The first thing that came to mind when I started this article was “the war on drugs.” I wasn’t surprised a few paragraphs down when I saw that it was mentioned. I think the first step to solving this problem is doing away with the war on drugs or at least giving it a serious overhaul. The only thing it seems to be doing is locking people up. As soon as that person is off the streets, another person steps up and takes his or her place. I’ve even heard mention of doing away with all laws banning drugs. Possibly a little extreme but plausible I suppose. I came across this video a while back and found it informative http://youtu.be/W8yYJ_oV6xk The topic discussed last week about the drug courts in North Carolina (I believe) seemed to be another step in the right direction. One thing is for certain, there is no end in sight if we continue to lock people up for non-violent drug offenses. We’ve discussed evidence based corrections. The evidence shows that locking up drug offenders simply is not working. ISP456
So true... prison is a revolving door. When a prisoner is paroled out and a inmate from the county jail is put on probation all their doing is making room for the next. Drugs aren't going nowhere 1 state so far legalized it and another trying to. Yes selling drugs is against the law and yes if you break the law you should be punished... but not 20yrs with out the possibility of parole just because you were on surveillance selling drugs to people who wants and needs them. cancer80-456
I agree that the sentencing policy should be reevaluated, especially those offenders that have a decade old crime and STILL cannot get a decent job. When the judge sentences an offender such a long sentence for a non-violent crime, it's not like they get to see how their ruling has affected the offender. In the end, it just makes everything worse for the offender and their family. BadWolf456
Mass incarceration is a crisis that needs attention. The United States has the worlds high incarceration rate. 90% are men in prison and local jails. The prisons are between the ages of 20 and 30. Because the prisons are so over populated rehabilitation... isn't guaranteed. In some cases imprisonment has decreased but in other cases imprisonment has increased. Just because a prisoner has been paroled or put on probation their still a prisoner. And just because their not behind bars they don't have their freedom. The Department of Justice should focus more on violent crime than nonviolent crimes. Prison reform should have varieties of ways to be accomplished. The legislature should have the police and prosecutors focus on crime reductions instead of cheering for incarceration. Mass incarceration is never going to stop. The legislature (Federal/State) apparently is focused more on locking up and throwing away the key when they should find away to help the situation and to save money. cancer80-456
I'm not sure I agree with you as far as the DOJ focusing on violent crime and not non-violent crime. I think all crimes should still be focused on but how they are punished is more of the main concern. Breaking into cars and stealing is non-violent but I certainly don't think the police need to let up on their focus of car thieves. The DOJ is essentially the police "leg" of the tripod. I think what you are trying to say is the court "leg" should reevaluate their sentencing on non-violent crime. ISP456
I think the Department of Justice should focus on both violent and nonviolent just go about them differently. I agree with you though that the legislature should be focused on helping the situation and saving money instead of throwing away the key. I wish I could say my opinion to them and make some changes asap. Love456
I understand that these people are just trying to get all of the drugs off the streets, but when 60% of the prison population is based on drug charges, I believe this is overkill. Just because someone was charged with possession of a drug, they should still be able to go out and achieve their dreams and not worry about a decade old charge that discriminates them from other potential applicants. It’s so easy for police to slap on the cuffs and not think about how this individual they just arrested is going to get back into society and obtain a job to support their family. If evidence-based practices such as higher education was implemented for those just released from incarceration, this would definitely reduce the recidivism rate dramatically. Without these crucial tools for offenders, they’ll just continue to go through the revolving door of jail/prison angrier than they came out. BadWolf456
I agree with everything your saying about rates of inmates on drug charges. way too high! However what the article says about employers having a check in the box for felons is their right to do so. Those employers have every right to know what their potential employees have in the line of criminal pasts. A lot of jobs do full on background checks and they can see every speeding ticket and seat belt violation. Just because they had to "check in the box" doesnt necessarily mean that they cant achieve their dream job. That is on the employer to decide if they want to hire that individual or not.USA456
The United States obviously needs a reality check when it come to our prisons and our money. If the United States is going to spend money on the prison system they should be spending it on rehab classes and education classes. If the government spent the money on this then we would not have an issue with over population in prisons. Helping inmates get an education and the help they need can help them become functional members of society. Also incarcerating people especially young people for petty things is not necessary. One weed charge can ruin a career and a life. If we spent money on helping them get into rehab and not throw them into jails and prisons, some our problems can be solved. fdemt456
exactly we are wasting so much money on these petty small crimes, when theres still worse people walking our streets still committing crimes, people go to jail for little charges and it ruins their lives so much and its hard for them to get jobs or get cars or anthing.
