The U.S. Prison System

[skepticratic]

Our prisons sucks because no one cares. The current system is profitable for those who need it to be, the average citizen (as usual) is disengaged from this issue primarily because most assume everyone is prions 'deserves it' or aren't aware of a problem because the media doesn't spend much time on it, and the media won't spend time on it because people don't care about others and politicians want to keep it that way.

Regardless of your views on criminal justice, no reasonable person could possibly think we're doing a good job. We house 25% of the world's prison population (in a country that makes up only 5% of the world population) as well as having a recidivism rate between 40-60% (varies based on levels of prison and how you average it all up). So, ~50% recidivism rate means that half of all prisoners return to prison. Sometimes because they deserve it, others because they violated parole, and others because they were far too ill prepared for reentry into society. Regardless of all of that though, YOU pay for the 50% who return. You SHOULD have a problem with it.

There is a desperate need for prison reform. Tax payers are getting screwed so lobbyists, politicians, and corporate prison executives can line their pockets. It's far more beneficial to the tax payer to work to bring recidivism down. I don't frankly care about the for profit prison's employees. They've abused a system and have championed high recidivism as a reason to invest. That's evil; they don't deserve our sympathy. There's good reason to believe they purposely allow recidivism to remain high; this puts us at risk. We should be pushing to lower the rates of reentry of ex-felons and getting them to be tax payers.