The Ridiculous Manner of Prison Managment

By · Friday, March 20th, 2009

I don’t think prisons exist to help criminals. They are a public resource to help society. It simply turns out that the ridiculous manner in which prisons operate today, they lead to high operating costs, high recidivism rates, and corruption in society. We need prison reforms that will improve corrections.

The Pew Report showed the troubling findings of prison expenditures. To meet a cost of nearly $60 billion each year for state and federal prisons, useful programs like education, health care, and public assistance must receive budget cuts. Such myopic policies do not contribute to a more enlightened society. They need reform.

Rather than striving to lock prisoners in cages at a high cost to taxpayers, prison reforms ought to make more effective use of prison resources. As Justice Kennedy said, we incarcerate too many people in America. Even the U.S. Sentencing Commission issued a report calling for more effective use of alternative sanctions. Some state prison systems are under siege with prison operating costs. We need reforms at all levels.

I am convinced that society should reserve prisons for offenders who prey upon society. There comes a point of diminishing returns when we lock all offenders in cages and measure justice by the number of calendar pages that turn.

Recidivism rates suggest that the longer society incarcerates an offender, the less likely that individual is to function upon release as a law-abiding citizen.

We need the types of prison reform that Justice Warren Burger suggested more than two decades ago in his speech Factories with Fences. All prisoners should have opportunities to work toward earning freedom through merit. Such a fundamental change would not have the purpose of helping criminals, per se. Rather, the change would help society. Such prison reforms would:

*lower recidivism

*lower operating costs

*improve safety in society

*lower prison overcrowding

Be Sociable, Share!

Comments are closed.