For most of my adult life this country has been inordinately fond of the idea of putting people in prison no matter what the offense. As a result, we are #1 in the world in terms of our prison population per capita. Prisons cost us a lot of money, so much money that entrepreneurs have started their own companies to imprison people and get some of that money. Over the past quarter-century we have tripled our spending on prisons; that's more than what we've done in such unimportant areas as education and transportation.
A study by the Pew Center on the States urges us to re-think our approach to handling crime. The study advocates that we spend more of our money on community supervision (probation and parole) than we do currently. Now, a third of those under state or community supervision (in jail, on probation or parole) are in jail, yet we spend almost 90% of our corrections money on this one-third. This makes little sense when community supervision for those who have not committed violent crimes and who are also at less risk of flight or committing another crime is a lot cheaper and results in less recidivism.
As the economic decline worsens, we need to re-think many of our assumptions and practices rather than simply make the customary knee-jerk, emotional reaction.
No comments:
Post a Comment