Juveniles and young adults who get caught with weed or are arrested for any minor offense should be able to go to rehab or do community service to pay for their offense, not go to jail. As you said, by the young offender going to jail, their life has ultimately been ruined. Prison should be reserved for those who have committed major crimes, like murder and rape or pedophiles, its ridiculous of just how many drug offenders are serving time and the amount of money being expended on them. BHS456
I agree with fdemt456 on the fact that the government should spend money on rehabilitation classes and programs that will help offenders to rejoin society without committing offenses. If offenders get these classes and programs they will most likely not commit the same or even worse offenses when they get out of the correctional system because of the fact that they will actually have help on getting a job, food stamps, financial aid, stuff that will help them get their lives moving along without committing crimes. -Arrow456
I agree education is so important and it is a shame that they are wasting money on inmates it is degrading to the society. If only the government would see that education gets you so far in life. Scorpio 123.
in my opinion mass incarceration has its ups and downs, i dont agree with locking someone up for marijuana or stupid petty drugs like that. i think just putting them into a program of rehabilitation to get them off the drug. i think we are wasting alot of money locking up people for petty low crimes, i think we need to stick to locking people up for worse crimes like murder,rape, etc. it would give us more room in our penitentiary's and it would keep those crimes off the street. we are spending so much money on storing inmates in our jails and prisons for small crimes. id rather people who do drugs be on the streets then murderers and rapists.
I agree why lock them up and ruin their live over petty drugs. I do agree on the rehab maybe that's all it takes then they a change their life around or at least calm down on the drugs. They so focused worrying about the minor crimes and drug use they really need to worry about the killing and rapping that has took place. T456
There are many ways that we could cut spending on prisions. First off we need to offer more programs in prisons that actualy rehabilitate people and understand why they commited the crime instead of just locking them up. Also we need to offer more alternatives for drug offenders like how virgina has the alternative for drug offenders to do a rehab program for a year. The fact that even when prisoners are released they cant find jobs because of there records which makes them more likely to go out and commit more crimes because the have to provide for themselfs or there familys somehow. Dabster456
There are some very interesting facts in this video. The author says that we spend more money on prisons than schools. That should not be the case. I totally agree with locking up violent offenders and sexual offenders for the mandatory sentence, but it says that 60% of inmates are nonviolent or drug offenders. There are programs that we could utilize to cut down these numbers. Now dont get me wrong i understand that these programs cost money, however programs like the drug program in virginia cost money but the people in drug programs have to pay their way through it. Those rehab programs are meant to deter offenders from coming back to prison by correcting their problems and making them understand why. Rehabilitation doesnt mean lock them up and throw away the keys. One thing that i dont necessarily agree with in the article was the author almost seemed like we need to soften up on crime. We cant just let people run the streets with no rules. When someone does something wrong they are supposed to be punished for their actions. Its the same way as breaking rules in your parents house as a kid.. their has to be punishments for actions. Those punishments for offenders doesnt always have to include locking them up in prisons. I definitely think that education should be more important than incarceration. There was a study correlating education and crime. The better the education, the lower our crime rates should be.USA456
The corrections boom that took off in the 80's has had a greatly adverse affect on the prison system in the US today. Then it was viewed as a great deal, law enforcement was cracking down on drug use and locking up the offenders. Now however; since the crack down on drugs many lives are being ruined and our prisons are severely overcrowding with very little in additional funds to pay for the needs of the prisoners. Instead of locking up nonviolent offenders, like those who use drugs, send them to drug (if they fit the right criteria) offer rehabilitation for nonviolent offenses. In turn by only sending violent offenders to prison, the prison population will go down and more funding can go back to the states. All at the same time, those offenders who were caught and charged with minor offenses can keep a somewhat clean record, making it easier for them to find jobs. BHS456
I feel like in this article when they talked about drug use and when criminals are convicted even for marijuana use they should put it on there application I understand it's a convicted crime. I also think they shouldn't to much when it comes to a job, it's just marijuana it's part of life and people smoke it everyday. It's not like its harming people sometimes it helps. Why make somebody life miserable over marijuana and not give them a job. I agree with arresting drug offenders that do crack and other extreme drugs and sex offenders but 60 percent are nonviolent or drug offenders I just feel like you just messing with people and ruining their lives. I just think the police can be petty when it come to certain situations T456
What stood out to me the most was that America has four times less as many population as China but yet our imprisonment rates are higher, I think that is ridiculous. I totally disagree with how people who have made minor mistakes in the past get shamed for life; everybody makes mistakes were human not robots. I didn't know until reading this article that 60% of our prison population was nonviolent offenders. I wish I could make some major changes to the system or at least talk to the people in charge of these laws. More money needs to be put into schools and programs to help these offenders nonviolent and violent everybody deserves the right to help. According to the article the amount of money that could be saved seems like a pretty penny to me, $17 billion per year. Hopefully in the near future someone will see that the system isn’t helping these offenders only hurting them. Love456
