A recent segment on NPR highlights the "million dollar block"-- quantifiable data on the ineffectiveness of the US Incarceration System.
A few thoughts:
1) Nearly half of all prisoners in the US are locked up for nonviolent crimes. The "war on drugs" is responsible for the exponential growth in our prisons over the last few decades (i.e. possession of marijuana=>slammer time for otherwise harmless individuals). What an inefficient use of our tax dollars!
2) There's a revolving door for most prisoners. Prisons can be seen as "institutions of higher criminal learning". Individuals learn how to function in an alternate economy where gang mentality and "us versus them"-isms prevail. Prison time not only affects the prisoner, but their families as well.
When I worked with a TX House Rep, the issue of US Prison Reformation was one of my main
concerns. I aided in creating legislation (that would be rejected without much debate) such as giving felons and
those on parole the right to vote. Working for a Left-wing Rep. in a Texas Legislature left me feeling frustrated with formal politics, so I threw everything to the wind and went to take a more hands-on approach working at various wilderness therapy programs (informally known as "hoods in the woods") for juvenile delinquents.
I witnessed some of the most beautiful and also most horrific demonstrations of humanity in various programs where I worked... only to realize that this is not just an isolatable demographic of un-represented people that can be manipulated to function in "we the people"'s economy. This is a symptom of a much bigger problem... and as long as we attempt to put a name to it and keep it quarantined, it's only going to get worse.
