Our prison/incarceration policy results in the destruction of families and neighborhoods.
Our policies cost us a fortune annually, funds that should be invested in education, job skills training, health care, public safety, housing. . .the list goes on and on.
I found this chart very useful in putting the entire picture in perspective.
Thoughts?
While the graph is very informative, it is impossible to determine the causes from simple distributions. It appears that our system has defaulted to a single punishment of incarceration, when other solutions would be more appropriate. Furthermore, I wonder if we have over-criminalized ourselves, resulting in more reasons to put people in jail than is really needed. But I do believe our society is more violent than others, which could be addressed through a change in culture and what is considered socially-acceptable behavior. How does the distribution of different types of crimes compare with other Western and non-Western nations? The graph leads to more questions than answers. I hope smarter people than me are working on this problem.
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