Get Out of Jail, Free

I was part of a pilot program in Allentown, PA where they had so many prostitutes in their prisons - they were going to have to spend over a million dollars to build a new prison. The increase of transgender prostitutes also poses a problem - they can't be housed in either male or female prisons - so special housing has to be created for them along with increased security. We were able to put together an alternative sentencing program where the women spent time in this residential program, along with their children, to receive job training, drug treatment, counseling, etc. The hope was not only that it was cheaper than paying for the prison housing - but that it would reduce the number of those who came back. Prostitutes have an alarming rate of repeat arrests. We were able to not only reduce the population so much they did not have to build that new prision while we had this program running - but it cost the taxpayers only about a 1/3 of wht simply arresting them was costing them. By offering outpatitent meetings and services for anyone who wanted help - they were also able to reduce the number of future arrests. It saves a fortune in taxpayer dollars to have such a program in place - and it helps save these women and their children's lives - not to mention the reduction of harm of the health problems these women pose by working as prostitutes. But the reality is that we now have mostly privatized prisons who lobby for laws that not only allow them to keep the prisoners in prison instead of receiving treatment - but they lobby for "stiffer sentences" so they can keep them longer - and make more money. It sounds "good" to cry for stiffer sentencing of criminals - but the only one who benefits are the prisons' piockets. This programs show that no matter how long the sentence - these women/men just return to what they did before. I had to leave the program in PA when I became pregnant and the program folded after I left. The numbers show up again and they not only had to build the bigger prison - but now they were quoted recently as saying they anticipate a 44 percent increase in prisoners which means they are going to have to build an additional prison to house these women. If you go into any prison - you'll find over 80 percent of the females are prostitutes and in there for crimes for which if they were not prostitutes - they wouldn't be in there. We have to ask ourselves if we want to help these women to reduce the numbers in prison and the impact they have not only on our health - but future generations from their children exposed to this - or if we want to keep making prisons rich.

Our prison system is one example of what Van Jones calls the new math. It costs money to treat an abused child, but most violent criminals were abused as children. The more money we spend on therapy, the less money we need for prisons. It costs money to give a boy from the 'hood a college scholarship, but it's cheaper to send a student from an inner city school to college than it is to send him to prison. Van Jones is promoting a green technology training program for inner city students. That costs money too, But again preparing young people, particularly from the inner city, for a job in an expanding market (green technology), is far cheaper than putting these same young people behind bars.

The fiscal conservatives just don't get it. As Van Jones pointed out, we need to compare the money we spend now with the money we save in the future. If we use the new math, we'll discover that progressives and liberals are the only true fiscal conservatives.

I totally agree with Ignorancemuststop. I read an article about the GM plant in Janesville Wi. where that a crew of 8 to 10 people were hired to drive the vehicles from the assembly line to the parking area. A person would park the vehicle, sit and sleep in the vehicle until "the ride back" picked them up. Then they sat in the break-room and played cards until it was their turn to drive another. How long do these people think a job like that would last? Most all businesses paid high salaries because they knew it wasn't going any farther that the Casino. People had a good and a chance to save for a rainy day and they blew it!

The first thing on their list is to "get even" with those who put them in jail. Realizing one's faughts is not something most convicted felons have mastered. This is the same as unleashing wolves.

All this and Mr. Obama wants to keep expanding government. Some of these people will no doubt make better lives for themselves and be good citizens, others will return to jail. Society will likely suffer at least some because of this.

Maybe states should imprison their state and federal officials for treason?

Let me see if I understand ... more than half of those who are let out of prison after serving their full sentence end up back in the system. So we should let more of them out earlier?
Maybe we should never let some of them out. Maybe we should go back to having them make license plates or SOMETHING to help defray the costs!

Well darn...

I would prefer that the forces of goodness and light win over the dark side through the power of persuasion and conversion, but if that can't happen, if the dark side goes broke trying to jail so many people, that works for me.

Oh sure, there are bad folks who need to be controlled, no doubt, but there are a lot of very expensive bad guys on the "justice" side of the equation who can't be controlled at all, and so hey, let them go broke.

Just for instance, one state confiscated hundreds of children from a polygamist sect. Now I'm not a polygamist, but I have absolutely no desire to dictate the terms of another person's marriage to them, and I think the authorities who intervened in that case need to have their authority trimmed a little.

Since that won't happen... let them go broke. If they need to shout "child molestors" in order to authorize their activities... let them go broke.

If they need to jail people because Randolph Hearst wanted marijuana illegalized, let them go broke.

Privatized jails are going broke? Well darn the luck. It's a crying shame.

Maybe if the fifth amendment were re-instated there wouldn't be so many convictions.

I was not shocked to learn that the yearly cost to house an inmate is close to an average yearly salary for a lot of the population. Here is a thought: rather that jailing non-violent offenders, how about investing 50% or less of that amount to enroll them in skill-enhancing educational programs? With all the talk that the amount of time spent in prison has nothing to do with whether he/she will commit another crime, I believe this is a risk worth taking. Obviously, even with all that cash flowing into prisons, their rehabilitation programs to diddly squat to correct the core issues: lack of education, lack of skills , lack of motivation, and lack of patience and concern (these last 2 on the part of the "system").

In 2006, I was arrested for a DUI- my BAC was 0.8. Before my trial, I completed 4 months of inpatient Rehab treatment , started attending AA, a weekly outpatient Relapse Prevention group and was monitored daily by a "random drug test" program { twice monthly I am randomly selected to be tested for "EtG" an alcohol metabolite that remains positive for a week after consuming alcohol}. Due to delays in the court system, my trial date was put off until July 2008- realize that I was driving for the past 16 months without even a "parking ticket". I eventually plead guilty, and that's when the court system took over....I was immediately incarcerated leading to me being fired from my job, fined $4000, given 24 months of probation without any driving privileges.
Admittedly, I made a serious mistake. But I feel the punishment I received is excessive. I now understand why recidivism is high.........judicial efforts in NC focus on punishment, not on treatment and return to societal norms.
But my experience in a "county jail" showed my that the 1 person in 31 who are under correctional supervision are generally non violent people who have made a mistake. Most lose any fear of returning to jail because the challenge to overcome obstacles and re enter our "previous life" {before incarceration} is too high, and despite lost freedom, life in jail is like a long "time out", spent sitting in a corner. Whether one day in jail or many years, unless efforts taken to address and correct the underlying problems are taken, it will remain the refuge for people caught in a quagmire. When caught in this circumstance, most become more and more resistant to the expectations of society and drift further and further away from rejoining our society, and find solice in the misery shared by others in this ever enlaging group of outcasts.
I believe that if we focus on giving this group of people a hand up, instead of pushing them away into an abyss, we can halt the growing number of people under correctional supervision.