Community | December 10, 2008 | 12 comments

Why the U.S. Has a Quarter of the World's Prisoners | Rights and Liberties | AlterNet

source: http://www.alternet.org/blogs/rights/110874/

pokesmot
Our country is creating criminals, not citizens.

I can think of no greater hell on earth than spending day after day in a little box. What about non-violent offenders? The drug addicts, the bad check writers, the people that are filling up our jails and costing us money?

The number of prisoners in prisons for drugs equals the total number of prisoners in 1980! The good news: in the past 20 years spending for higher education has increased 21%. The bad news: in that same 20 years, spending for prisons increased 127%.

We're creating criminals, not citizens.
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12 comments // Why the U.S. Has a Quarter of the World's Prisoners | Rights and Liberties | AlterNet // Video

  • guidedtotarget
    • 0
      guidedtotarget  

    • We used to call these "crimes without victims", but that description was too accurate, so now they are called "public policy" laws. Getting rid of these laws will fix the drug, prison, and economic problems of this country.

    • 3 years ago
  • guidedtotarget
    • 0
      guidedtotarget  
    • guidedtotarget:

      It would sure help. Half of the prison population gone back to working for a living, Less law enforcement required because fewer laws being broken and taxes on drugs like we have on liquor and tobacco to raise money for government operation.

    • 3 years ago
  • unimatrix0
    • 0
      unimatrix0  

    • Great Post pokesmot - thank you!

      Drug addiction should be treated as a medical, not a criminal, problem.

      The war on drugs is a war on you and me. It is a failure. All non-violent drug offenders should be released from prison immediately.

      Marijuana should be legalized, taxed, and regulated, for medicinal as well as recreational purposes.

    • 3 years ago
  • pokesmot
    • 0
      pokesmot  
    • Image

    • Decades of drug war policy decisions were made based on rhetoric, not hard data. A 2001 report from the National Research Council on the drug war concluded, “The existing drug-use monitoring systems are strikingly inadequate to support the full range of policy decisions that the nation must make.... It is unconscionable for this country to continue to carry out a public policy of this magnitude and cost without any way of knowing whether and to what extent it is having the desired effect."

      After decades and hundreds of billions of dollars spent on get-tough drug policies, the war on drugs’ collateral damage is painfully evident. The Drug Policy Alliance Network (DPAN) states that approximately 1.5 million people are arrested each year in the United States for drug law violations, making the US the biggest jailer in the world—at the expense of US taxpayers. Even the chronically ill are fair game in the war on drugs: the Supreme Court ruled in 2005 that the federal government can prosecute medical marijuana patients, even in states where medical marijuana is legal. And the drug war is making US residents even sicker: because the federal government refuses to fund needle exchange programs, intravenous drug users are at high risk for hepatitis and HIV infection. Thirty-four percent of all reported new HIV infections are amongst intravenous drug users, with 75% of reported new HIV infections amongst women and children being in some way related to intravenous drug use. Needle exchange programs, while painfully under-funded and stymied by some states’ laws against the possession, distribution, and sale of syringes, are scientifically proven to lower infection rates.

      bunch@link

    • 3 years ago
  • HolyCity2012
  • pokesmot
  • pjacobs51
    • 0
      pjacobs51  

    • They say it costs taxpayers $36,000 per prisoner, per year. That's a lot of wasted money, I am quite sure the school system doesnt get that much money per student, per year.

    • 3 years ago
  • mendokusai
    • 0
      mendokusai  

    • the penal system really is messed up. it seems like the emphasis is on isolating individuals in order to protect the community for a limited period of time rather than actually reforming or educating the prisoner who was the problem to begin with and who will most likely need to reintegrate into society at some later point in time.

      compound the situation by the fact that the most significant predictor of criminal behavior is a previous arrest and you have yourself a downward spiral of criminal behavior that can often begin with something as petty as pokin smot.

      its no wonder that the recidivism rate for american prisoners is 60%

    • 3 years ago
  • pokesmot
  • Saladin
  • Saladin
    • 0
      Saladin  

    • Alternet isn't really a source I take seriously, but our prison population is a huge problem.

      But we're not "creating prisoners," that's bogus. Our country just has a huge disparity between rich and poor, a lot of ethnic tension and a lot of violent people.

      Most people in jail are not simply non-violent drug offenders. At max, those people comprise of maybe 20-25% of our overall prison population. Most criminals are violent offenders.

    • 3 years ago
  • kennymotown
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