Time To Stop Building Prisons By Danny Tyree | February 10th, 2011 | Comments: 5
Tyrades! By Danny Tyree
Remember two or three decades ago when voters got fed up with “revolving-door” incarceration and “wrist-slap” punishments? The result was a massive wave of “three strikes” laws, “throw away the key” campaign speeches and prison construction.
Well, the “Field of Dreams” approach (“Build it and they will come”) has turned into a field of nightmares for cash-strapped states. According to The Wall Street Journal, at least 20 states are exploring ways of thinning out prison populations via expanded probation and parole programs, enhanced drug rehab programs and other strategies.
Fiscally prudent citizens can certainly understand the state beancounters’ concerns. States spend a total of $50 billion a year (7 percent of their discretionary budget) on corrections. If the prison costs could be trimmed, there would be more money for education, federal mandates and new state mottoes (such as “The Jump When Corporate Negotiators Say Jump and Ask How High On The Way Up State” and “No, Honest, Interesting Stuff Actually Happened In This State As Recently As 150 or 200 Years Ago State”).
More on Cagle Post: http://blog.cagle.com/2011/02/time-to-stop-building-prisons/
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