I couldn’t agree any more with this article than I already do. Our government today is going down the wrong road with the correctional system that we have in place today. Prisons in our country are growing and growing every year and the cost for this growth is getting even bigger as the incarcerations increases. What is the point of housing so many offenders when in all reality your are not helping them better themselves because you cant even afford the programs to help them be rehabilitated and that help them to get back into the community. Incarcerating offenders just to keep them isolated wont help matters at all but if anything it will worsen them instead. If you isolate someone from society they will most likely become a worse offender than before. There are plenty of individuals that become incarcerated because of drug offenses and you know for sure that a lot of them aren’t being rehabilitated so when they come out they commit more offenses and sometimes even higher offenses than before because they become hardened criminals behind bars. One solution maybe cutting incarcerations for low end offenders like someone incarcerated for possession of marijuana. -Arrow456
If more others are incarcerated for petty crime and possession of marijuana. how are people suppose to get a job or a future career even if put in care of getting high school or G.E.D level education.Many people are being kept incarcerated for crimes that could directly related to their status and economic situation. When having lor grade education means a risk of committing a crime to survive or to care for the family. with 2.2 million people currently in the nation's prisons or jails. -Shinigami 456
This article really says it all. Billions of dollars are going towards prisons when it should be going towards education. I understand you cannot just let the inmates free, that wouldn't solve anything but a solution needs to appear because our children's children are going to end up with out a education because the government continues to throw money away on inmates. According to the article 60% of our prisons population are nonviolent offenders in that case they shouldn't be serving years in prison, all that is doing is taking money out of school funds. Sure inmates receive education that is great, but the government is taking on to much especially when kids are not being taught because they cannot pay the teachers but go right ahead and pay for inmates to get the education. I know inmates need education to but what about when they had the chance. Something needs to change. Scorpio 123.
The first thing that came to mind when I started this article was “the war on drugs.” I wasn’t surprised a few paragraphs down when I saw that it was mentioned. I think the first step to solving this problem is doing away with the war on drugs or at least giving it a serious overhaul. The only thing it seems to be doing is locking people up. As soon as that person is off the streets, another person steps up and takes his or her place. I’ve even heard mention of doing away with all laws banning drugs. Possibly a little extreme but plausible I suppose. I came across this video a while back and found it informative http://youtu.be/W8yYJ_oV6xk
ReplyDeleteThe topic discussed last week about the drug courts in North Carolina (I believe) seemed to be another step in the right direction. One thing is for certain, there is no end in sight if we continue to lock people up for non-violent drug offenses. We’ve discussed evidence based corrections. The evidence shows that locking up drug offenders simply is not working.
ISP456
So true... prison is a revolving door. When a prisoner is paroled out and a inmate from the county jail is put on probation all their doing is making room for the next. Drugs aren't going nowhere 1 state so far legalized it and another trying to. Yes selling drugs is against the law and yes if you break the law you should be punished... but not 20yrs with out the possibility of parole just because you were on surveillance selling drugs to people who wants and needs them. cancer80-456
DeleteI agree that the sentencing policy should be reevaluated, especially those offenders that have a decade old crime and STILL cannot get a decent job. When the judge sentences an offender such a long sentence for a non-violent crime, it's not like they get to see how their ruling has affected the offender. In the end, it just makes everything worse for the offender and their family. BadWolf456
DeleteMass incarceration is a crisis that needs attention. The United States has the worlds high incarceration rate. 90% are men in prison and local jails. The prisons are between the ages of 20 and 30. Because the prisons are so over populated rehabilitation... isn't guaranteed. In some cases imprisonment has decreased but in other cases imprisonment has increased. Just because a prisoner has been paroled or put on probation their still a prisoner. And just because their not behind bars they don't have their freedom. The Department of Justice should focus more on violent crime than nonviolent crimes. Prison reform should have varieties of ways to be accomplished. The legislature should have the police and prosecutors focus on crime reductions instead of cheering for incarceration. Mass incarceration is never going to stop. The legislature (Federal/State) apparently is focused more on locking up and throwing away the key when they should find away to help the situation and to save money. cancer80-456
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure I agree with you as far as the DOJ focusing on violent crime and not non-violent crime. I think all crimes should still be focused on but how they are punished is more of the main concern. Breaking into cars and stealing is non-violent but I certainly don't think the police need to let up on their focus of car thieves. The DOJ is essentially the police "leg" of the tripod. I think what you are trying to say is the court "leg" should reevaluate their sentencing on non-violent crime.
