We Are Spending Too Much On Prisons

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We Are Spending Too Much On Prisons

Would you believe that America has spent around five hundred billion dollars on prisons.(Butterfield) Why are the tax payers of America spending so much money on prisons and not other effective solutions to stopping crime? The American legislation is closed minded about reducing crime. They believe that prison is the one and only solution. Since crime keeps occurring, more and more prisons need to be built and kept running for the increasing numbers of inmates that are pouring into prisons. Prison may be part of the solution, but there are other alternatives to help criminals. If we were to incorporate facilities like drug rehabilitation and job training into the criminal justice system then crime would be greatly reduced. Prisoners would commit fewer crimes after the experience of these facilities, therefore reducing the cost of building and maintaining prisons. The end result will be that the American tax payer's dollars will be available to go to more productive things than prisons.

Prisons require an abundance of money to be run properly and effectively. By using taxes to pay for prisons the American public pays to support the lives of inmates and all of their needs. Prisoners require food, drink, beds, supplies for doing other activities and all of the overlooked things in normal life that go along with these necessities. Inmates have special needs like all of us do. Inmates reguire medical care, for example some have AIDS or other diseases that require medicine which cumulate large bills over time.(Luzadder) Imagine the money amassed over a life sentence of paying for medicine. The American public pays for all of these expenses added to the actual building of the prison f...

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...imes which would inevitably send him back to prison. While making perfect sense this solution drastically changes the concept of prison. The effects of social programs integrated with prisons start with helping direct the taxpayers money to more prolific uses, and expand to making people in America smarter, more educated less dangerous people.

Works Cited

Federal Bureau of Prisons : http://www.bop.gov/

Inciardi, Dr. James A., A Corrections-Based Continuum of Effective Drug Abuse Treatment. National Criminal Justice Reference Service. Avialable: http://www.ncjrs.org/txtfiles/contdrug.txt

Butterfield, Fox. "Prison: Where the Money Is." N.Y. Times, June 1, 1996

Luzadder, Dan. "House gets Bill That Pours Funds Into Prisons, Colleges." Rocky Mountain News Capitol Bureau. Avialable: http://insidedenver.com/extra/legislature/0325budg0.html

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