States in Budget Crunch Consider Freeing Prisoners

The major question is whether people will be released who are still violent or a denger to themselves or others. The minute one of these people goes out and rapes or kills somebody there will be a major scandal. But as pointed out these people would be released within a short time anyway, and it can't be denied that there has been too much trying to solve problems of crime by locking people up for long periods. This keeps white middle-class people from having to cope with criminals or even look at them, so they think that the problem is being solved because it isn't out there where they have to look at it. At one time it was pointed out that it costs more to keep someone in prison than it takes to send them to the most expensive universities. Prisons are not just a waste of the lives of the prisoners, they are a waste of time for the guards and administrators. Where I live, there are four major prisons within a half-hour drive of my house, and people grow up thinking that these are the only really secure jobs they can get. What we have is half of the people who are locking up the other half, and the half that are locked up are not able to support their families and this creates more problems. There is also the gradual brutalization of everyone involved in this system. Of course the main reason for early release is that politicians want to save money. They could better do this by helping people's lives to be better and more productive.

Sent by Christopher Hobe Morrison, Pine Bush, NY, USA | 5:50 PM | 4-8-2008

Rehab. from drugs and alcohol is the answer if they dont get treatment they will do crime again and again. I spent ten years in the drug program in prison as a volunter, treatment is the answer to alot of their problems turn a lion loose he will kill turn a prisoner loose with out drug treatment he will do the same.

Sent by mike Law. | 10:28 PM | 4-8-2008

Reentry citizens are a fact of life. Budget constraints, an increasingly worse economic picture/realitty for many people means that there is a crunch on resources. It costs $60 billion a year to house some 2.3 million offenders. 97% of them are coming out. Government wants to spend less than $300 million to rehabilitate them pre and post release. The numbers don't add up. We as an organization, among others are doing the best we can to reduce the problem of recidivism. Visit our website to see our work.www.reentry101.org. In reality, while punishment is a reality, release is also an even more pressing reality.
Punishment alone is no longer the answer if we are to change the upward direction of offender numbers

Sent by Irwin Larrier | 10:36 PM | 4-8-2008

the typical usa 'urban black' predator terrorist destroys $300,000 of potenital negro economic wealth each year while on the streets of majority negro communities...

since 1969 -- the vile, deranged & criminally-insane 'black thug class inflicts more than 3 million serious/violent acts of crime on majority negro communities each year...

that's more $900 billion of economic 'destruction & mayhem' each year which goes unchallenged by loud-mouthed/self-appointed/self-important black leaders...

but those same some-called never seem to run out of air begging the 'white man' or the 'government' for more taxpayerfunding of their favorite poverty-pimp & race-hustle programs...

when all along what is really needed for majority usa negro communities to grow wealthly...

is to destroy as many members of the 'vile, deranged & criminally-insane' black 'predator terrorist' class as possible -- ASAP...

...priceless!

Sent by dirtyblues | 10:47 PM | 4-8-2008

What-is-really-violent-is-the-assault-upon-our-communities-and-the-economy-when-people-are-held-well-beyond-the-appropriate-dates-simply-because-they-could-not-afford-the-defense-that-would-grant-them-reasonable-vs.-excessive-time-in-prison.-All-that-results-in-is-the-subsidized-abuse-of-our-black/brown-&-poor-brothers-&-sisters-that-the-society-unwittingly-pay-for.-Not-only-is-it-tragic-it-is-a-piss-poor-reperesentation-of-a-Great-Society's-Legal-System.

Sent by Gloria Alee | 12:15 AM | 4-9-2008

We have a tendency to do things based on money. We are either saving money, averting a financial crisis, or trying to make money.

There is a need to get to the reason why the United States has the highest incarceration rate among industrial nations.

I believe there are two basic reasons.1. We have made it so easy to get a divorce. The effect that divorce have on children can be psychologically devasting.2. With deregulation our system have unleased a very pedatory environment in which the middle class and working poor face dior circumstances.

Low wages, homelessness, jobs being exported, drug and alcohol addiction are just a few symtoms that cause the incarceration rates to sky rocket.

The solution. Chaos or community.Greed over caring for the well-being of all America as opposed to the one percent.

Sent by Terrance Newton | 12:39 AM | 4-9-2008

Since the enactment of mandatory minimum sentencing for drug users, the Federal Bureau of Prisons budget has increased by 1,954%. Its budget jumped from $220 million in 1986 to more than $4.3 billion in 2001.
This and many other fact on the financially devastating War On Drugs at
http://www.drugwarfacts.org/prison.htm

Sent by Mark, New Jersey | 9:57 AM | 4-9-2008

I believe that each case should be reviewed thoroughly prior to anyone being released. That said who is going to monitor these people once they are released? will they be willing to hire more parole and probation officers of which are over worked, underpaid and who at this point are incapable of taking on more? What will be the cost of that? Many of the laws that have caused prisons to be overcrowded will have to be relaxed ie. drug laws or we will end up with the same problem all ove again and what will the releases have solved?

Sent by tracy | 2:17 PM | 4-9-2008

At one point prisons helped educate and train people for life outside of prison. In the 80s, during a similar budget crunch there was a movement away from "coddling prisoners." So now they tend to be in a revolving door. Policies that are penny wise and pound foolish continue to cause these problems. Letting people out of a failed correction system that has often times been a teaching ground, not for prosocial activity but for delinquency, is only going to make our streets more unsafe. Creating programs to take first time offenders and address needs to avoid recidivism seems a more viable solution. Prevention should always be the answer even if it is secondary in response.

Sent by pam | 3:03 PM | 4-9-2008