DeleteISP456
I think the Department of Justice should focus on both violent and nonviolent just go about them differently. I agree with you though that the legislature should be focused on helping the situation and saving money instead of throwing away the key. I wish I could say my opinion to them and make some changes asap. Love456
DeleteI understand that these people are just trying to get all of the drugs off the streets, but when 60% of the prison population is based on drug charges, I believe this is overkill. Just because someone was charged with possession of a drug, they should still be able to go out and achieve their dreams and not worry about a decade old charge that discriminates them from other potential applicants. It’s so easy for police to slap on the cuffs and not think about how this individual they just arrested is going to get back into society and obtain a job to support their family. If evidence-based practices such as higher education was implemented for those just released from incarceration, this would definitely reduce the recidivism rate dramatically. Without these crucial tools for offenders, they’ll just continue to go through the revolving door of jail/prison angrier than they came out. BadWolf456
ReplyDeleteI agree with everything your saying about rates of inmates on drug charges. way too high! However what the article says about employers having a check in the box for felons is their right to do so. Those employers have every right to know what their potential employees have in the line of criminal pasts. A lot of jobs do full on background checks and they can see every speeding ticket and seat belt violation. Just because they had to "check in the box" doesnt necessarily mean that they cant achieve their dream job. That is on the employer to decide if they want to hire that individual or not.USA456
DeleteThe United States obviously needs a reality check when it come to our prisons and our money. If the United States is going to spend money on the prison system they should be spending it on rehab classes and education classes. If the government spent the money on this then we would not have an issue with over population in prisons. Helping inmates get an education and the help they need can help them become functional members of society. Also incarcerating people especially young people for petty things is not necessary. One weed charge can ruin a career and a life. If we spent money on helping them get into rehab and not throw them into jails and prisons, some our problems can be solved.
ReplyDeletefdemt456
exactly we are wasting so much money on these petty small crimes, when theres still worse people walking our streets still committing crimes, people go to jail for little charges and it ruins their lives so much and its hard for them to get jobs or get cars or anthing.
Deletesnakebite456
Juveniles and young adults who get caught with weed or are arrested for any minor offense should be able to go to rehab or do community service to pay for their offense, not go to jail. As you said, by the young offender going to jail, their life has ultimately been ruined. Prison should be reserved for those who have committed major crimes, like murder and rape or pedophiles, its ridiculous of just how many drug offenders are serving time and the amount of money being expended on them. BHS456
DeleteI agree with fdemt456 on the fact that the government should spend money on rehabilitation classes and programs that will help offenders to rejoin society without committing offenses. If offenders get these classes and programs they will most likely not commit the same or even worse offenses when they get out of the correctional system because of the fact that they will actually have help on getting a job, food stamps, financial aid, stuff that will help them get their lives moving along without committing crimes.
Delete-Arrow456
I agree education is so important and it is a shame that they are wasting money on inmates it is degrading to the society. If only the government would see that education gets you so far in life. Scorpio 123.
Deletein my opinion mass incarceration has its ups and downs, i dont agree with locking someone up for marijuana or stupid petty drugs like that. i think just putting them into a program of rehabilitation to get them off the drug. i think we are wasting alot of money locking up people for petty low crimes, i think we need to stick to locking people up for worse crimes like murder,rape, etc. it would give us more room in our penitentiary's and it would keep those crimes off the street. we are spending so much money on storing inmates in our jails and prisons for small crimes. id rather people who do drugs be on the streets then murderers and rapists.
ReplyDeletesnakebite456
I agree why lock them up and ruin their live over petty drugs. I do agree on the rehab maybe that's all it takes then they a change their life around or at least calm down on the drugs. They so focused worrying about the minor crimes and drug use they really need to worry about the killing and rapping that has took place. T456
DeleteThere are many ways that we could cut spending on prisions. First off we need to offer more programs in prisons that actualy rehabilitate people and understand why they commited the crime instead of just locking them up. Also we need to offer more alternatives for drug offenders like how virgina has the alternative for drug offenders to do a rehab program for a year. The fact that even when prisoners are released they cant find jobs because of there records which makes them more likely to go out and commit more crimes because the have to provide for themselfs or there familys somehow.
