is o.k. to call the police and who the designated police dialer and reporter will be. Obviously in places that are more law abiding anyone can call the police for any reason that they feel it is necessary but in places that are more justice oriented, it might only be o.k. to make police contact to file an insurance report or something similar. It might be necessary to contact them for child abuse, elder abuse or to report a specific drug dealer because they are putting things that are not safe street drugs into the drugs they are selling.
There are a few ways to think about community oriented policing depending on your culture and community attitudes.
A lot of it has to do with the amount of police available and willingness to call emergency services during an actual emergency.
Example 1 - A neighborhood watch committee meets once a month to discuss things in a certain area. This area can be a few houses, a street section, an entire block, several blocks or an area like a 1/2 mile radius or 5 mile radius. They decide to let everyone know that its ok to drive slow if buzzed but not fast and drunk to get beer at night but preferably to use a shopping wagon and walk if its not too far. And, they decide its ok to carry a knife or gun, open or concealed but not to be brandishing or threatening only to use if someone walks up on you to start trouble or to help somebody out if they are in danger and you can help without causing a gang fight. They do not want people shooting at moving vehicles, they want people to duck and cover and if possible get a description of the vehicle and the direction it went so it can be followed or disabled by authorized police personnel. Because the people in the community will likely be the jurors during a trial, they have come up with these rules based on actual legislation, community attitudes, friendliness of the community and safety concerns that can happen anywhere. They decide for non emergencies, a safety concern will be brought to the neighborhood watch committee and they will call the police but a person can always call 911 in an emergency or if they feel the neighborhood watch committee is not providing resolution to their concerns. In the case of delayed resolution on safety concerns, they can also attend City Hall or City Council meetings to see if they have an understanding of or to get an understanding of what is going on.
Example 2 - A street oriented culture community has a strict no contact with law enforcement policy and no talking about what goes on within their community, culture and neighborhood. They don't sell drugs that anyone can notice and are not engaged in habitual robberies, habitual burglaries or any enterprise level or small scale organized crime. They like to drink, they get into fights with other clubs but also hang out with some of the same clubs they get into fights with, they drag race occasionally usually with no pedestrians around although occasionally on the freeway in light traffic and have objects that would be considered objectionable to some but are not illegal. Mostly sound equipment, computer science equipment, electronics testing equipment and some weapons all legally purchased with receipts. They decide that if things escalate to a certain level with any of the clubs, it will be o.k. for one of them to call the police and report what happens but that person will likely no longer be able to hang out with the club. The person who draws a short straw or gets elected will do it and they will not talk about being elected or drawn. They use the same process for anyone caught with illegal street drugs. They went to school with some of the police and sheriff's but don't hang out much besides saying hey hows it going at a stop sign or if they're both parked somewhere and walking outside their vehicle like a convenience store or fast food restaurant. They don't want to get the police in trouble due to one of their drag races if they happen to be in the area and not make any stops.
Example 3 - An old school gang culture has been going to therapy over their lifestyle and decisions behind it as part of court sentencing. Many of them still go in and out of jail but their culture is becoming more manageable. They know the names of all the judges, most of the police, all of the corrections staff and when they go to prison or jail its like summer camp for them and they share great camaraderie together in jail. Sharing snacks, playing cards, playing checkers, playing chess, watching television, drawing, writing and talking about their family life back home and their excitement of release date. With the younger gang members who mostly don't participate in gang activity but are still part of the group, they have been asked to come to the adults with conflict and problems but if they cant find them and its an emergency that it is ok to call the police and tell them what happened. That they are like a big homie and to tell them what happened but try not to give too much details or say more than necessary. Only answer the questions related to the documentation they need.
Example 4 - In a most law abiding community, people will actually go to City Hall and City Counsel and keep up on State and Congressional legislation to discuss what these laws mean to their town. They will talk about rules and community norms and ask city counsel to codify things like noise levels, party zones, taxi or ride share availability from bars and clubs, and negligence rules for allowing kids in adult areas at night. Everyone is allowed to call the police for any reason necessary but there is an understanding that they are busy and prioritize violent activities, property damage and stealing and when not doing that, patrol for anything they can ticket or investigate for. Most people work and pay their bills on time. They don't want to have their belongings stolen or their property damaged because then they will have to work harder or more hours to replace things they already bought.
Community Oriented Policing establishes norms for communities and uses police to make actual arrests and investigations and document wrong doing. It focuses on having the same group of police patrol an area and become familiar with the community, their attitudes and culture without creating a conflict of interest with maintaining public order within their patrol zone.
