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I really don't get it. On one hand there's a big problem with U.S prisons being overcrowded, yet on the other they imprison people for ridiculous crimes like drugs and non-violent offenders.
I really don't get it. On one hand there's a big problem with U.S prisons being overcrowded, yet on the other they imprison people for ridiculous crimes like drugs and non-violent offenders.
This isn't even a great debate...it's because the private prison industry is enormously profitable, and their lobbyists quite influential. There is a LOT of money to be made by putting people in jail (and we pay for it, financially and socially)
I really don't get it. On one hand there's a big problem with U.S prisons being overcrowded, yet on the other they imprison people for ridiculous crimes like drugs and non-violent offenders.
We should let Bernie Madoff go free?
"Drugs" is not a crime.
Selling drugs?... Crime.
Possession with intent?... Crime.
I really don't get it. On one hand there's a big problem with U.S prisons being overcrowded, yet on the other they imprison people for ridiculous crimes like drugs and non-violent offenders.
Because the American public demands it. Politicians sell themselves as tough on crime, and then they try to out-tough each other by continually jacking up sentences for minor stuff.
We like to think we are a progressive country that leads the world in livability but the US treats its citizens horribly: we all live in fear of gun violence due to easy access to guns; we have incarceration rates that are only surpassed by Iran and China, we execute people, and we don't view healthcare as a basic human right.
This isn't even a great debate...it's because the private prison industry is enormously profitable, and their lobbyists quite influential. There is a LOT of money to be made by putting people in jail (and we pay for it, financially and socially)
Even if your statements are true, that has nothing to do with the issue of why there are so many people in prison.
You have addressed where they go, not why they are sentenced in great numbers.
In any event, the use of private prisons has been ordered to halt.
Quote:
.....The goal, Yates wrote, is “reducing — and ultimately ending — our use of privately operated prisons.â€
I disagree. If you look at crimes accused and who goes to jail and who doesn't, there isn't any blanket crimes where everyone goes to jail. Some people caught with pot will go to jail, some will be given probation and some will be let go altogether, so crimes being committed does not explain why we put so many in jail. I get that you believe everyone who commits any sort of crime SHOULD be in jail, but that is not the debate, nor is it the only or even primary reason they decide whether jail is warranted in each case. IMO the profit motive is strong, especially when lawmakers themselves invest in private prisons themselves. There was a case in PA where a juvenile judge was arrested because he was taking kickbacks from a private prison, and he was sentencing non-violent first offender kids to jail versus other measures only because he was getting rich by doing it, in a scandal that became known as "Kids for Cash". It was uncovered by a local mom's persistence whose own son committed suicide after being sentenced by this judge for a non-violent crime.
Your article only applies to private Federal prisons, btw; state private prisons aren't affected by it, and the vast majority of prisoners are in state prisons, not Federal.
I'm not sure who is complaining about overcrowded prisons other than the prisoners. No person I know is losing any sleep on the subject.
I agree with this. Except from some people on line, I don't know many people who cares about overcrowding in prisons. Of those who do care, they seem just as passionate about it as most people are about Japanese whaling or were about the tiny beads in soap, which is to say not much.
I'm not sure who is complaining about overcrowded prisons other than the prisoners. No person I know is losing any sleep on the subject.
You're putting your head in the sand then. Who do you think is paying for this? You realize the vast majority of them are coming out. Who is paying if they are unemployable for life because they got busted with a little pot or some other non-violent crime? In the end if we all pay, for ruining people's lives over nothing. All drug users to me, jail is a waste of our money...if they are addicts, I'd rather spend my tax money getting them help then throwing them in jail for no other reason then to line the pockets of private prison industry and protect massive numbers of government jobs.
You understand that when prisons have too many people, they have to let criminals out early to make room? You realize a rapist may be released after 3 years of a 12 year sentence because they need room? this happens ALL the time. I think your desire to feel morally superior is clouding your common sense. "Lock em; up!!" may sound tough and feel satisfying, but the actual data shows little actual benefit to society to locking up non-violent offenders.
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