Penology: Gideon's Ironic Impact

In 1963, many Florida lawmen cofidently predicted that a crime wave was sure to follow Indigent Clarence Gideon's famous victory in the U.S. Supreme Court, which earned for all American indigents the right to free trial counsel in felony cases. The decision applied retroactively to convicts who had been tried without lawyers, and, just as the lawmen expected, by 1965 Gideon v. Wainwright had freed more than 1,000 Florida prisoners. But predictions of a resultant crime wave, says the Florida Division of Corrections, have turned out to be all wrong.

Among Gideon-released prisoners, the rate of recidivism (return to crimes) was only 13.6%, as compared with 25.4% among other Florida prisoners released when their sentences expired normally. Hindsight suggests a possible reason: those who applied for release under the Gideon ruling ranked surprisingly higher in mental and physical health than the rest of Florida's prison population. As an ironic result, Gideon's adverse effect has been not on society but on the prison system itself. The exodus has created a shortage of inmates at Florida's 36 road-gang camps, forcing officials to man the camps with unreliable prisoners who had previously been confined in regular cells. As a result, the post-Gideon escape rate per 1,000 prisoners has jumped in Florida's road prisons. In March, a low-escape month, the rate has almost doubled, from 6.13% to 11.44%.