This helps with tax budgeting and planning and in many places its unnecessary to call 911 very often as most people use non-emergency numbers for matters requiring a police report, police response or police documentation such as documentation of a self defense incident. 911 is reserved for active assault, robbery in progress or medical emergencies like heart attack, concussion or spinal injury.
For example, one community within their patrol zone may allow loud parties up to 2 A.M or 4 A.M on Friday-Sat and up to 11 PM Sunday because everyone works M-F and parties on weekends and have other places they can go if a party gets too loud and there are no night shift or graveyard workers in their area, which housing is aware of. But a different area in their patrol might be a strict 24 hour quiet zone because they have shift workers in both night and graveyard in addition to elderly and young children. And another zone might be moderate noise between 6 PM and 10 PM and 6 AM and 10 AM but quiet the rest of the time. Night shift workers are scheduled so they wake up between 6 PM and 10 PM and get home between before 8 AM. An officer that is in an area regularly rather than rotating throughout a region will be more familiar with dealing with loud noises in their weekend party patrol zone and with norms regarding getting from the quiet zone to the nighttime industrial zone or downtime bar and restaurant zone and back without disturbing other within their residential zone.
The weekend party zone for instance may have a specific rule on decibel levels for sound systems within the perimeter of their zone so that the sound does not carry to an adjacent zone whereas homes more towards the center of the zone would have a higher decibel level. Light sleepers are allowed to terminate leases early if necessary but will not be allowed in another zone like this.
In all cases, all areas are subject to the same noise complaint ordinances and fines but there is also competent housing authorities in addition to law enforcement, city counsel and court services. Moving into a party zone to file noise complaints because of "people living in bad areas who can't speak up for themselves" is viewed as harassment and if done as a habitual behaviour when moving from place to place, documented as cultural stalking and harassment for further review later.
Most people ask the right questions when looking for a new place, house or apartment and end up liking their homes in the area. The police are there to deal with issues and behaviours that everyone agrees is not ok for their communities and is specifically documented as illegal, fineable, nuisance or infractions that can be dealt with in court. Either criminal or civil.
References
Community Oriented Policing: A Systemic Approach to Policing, Second Edition
https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/community-oriented-policing-systemic-approach-policing-second
Community-Oriented Policing in United Nations Peace Operations [pdf]
5.1 on pg 6 and 7.1 on page 10
https://police.un.org/sites/default/files/manual-community-oriented-poliicing.pdf
Justice Department Awards a Total of Nearly $100 Million to Help Reduce Recidivism and Support Successful Reentry to Communities
https://twitter.com/TheJusticeDept/status/1577762594676424704
Department of Justice Awards Nearly $400 Million for Law Enforcement Hiring to Advance Community Policing
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/department-justice-awards-nearly-400-million-law-enforcement-hiring-advance-community
Department of Justice Awards Nearly $400 Million Nationwide, Over $2 Million in Maine, for Law Enforcement Hiring
https://www.justice.gov/usao-me/pr/department-justice-awards-nearly-400-million-nationwide-over-2-million-maine-law
Justice Department Announces Colonel Hugh T. Clements Jr. as Director of Office of Community Oriented Policing Services
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-announces-colonel-hugh-t-clements-jr-director-office-community-oriented
Department of Justice Announces the Opening of Nominations for the Sixth Annual Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service in Community Policing
https://twitter.com/TheJusticeDept/status/1562514113753784321
Aside
HSI - Investigations
https://www.ice.gov/outreach-programs/citizens-academy
FBI - Evidence logging and court services
https://www.fbi.gov/how-we-can-help-you/outreach
ICE Office of Investigations is not Homeland Security Investigations
- Where's HSI.gov website?
Homeland Security Org Chart - includes secret service
https://www.dhs.gov/operational-and-support-components
Homeland Security Administrative Offices
https://www.dhs.gov/office-secretary
Homeland Security Legislative Proposal Commitees
https://www.dhs.gov/advisory-panels-committees
DHS Consolidation and Mergers
e.g. TSA and DOT
e.g S&T and NSF, NIST, GSA 18F
e.g Management Directorate and White House Security Council and DNI
e.g CWMD and Ready.gov and National Guard
e.g OIA and White House Security Council
e.g FEMA, CISA, FLECT
e.g USCIS, CBP, ICE, ERO
e.g Coast Guard and HSI
e.g Coast Guard, FEMA, HHS, CDC, NOAA
e.g SS, FPS, and OIA
Non-Government Office Data Collection and Reporting
Prison Policy
https://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2020/01/16/percent-incarcerated/
NAACP Criminal Justice Facts
https://naacp.org/resources/criminal-justice-fact-sheet
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