Then this:
The United States has less than 5 percent of the world's population. But it has almost a quarter of the world's prisoners.
Maybe we need to rethink what our prisons are for. I have long held that our education and penal system suffer from the same problem--we don't have a clear idea what we are trying to achieve with either.
3 comments:
Dare we open the "legalize it" discussion here? Prohibition hasn't worked. Later- BB
Dare we open the "legalize it" discussion here?
Sure. I tend to agree with you, but I doubt that society is ready to accept it. In the mean time, we should greatly lessen the penalties for drug offenses and most other non-violent crimes. These people shouldn't be in prisons.
Has anyone ever heard of Balanced and Restorative Justice (BARJ)? That page does a good job explaining the philosophy of the program. I have only seen it with juveniles, but it works and is far less costly and more effective than incarceration.
Yikes. I didn't know the percentages were that bad. That's just obscene.
I have no doubt re: education and criminal justice that most people making everyday decisions in the field haven't thought about the purpose of what they are doing, and it seems like this is exacerbated by the people at the top knowing exactly what they are doing, but not agreeing with other decision-makers who are just as certain as they are. Opening minds or training workers? Rehabilitation or vengeance? Depends on who you ask, but the bottom line is that most people in either field will opt for minor tweaks of whatever is popular in order to advance their careers, rather than asking the big questions.
I hadn't heard of BARJ, but it looks like a program that's a lot more sensible than the usual "lock 'em up until they're 21" mentality that my boss had to deal with when he was a defense attorney. Americans for some reason get high and giddy on punishment, even when it is in their own best interests to pursue different strategies.
I'm not sure whether I'd support full legalization--I wouldn't oppose it either, I just haven't thought it through. But I do think we would benefit a lot from de-funding the War on Drugs. Like other wars on abstract nouns, it has done more harm than good, and not much good.
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