Locking up Americans too expensive
Crime is taking a bite out of state budgets.
A report from the Pew Center on the States says there are twice as many adults in the corrections system now than there were 25 years ago.
That amounts to a big chunk of state budgets. The report says changing sentencing laws and probation programs would lower incarceration rates and save states money.
Changing the rules
Adam Gelb, director of the Center’s Public Safety Performance Project, agrees that keeping certain criminals locked up might not be worth it. As states are relying on quick loans from the government to get by, they should consider changing corrections tactics.
“Violent and career criminals need to be locked up, and for a long time. But our research shows that prisons are housing too many people who can be managed safely and held accountable in the community at far lower cost,” he said.
The U.S. Department of Justice reports that The United States has the highest incarceration rate and the biggest prison population of any country.
A costly punishment
State spending on criminal justice has gone up 300 percent in the last 20 years. It’s the fastest-growing area of spending after Medicaid. Gelb says states that spend more than others do so because of policies rather than crime rates.
“The huge differences between states are mostly due not to crime trends, or social and economic forces. The rates are different mostly because of choices that the states have made about how they respond to crime,” he said.
Best bang for your buck
Georgia has the highest percentage of incarcerated residents.
Gelb says that when it comes to spending on corrections, “community supervision strategies and technologies need to be strengthened” rather than scaled back.
He makes the argument that states can use ankle bracelets, Global Positioning Systems and other programs to track those on probation. The cost per criminal when compared to housing an inmate is significantly less.
I while back, I heard the government was contemplating on whether they should cut state budget on rehabilitation programs for juveniles. I was outraged to hear such a proposal. However, they do need to find ways to cut down on the budget. I agree that there are unnecessary policies floating around with no meaning, but yet we continue to pay for them. The ratio of our continuous conduct and the increasing number of housed prisoners are far from a leveled balance. They must locate the needless areas in the system before concluding with something of great importance like rehabilitation programs.
I think a large part of the over expenditure on prisons is that we’ve created offenses which didn’t use to exist, which have little utilitarian purposes. If you have offenses that are more or less victimless crimes that result in more prisoners going into the system, then you are wasting time and money on things that aren’t really a crime, then they have reduced our legal system to more or less an arm of the IRS.
Why not take away criminals cable TV and other comforts of home. Seriously, we don’t even have cable TV. Give them books to read. Use the less violent criminals in the ‘labor force’ to clean up the neighborhoods needing it etc. Make prison/jail a place that people don’t consider a vacation. If people are penalized for crimes and sent to an old-school type punishment facility, it would probably deter the bulk of crimes. It’s called punishment after all, not an adult daycare. It would also save a lot of money. I’m all for rehabilitating the juveniles to help prevent career criminals.