It’s true. States spend millions every year just to keep their prisons running. In fact, the AP reports:
Four states – Vermont, Michigan, Oregon and Connecticut – now spend more on corrections than they do on higher education, the report said.
Four states in the union spend more on housing criminals than they do on colleges and universities. Maybe that’s the problem! Why we spend anything above and beyond shelter, basic food, and security is beyond me.
A Vermont Senator agrees:
“These sad facts reflect a very distorted set of national priorities,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, referring to the full report. “Perhaps, if we adequately invested in our children and in education, kids who now grow up to be criminals could become productive workers and taxpayers.”
Particularly disturbing is the element of race that is mentioned prominently in the article. I wonder, though, if we were to take race out of the equation and look at the economic origin of the offenders (i.e. how many come from families below the poverty line, etc.) would we see some interesting data? Would we find that the economic history of an offender (or repeat offender) was a more reliable indicator of their likelihood to serve time in prison? I think even playing the race card in an article such as this is insulting to the African-Americans in this country who are hard workers and who are paying taxes.
The deeper problem is the perception of prison. At this point, you have free cable TV, internet access, a nice library, and a weight room as a prisoner. Maybe if our prisons were a bit more Turkish we wouldn’t have the problems that we do. It certainly looks as though incarceration isn’t serving as a reliable deterrent to crime. Making jail time less comfortable may be the answer to a long-term fix for the swelling population of inmates. Reintroducing the requirement of hard labor while serving time could also benefit the state by saving money on road crews, highway construction groups, and landscapers. Why pay illegal immigrants (at least in Texas) to do this work when we have 171,790 idle hands?
For a short-term fix, I can’t say that I like the answers that Texas and Kansas have found, but at least it seems to reduce the strain somewhat. Personally, I think Texas has the right answer as one of the leaders of capital punishment in the nation. It is a pity that it is not used often enough nor is it publicized enough to serve as a true deterrent for would-be offenders.
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Anybody familiar with the tent city jail in Maricopa County, Arizona? Sheriff Joe Arpaio may be controversial, but I like his style.
I’m not. Can you hook us up with some linkage?
Is that the jail where everyone is made to wear pink?
Kate is correct, this is the famous (or infamous) pink underwear providing Sheriff. I first heard about him in the early 90′s. He was the topic of many TV news reports, “talk” shows, and such. He gained quite a bit of notoriety and publicity (as well as support) for which many of his detractors claim he is grandstanding. I don’t agree with all that he’s done, but as I have noted, I like his style.
Here’s the link to the Sheriff’s Office for Maricopa County: http://www.mcso.org/
On the left side bar select “Jail Information” and then look for the link for the Tent City Jail.
Here’s one of a handful of Anti-Arpaio sites: http://www.arpaio.com/
Here’s a wiki for Sheriff Joe Arpaio: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Arpaio
I like this guy. Why isn’t he running for President?
“Dez for Prez”… Sorta like “I like Ike”…
Oh, wait, you probably meant the sheriff… never mind, Dez…
In 2005, Arizona passed a law making it a felony, punishable by up to 2 years in jail, to smuggle someone across the border. Maricopa County Attorney Andrew P. Thomas has issued a legal opinion that those being smuggled can be considered co-conspirators to the smuggling and can be charged under the same law. Under this opinion, Arpaio has instructed his deputies and members of his civilian posse to round up and arrest suspected illegal aliens. Arpaio said to Fox News, “My message is clear: If you come here and I catch you, you’re going straight to jail. [...] I’m not going to turn these people over to federal authorities so they can have a free ride back to Mexico. I’ll give them a free ride to my jail.”[17] To date, Arpaio has arrested at least 263 people under this program.[18]
The county attorney’s legal opinion is being challenged in court. Many critics, including two of the co-authors of the Arizona anti-smuggling law, claim that Thomas and Arpaio are misusing the statute, which was meant only for human smugglers and not for illegal immigrants who are being smuggled.[19]
While the US accounts for just 5 percent of the global population, 25 percent of the world’s prisoners are in American prisons and jails. Included among these prisoners are more than 3,600 death row inmates.
Reduce minimum sentences to something other than incarceration and/or convert all life without parole convictions to death sentence.