124th Morrison Congress

2nd Session

H.R. 124-051
Title of the Bill:

Rehabilitation Over Incarceration Act

Main Author(s):

Rep. Lauren Baker (D-NJ)

Co-Sponsor(s):
BE IT ENACTED BY THE MORRISON CONGRESS
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SECTION 1: Findings
Congress makes the following findings:
1) The United States has only 5 percent of the world's population but is
responsible for nearly 25 percent of its prisoners about 2.2 million people.
(1)
2) One out of every 100 American adults is incarcerated, a per capita rate five
to 10 times higher than that in Western Europe or other democracies. (1)
3) No other country in the world imprisons its citizens as much as the U.S. (1)
4) America spends more than $60 billion annually to support and cover these
federal and state prisons, which is a $12 billion increase in just the past 20
years. (1)
5) This huge increase in mass incarceration in the United States was caused by
a rise in crime from the 1960s to the 1980s, which resulted in stricter
sentences and tough-on-crime policies. There were increases in drug
penalties and the enforcing of mandatory minimum prison sentences.
6) While at least half of prisoners have some mental health concerns, about 10
percent to 25 percent of U.S. prisoners suffer from serious mental illnesses,
such as major affective disorders or schizophrenia.
7) Somewhere between 15 and 20 percent of people in prison are mentally ill,
according to U.S. Department of Justice estimates.

SECTION 2: Purpose
The purpose of the bill is to increase federal funding for rehabilitation programs to be
established in all federal and state prisons in America.

SECTION 3: General Provisions

This Act will require the national government to form a national budget for
rehabilitation programs for prison inmates across the nation. The issue of the
mentally ill in prisons has been basically ignored for many years, and it is time to put
an end to this neglect. With only some prisons providing mental health care, it is the
governments responsibility to make mental health care a necessity for all inmates.
Psychologists are the main mental health care providers, but there simply is not
enough of these professionals in most prisons. Also, these psychologists are often
burdened by so many cases that they cannot possibly handle them all or look
through all of them, which creates a horribly unjust system for these prisoners who
need actual help but are overlooked.

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We must turn the nations prison systems focus upon rehabilitation instead of harsh
incarceration that has been going on for many decades. Incarceration has done
nothing but create more economic and social struggles for lower class families
whose parental figures have been ripped away and perpetuated the family and the
communities high rates of poverty and the increased possibility of mental health and
behavioral issues of the youth in those communities.
SECTION 4: Definitions
Incarceration: the state of being confined in prison; imprisonment.

Works Cited:
1) http://www.apa.org/monitor/2014/10/incarceration.aspx?scrlybrkr=73685733
2) https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2015/07/07/yes-u-s-locks-pe
ople-up-at-a-higher-rate-than-any-other-country/
3) http://www.prb.org/Publications/Articles/2012/us-incarceration.aspx
4) http://www.apa.org/monitor/julaug03/rehab.aspx?scrlybrkr=73685733#