The Flawed Prison System of America

1045 Words3 Pages

The Unites States of America’s prison system is a flawed mess. To open the eyes of our government we must first take a stand against unlawful government decisions, and show support for the greater good of society. What are our own tax-dollars paying for, what are the flaws in the justice/prison system, why is overcrowding in prisons causing tension, and what are ways our society and government can rebuild the system that has been destroyed over the years? Most criminals in prisons are not a danger to our society because they commit crimes just to use jail as a shelter, causing the overcrowding of prisons and wasting away of what we really should be paying for.
Our government deceives our perspective, causing taxpayers to just give their hard-earned money to unconstitutional profits apart of the justice system. First step of change is to know what your tax-dollars and government money actually pays for. Arrestees are put in cells that cost anywhere from $25,000 to $60,000 to build and another $7,000 to $26,000 or so annually to maintain. In Alabama, to incarcerate a daily population of 26,758 is 462.5 million, of which 3.7% were costs outside of the corrections budget, The immense cost of confining so many people is draining vital resources from other public safety endeavors, including investigations and prosecutions.(Sifakis,65) This is your money. Reducing the number of non-violent offenders in our prisons and jails by half would lower the $75 billion bill by $16.9 billion a year.(Schmitt,1)
Therefore, step two to change is recognizing the flaws in the system. The U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics estimates that 83% of children now 12 years old will become victims of actual or attempted violence if crime continues at its curre...

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...ments. Only put money towards what will help build our country up not keep bringing it down, starting with the problem of mass incarceration. This is why this flawed system must be fixed with responsible decisions we make as a nation.

Works Cited

"10 Ways to Reduce Prison Overcrowding and Save Taxpayers Millions." Huffpost. 08 4 2013: n. page. Web. 17 Apr. 2014.
Alternatives to Incarceration in a Nutshell. : FAMM, 2013. Print.
Crime and Criminals. San Diego : Greenhaven Press, 1989. Print.
John Schmitt, . The High Budgetary Cost of Incarceration. Washington D.C.: CEPR, 2010. Print.
Sifakis, Carl. The Encyclopedia of American Prisons. New York: Facts on File, 2003. Print.
"Too Many Laws, Too Many Prisoners." Economist. 22 7 2010: n. page. Web. 17 Apr. 2014.
Violence in America. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1990. Print.

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