Historical Bad Intentions And Bad Policies
Criminal justice is a multi-billion dollar a year industry. Let us not deceive ourselves into believing the history of the business is based on fairness or justice. The business has engendered many politicians who were prosecutors or attorneys in the past and learned that “anti-crime” advocacy pays both monetarily and aspirationally.
These justice system practitioners, many of whom become political office holders, use their positions to seek additional and tougher sentencing and Codes/Statutes to insure their ongoing livelihood. The results of these schemes are higher taxes, more prisons and the high probability that a member of your family will spend significant time housed in a federal or state prison .
Prison is not about rehabilitation and has very little to do with punishment. It is a very expensive warehouse of those deemed undesirable to be among us. As such it is rarely the fortunate who can afford a pricey defense, but rather the economically disadvantaged that wind up in prison. The young, dumb and poor going into prison wind up the dumb, old and desperate with little prospect of succeeding in society. Far too many prisoners are recycled again and again despite the fact that it makes absolutely no sense to pay $30,000 TO $160,000 per year per person to keep a prisoner and then cut them loose to somehow exist on nothing except their own “skills” at a homeless shelter.
The Case To Reduce Wasteful Spending And Reduce Prison Populations Using Innovative Approaches
Crime pays well for those on the handle end of the sword of justice Unfortunately the unfounded mentality of “lock them up” has deeply rooted itself in America which continues to have the highest incarceration rate in the world, by far. Hardly any politician campaigns without the slogan “tough on crime”. Why should “smart on crime” not be substituted? A definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.
Reform Crime Sentencing is about stopping the madness that has become our normal. We advocate for diversion and alternatives for all non-violent offenders. We expect the prison system to be about rehabilitation not merely lip-service to the concept. We expect a reduced prison population to bring about the increased safety of corrections officers as well as prisoners.
We hope RCSNOW.ORG becomes a forum providing your family and friends and your community with information and resources to end the abusive justice and penal system that we have been subjected to. Please join us in our mission.
*The views and opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of all Reform Crime Sentencing members. *
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