ReplyDeleteDabster456
There are some very interesting facts in this video. The author says that we spend more money on prisons than schools. That should not be the case. I totally agree with locking up violent offenders and sexual offenders for the mandatory sentence, but it says that 60% of inmates are nonviolent or drug offenders. There are programs that we could utilize to cut down these numbers. Now dont get me wrong i understand that these programs cost money, however programs like the drug program in virginia cost money but the people in drug programs have to pay their way through it. Those rehab programs are meant to deter offenders from coming back to prison by correcting their problems and making them understand why. Rehabilitation doesnt mean lock them up and throw away the keys. One thing that i dont necessarily agree with in the article was the author almost seemed like we need to soften up on crime. We cant just let people run the streets with no rules. When someone does something wrong they are supposed to be punished for their actions. Its the same way as breaking rules in your parents house as a kid.. their has to be punishments for actions. Those punishments for offenders doesnt always have to include locking them up in prisons. I definitely think that education should be more important than incarceration. There was a study correlating education and crime. The better the education, the lower our crime rates should be.USA456
ReplyDeleteThe corrections boom that took off in the 80's has had a greatly adverse affect on the prison system in the US today. Then it was viewed as a great deal, law enforcement was cracking down on drug use and locking up the offenders. Now however; since the crack down on drugs many lives are being ruined and our prisons are severely overcrowding with very little in additional funds to pay for the needs of the prisoners. Instead of locking up nonviolent offenders, like those who use drugs, send them to drug (if they fit the right criteria) offer rehabilitation for nonviolent offenses. In turn by only sending violent offenders to prison, the prison population will go down and more funding can go back to the states. All at the same time, those offenders who were caught and charged with minor offenses can keep a somewhat clean record, making it easier for them to find jobs. BHS456
ReplyDeleteI feel like in this article when they talked about drug use and when criminals are convicted even for marijuana use they should put it on there application I understand it's a convicted crime. I also think they shouldn't to much when it comes to a job, it's just marijuana it's part of life and people smoke it everyday. It's not like its harming people sometimes it helps. Why make somebody life miserable over marijuana and not give them a job. I agree with arresting drug offenders that do crack and other extreme drugs and sex offenders but 60 percent are nonviolent or drug offenders I just feel like you just messing with people and ruining their lives. I just think the police can be petty when it come to certain situations T456
ReplyDeleteWhat stood out to me the most was that America has four times less as many population as China but yet our imprisonment rates are higher, I think that is ridiculous. I totally disagree with how people who have made minor mistakes in the past get shamed for life; everybody makes mistakes were human not robots. I didn't know until reading this article that 60% of our prison population was nonviolent offenders. I wish I could make some major changes to the system or at least talk to the people in charge of these laws. More money needs to be put into schools and programs to help these offenders nonviolent and violent everybody deserves the right to help. According to the article the amount of money that could be saved seems like a pretty penny to me, $17 billion per year. Hopefully in the near future someone will see that the system isn’t helping these offenders only hurting them.
ReplyDeleteLove456
I couldn’t agree any more with this article than I already do. Our government today is going down the wrong road with the correctional system that we have in place today. Prisons in our country are growing and growing every year and the cost for this growth is getting even bigger as the incarcerations increases. What is the point of housing so many offenders when in all reality your are not helping them better themselves because you cant even afford the programs to help them be rehabilitated and that help them to get back into the community. Incarcerating offenders just to keep them isolated wont help matters at all but if anything it will worsen them instead. If you isolate someone from society they will most likely become a worse offender than before. There are plenty of individuals that become incarcerated because of drug offenses and you know for sure that a lot of them aren’t being rehabilitated so when they come out they commit more offenses and sometimes even higher offenses than before because they become hardened criminals behind bars. One solution maybe cutting incarcerations for low end offenders like someone incarcerated for possession of marijuana.
ReplyDelete-Arrow456
If more others are incarcerated for petty crime and possession of marijuana. how are people suppose to get a job or a future career even if put in care of getting high school or G.E.D level education.Many people are being kept incarcerated for crimes that could directly related to their status and economic situation. When having lor grade education means a risk of committing a crime to survive or to care for the family. with 2.2 million people currently in the nation's prisons or jails. -Shinigami 456
ReplyDeleteThis article really says it all. Billions of dollars are going towards prisons when it should be going towards education. I understand you cannot just let the inmates free, that wouldn't solve anything but a solution needs to appear because our children's children are going to end up with out a education because the government continues to throw money away on inmates. According to the article 60% of our prisons population are nonviolent offenders in that case they shouldn't be serving years in prison, all that is doing is taking money out of school funds. Sure inmates receive education that is great, but the government is taking on to much especially when kids are not being taught because they cannot pay the teachers but go right ahead and pay for inmates to get the education. I know inmates need education to but what about when they had the chance. Something needs to change. Scorpio 123.
ReplyDelete