--- title: Police Leader: ‘We’re Keeping the Wrong People in Jail' description: America’s prison system makes us less safe canonical: https://time.com/4082573/chicago-police-superintendent-were-keeping-the-wrong-people-in-jail/ author: Garry McCarthy article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-10-22T19:02:37.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:57:23.522Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Chicago Police Superintendent: ‘We’re Keeping the Wrong People in Jail' og:description: America’s prison system makes us less safe og:url: https://time.com/4082573/chicago-police-superintendent-were-keeping-the-wrong-people-in-jail/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt12b7596019402157/6988695f428a9e75a9ccfb9e/mccarthy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel Announces Police Dept. Plans To Combat Gang Violence og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Chicago Police Superintendent: ‘We’re Keeping the Wrong People in Jail' twitter:description: America’s prison system makes us less safe twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt12b7596019402157/6988695f428a9e75a9ccfb9e/mccarthy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Chicago Police Superintendent: ‘We’re Keeping the Wrong People in Jail' > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Inside TIME: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Inside TIME is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. A closer look at TIME's latest cover and our most compelling stories. 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Chris Carney, an ex-convict, rebuilds a life in the real world after landing a job as a building superintendent_ by [Garry McCarthy](https://time.com/author/garry-mccarthy/) ## Garry McCarthy Oct 22, 2015 7:02 PM UTC  Chicago Police Superintendant Garry McCarthy Chicago Police Superintendant Garry McCarthy Scott Olson—Getty Images by [Garry McCarthy](https://time.com/author/garry-mccarthy/) ## Garry McCarthy Oct 22, 2015 7:02 PM UTC From New York to Washington to Chicago to Houston to New Orleans to Los Angeles—the police leaders in the biggest cities are all on the same page: The U.S. needs to fix its prison system. I’m one of more than 130 police chiefs, prosecutors and sheriffs who are calling for a change to America’s system of mass incarceration. A blind man could see that we’re keeping the wrong people in jail. As a result, we’re not focusing enough on violent crime, which poses more of a danger to communities. In Chicago, where I’m Police Superintendent, people want us to reduce violence, but we’re caught in a conundrum. The system is producing what it’s designed to produce. And it’s not producing a reduction in gun violence. As a result of sentencing guidelines that were set during the 80s during the War on Drugs, more people are incarcerated for the low-level narcotics offenses than for possession of a loaded firearm. In 2012, 28% of inmates incarcerated at Cook County jail were incarcerated for narcotics-related offenses; less than 4% were incarcerated for illegal possession of a loaded firearm. Narcotics possessors are likely to recidivate in a short time frame because they have an addiction problem—they’re put in jail so they don’t harm themselves. Gun possessors, on the other hand, have the potential to commit violent crimes—we need them in jail so they don’t harm others. Consider the case of [Hadiya Pendleton](http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-wearing-orange-hadiya-pendleton-met-20150602-story.html), who was shot and killed by somebody who had plead guilty to a gun possession two months earlier. Her shooter was back on the street because possession of an illegal loaded firearm is not considered a violent crime for sentencing purposes in Illinois. This system does not make any sense. We can do something about gun violence in this country. We’re choosing not to, and as a result people are dying. Mass incarceration breaks up families. It gives people felony convictions and makes it so they can’t get jobs. It sometimes trains them to be worse criminals while they’re in jail. It also has a bigger impact on African Americans. All of these things can be addressed and we can help shift the focus to what the community wants—fewer people incarcerated, and a system that makes sure that people who need to be in jail are in jail. That’s the bottom line. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4082573/chicago-police-superintendent-were-keeping-the-wrong-people-in-jail/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4082573/chicago-police-superintendent-were-keeping-the-wrong-people-in-jail/"},"headline":"Chicago Police Superintendent: ‘We’re Keeping the Wrong People in Jail'","datePublished":"2015-10-22T19:02:37.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:57:23.522Z","description":"America’s prison system makes us less safe","url":"https://time.com/4082573/chicago-police-superintendent-were-keeping-the-wrong-people-in-jail/","keywords":["politics"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt12b7596019402157/6988695f428a9e75a9ccfb9e/mccarthy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Garry McCarthy","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/garry-mccarthy/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt12b7596019402157/6988695f428a9e75a9ccfb9e/mccarthy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel Announces Police Dept. 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