Education, Not Prisons

by Ramses2 in Issues, September 17, 2011

A despicable, yet important piece of information on how our nation chooses to spend more money on prisons than other services.

Did you know that the the prison population has increased to over 400% percent over that last 25 Years? or that the state of California has spent 8.8 billion dollars a year, which is twice the national spending of 49,000 dollars a year on incarceration? That my fellow readers is the disturbing fact of what our country’s prison system is. The state governments in this country spend 40% percent more on prisons, while spending on affordable education has decreased by 30 percent, because apparently the so-called “judicial system” doesn’t want to appear soft on crime.

As if appearing tough on crime is going to help, which it doesn’t.

If the American legal system wants to truly deal with crime they should try not putting so many people away and try finding new ways to keep people out of prison or from going back. Colleges should try taking the same approach too. Instead of preventing non-violent offenders from going to college, the law should try letting colleges accept such individuals and try to encourage a “forgive-and-forget” approach. The economy isn’t getting any better. So the legal system and the colleges should try to understand that.