Sue Frost Demonstrates Denial Not Just a River in Egypt

(c) by Mark Dempsey

Supervisor Sue Frost dismisses any move to "defund the police," or to reduce funding for prisons and jails. In fact she recently voted to spend $89 million to expand Sacramento County's jail. She reiterated her support for investing in more of the same in her recent newsletter.

Despite decreases in arrests and crime, the county jail remains full. Why? (Pre-COVID-19) roughly 60% of those in County jail were not convicted of anything, except being unable to afford bail. Cash bail is going away, but my bet is that Supervisor Frost will conjure up some other excuse to make poverty illegal in Sacramento. Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve reports 40% of the American population can't afford a $400 emergency without selling something or borrowing. The U.S. average for those incarcerated without conviction is 20%, so Sacramento is three times more cruel than even the extraordinarily vengeful U.S. incarceration system.

How bad is U.S. incarceration? With five percent of the world's population, the U.S. is the world’s “leader," jailing 25% of the inmates--more in absolute or per-capita numbers than anyone else. The demographically-identical Canadians cage one-seventh as many people, per capita.

So is Canadian crime seven times greater than the U.S.? Nope. About the same. Similarly, medical treatment (rehab) has a far better cure rate for addiction, and costs about one seventh as much as incarceration. What we do now with addicts and the self-medicating mentally ill is like incarcerating diabetics because they’re dependent on insulin. It’s not just ineffective, it’s medieval.

For some perspective about the "police defunding" Ms. Frost deplores, consider this: U.S. population in 1981 was 229.5 million. In 2017: 325.1 million. That's a 42% increase. During that period, funding for the police went from $40 billion to $115 billion. That's a 187.5% increase. Could there be room to reduce police budgets? Gosh, I wonder!

During that period, public policy makers have been de-funding social safety net programs that would make police force less necessary. This includes closing asylums to evict mental patients, reducing welfare, and being miserly with Social Security Disability--one must typically hire an attorney to navigate a disability application.

I have friends who are policemen (and women), and I want their jobs to be safer. Americans used to acknowledge that social safety nets were a cheap way to ensure social peace. Now, despite low fraud rates in reality, it's common for people to believe only frauds and cheats ("welfare queens") get such support. Billionaire investor Warren Buffet acknowledges there's a class war going on, "And," he says "My class is winning."

Is American justice racist? "African Americans are 447 percent more likely than white Americans to be imprisoned and 521 percent more likely to be murdered. There is a five-to-one wealth gap between whites and blacks at birth, blacks live five years fewer on average than whites, and the black infant mortality rate is nearly one and a half times the white infant mortality rate. Wouldn't it be odd not to be angry?" (from Shankar Vedantam's The Hidden Brain)

Meanwhile, it appears Ms. Frost's answer to all this is that the beatings will continue until morale improves. And my police friends will have to handle avoidable peril because Ms. Frost and her peers continue to defund programs the promote public safety in favor of those relying on force and punishment.