The Disturbing Problem with Incarceration in the US
Here are a few things we HAVE NOT learned about incarceration and they cost us dearly:
- Incarceration is profitable for private enterprise when we outsource and this may be a bad thing.
- Recidivism is not a factor in determining whether anyone in the system keeps their job.
- Sociopathic behavior is endemic in some people: they are born with it; they will die with it. Prisons are filled with sociopaths.
- Mental illness and poverty are overriding factors in bringing people into prison systems.
- It is far cheaper to treat mental illness with all the bells and whistles before the age of 12 than it is to incarcerate a man or woman for their whole lives.
- Societies of extremes: those who have statistically large populations that are dedicated to war or to serving their "debt" to society are very expensive for those societies. The Greeks, Romans and others who have gone down in flames owe part of their demise to the above fact.
- The US has a larger prison population than anywhere else in the world, our sentencing guidelines were out of whack when they were created - we knew that and we did it anyway. Judges, legislators and prosecutors: you're all to blame - along with the voters that elected those of you who are elected officials.
- There's no good excuse to damn a human being to prison from birth by virtue of the color of their skin or the contents of their parent's pocket.
- Appearing to be "tough" on crime may well make us weak.
- Prison for non-violent offenders is like giving a baby "crank". If prisoner's aren't addicted to violent behavior they will be when they come out.
- We spend much more on prison than we do on rehabilitation after the individual is released yet we expect a positive result.
- Albert Einstein said, "Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."