Ask the judge

First, the Ninth Circuit is the busiest circuit in the U.S., handling 22 percent of appeals nationwide. Managing that docket must be done well in order to keep cases moving, which is good for litigants.

More importantly, Sid is a terrific person, a thoughtful moderate judge, and has not been overcome with “robitus,” i.e. has not gotten a big head over his circuit appointment. I am really pleased Sid has been appointed chief judge — he will represent Montana well.

Recently, I had a group of South Korean college students come to court to learn about our American system of justice. One of them asked me how our criminal justice system was working. The true answer is very good in some aspects and very poorly in other aspects.

First the good news. The U.S. has constitutional protections, such as rights to an attorney, rights to a jury trial, rights to a speedy and public trial, and rights to suppress illegally obtained evidence, which are second to none. We should be justifiably proud of these accomplishments in our justice system.

The bad news shocked me when I first heard it. Surprisingly, the U.S. has more people incarcerated per capita than any other country on earth. In fact, the U.S. has 737 per 100,000 people incarcerated. Russia is second with 615 per 100,000, and the Ukraine is third with 334 per 100,000. The midpoint worldwide is 145 per 100,000. Thus, the U.S. has about six times more people incarcerated than most countries. This is disturbing to me, and I hope it is to you.

The other part of this story is the fact the U.S. prison population was relatively flat from our country’s beginnings to the late 1970s to early 1980s when it began climbing rapidly — in fact, there has been a 500 percent increase in the incarceration rate over the past 30 years. Today, the U.S. has 5 percent of the world’s population and 25 percent of the world’s prison population. (These statistics came from the Sentencing Project).

The main reason for this is our “war on drugs.” The secondary reasons include higher levels of violent crime in the U.S., sentencing laws (particularly federal), a legacy of racial turmoil, and the American temperament — we rightfully want to hold people accountable for their actions.

However, 49 percent of U.S. inmates are serving time on drug-related offenses. I was elected on the platform of holding criminals accountable for their actions, and I still believe that goal is imperative. That said, it is time to hold a national debate on the future of our criminal justice system.

The average cost to confine an inmate is $26,163 per year. Yet we spend an average of $6,589 per year to educate a student in the U.S. Something is amiss.

Prisons should be reserved for violent and repeat offenders. Other offenders can be held accountable in other ways, such as stringent drug treatment programs for the huge influx of drug offenders — balancing treatment goals with accountability goals, such as requiring them to hold jobs and pay restitution to victims. We are working on this, but need to move quicker.

Education is also an important component in addressing this challenge. We are so fortunate in the U.S. that youths can receive 13 years of education at no cost to them. Many youths worldwide do not get this advantage. Yet, U.S. high school dropouts commit 75 percent of all crime. I tell youths every week to stay in school — that life is hard, and life without an education is really hard.

However, we also need a national discussion on the future of our education system, and how we can keep kids engaged and graduating with skills they need to succeed, whether as an electrician, teacher or IT professional. The recent articles on how Laurel has successfully addressed the dropout rate, and how the Career Center is training in technical fields, are encouraging.

Last and most importantly, the demise of the American family must be addressed. When families implode, kids implode. Government can only do so much. It is really up to the family, primarily a mom and a dad, to help keep young people in school, out of jail and productive citizens.

Bottom line: Americans are smart and willing to work hard to achieve a better system. We need to start now, though. Having the most people incarcerated worldwide is not a statistic we should be proud of.

Judge Russell Fagg has been a state district court judge for more than 20 years and has been assigned more than 25,000 cases during that time. He has tried nearly 200 jury trials, thousands of non-jury trials, and is the past president of the Montana Judges Association.

A friend asked me the other day if the appointment of Judge Sid Thomas to the chief judge slot at the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals is really that big of a deal. The answer is an unequivocal yes, it really is a big deal.

First, the Ninth Circuit is the busiest circuit in the U.S., handling 22 percent of appeals nationwide. Managing that docket must be done well in order to keep cases moving, which is good for litigants.

More importantly, Sid is a terrific person, a thoughtful moderate judge, and has not been overcome with “robitus,” i.e. has not gotten a big head over his circuit appointment. I am really pleased Sid has been appointed chief judge — he will represent Montana well.

Recently, I had a group of South Korean college students come to court to learn about our American system of justice. One of them asked me how our criminal justice system was working. The true answer is very good in some aspects and very poorly in other aspects.

First the good news. The U.S. has constitutional protections, such as rights to an attorney, rights to a jury trial, rights to a speedy and public trial, and rights to suppress illegally obtained evidence, which are second to none. We should be justifiably proud of these accomplishments in our justice system.

The bad news shocked me when I first heard it. Surprisingly, the U.S. has more people incarcerated per capita than any other country on earth. In fact, the U.S. has 737 per 100,000 people incarcerated. Russia is second with 615 per 100,000, and the Ukraine is third with 334 per 100,000. The midpoint worldwide is 145 per 100,000. Thus, the U.S. has about six times more people incarcerated than most countries. This is disturbing to me, and I hope it is to you.

The other part of this story is the fact the U.S. prison population was relatively flat from our country’s beginnings to the late 1970s to early 1980s when it began climbing rapidly — in fact, there has been a 500 percent increase in the incarceration rate over the past 30 years. Today, the U.S. has 5 percent of the world’s population and 25 percent of the world’s prison population. (These statistics came from the Sentencing Project).

The main reason for this is our “war on drugs.” The secondary reasons include higher levels of violent crime in the U.S., sentencing laws (particularly federal), a legacy of racial turmoil, and the American temperament — we rightfully want to hold people accountable for their actions.

However, 49 percent of U.S. inmates are serving time on drug-related offenses. I was elected on the platform of holding criminals accountable for their actions, and I still believe that goal is imperative. That said, it is time to hold a national debate on the future of our criminal justice system.

The average cost to confine an inmate is $26,163 per year. Yet we spend an average of $6,589 per year to educate a student in the U.S. Something is amiss.

Prisons should be reserved for violent and repeat offenders. Other offenders can be held accountable in other ways, such as stringent drug treatment programs for the huge influx of drug offenders — balancing treatment goals with accountability goals, such as requiring them to hold jobs and pay restitution to victims. We are working on this, but need to move quicker.

Education is also an important component in addressing this challenge. We are so fortunate in the U.S. that youths can receive 13 years of education at no cost to them. Many youths worldwide do not get this advantage. Yet, U.S. high school dropouts commit 75 percent of all crime. I tell youths every week to stay in school — that life is hard, and life without an education is really hard.

However, we also need a national discussion on the future of our education system, and how we can keep kids engaged and graduating with skills they need to succeed, whether as an electrician, teacher or IT professional. The recent articles on how Laurel has successfully addressed the dropout rate, and how the Career Center is training in technical fields, are encouraging.

Last and most importantly, the demise of the American family must be addressed. When families implode, kids implode. Government can only do so much. It is really up to the family, primarily a mom and a dad, to help keep young people in school, out of jail and productive citizens.

Bottom line: Americans are smart and willing to work hard to achieve a better system. We need to start now, though. Having the most people incarcerated worldwide is not a statistic we should be proud of.

Judge Russell Fagg has been a state district court judge for more than 20 years and has been assigned more than 25,000 cases during that time. He has tried nearly 200 jury trials, thousands of non-jury trials, and is the past president of the Montana Judges Association.