WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Tough sentencing laws, record numbers of drug offenders and high crime rates have contributed to the United States having the largest prison population and the highest rate of incarceration in the world, according to criminal justice experts.
A U.S. Justice Department report released on November 30 showed that a record 7 million people -- or one in every 32 American adults -- were behind bars, on probation or on parole at the end of last year.
What does this mean? China - a much more populous nation - has only 1.5 million total prisoners. The old saying is that if you make a law you create a criminal is certainly true but that does not explain all of this. Many of these folks are real criminals - the kind that violate natural law as opposed to artificial manmade law.
Many of our prisoners are there because of drug offenses, as the article states - we jail more drug offenders than all of Europe incarcerates for all crimes.
Once a person goes to prison it is safe to assume that they become essentially hardened criminals. Most affiliate with a gang, they live with other criminals and invariably become like them. Few and far between are the exceptions that do their time and return to society as good citizens ( I am certain there are cases but they must be the minority).
It seems we are left with three options -
- Change the culture so that drugs do not present a draw
- Legalize drugs and let losers waste their own lives
- Leave the laws in place and lock all criminals up for life - with perhaps a sliding scale work-farm system for folks that behave
Obviously the first option is the best. The second option of simply legalizing drugs - at the federal level has merit (just let communities keep out the drugs if they want). If all else fails then I suppose that sending people off that go to prison for life is all that is left - a harsh option for certain.
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