There Are Too Many People In U.S. Prisons And It Is Leading To National Poverty

November 7. 2017

The Judiciary Report has repeatedly maintained there are too many people in U.S. prisons. Estimates reveal there are over 2,000,000 in U.S. prisons. That figure would noticeably decrease if drug addicts were given more help from the medical system. The justice system needs to focus more on rehabilitating drug addicts than locking them up. Work with the medical community to help them.

I am of the belief drug dealers do deserve sentences for unlawful behavior. However, drug addicts need to be in rehab, rather than prison. Incarcerating drug addicts is putting an undue burden on the prison system, which is costing the taxpayers a fortune. A recently published article in the Economist also reveals, "Mass incarceration breaks up families and renders many ex-convicts unemployable, it has raised the American poverty rate by an estimated 20%." An increase in poverty is not good for any nation.

STORY SOURCE

America’s prisons are failing. Here’s how to make them work

A lot is known about how to reform prisoners. Far too little is done

May 27th 2017- SHIRLEY SCHMITT is no one’s idea of a dangerous criminal. She lived quietly on a farm in Iowa, raising horses and a daughter, until her husband died in 2006. Depressed and suffering from chronic pain, she started using methamphetamine. Unable to afford her habit, she and a group of friends started to make the drug, for their own personal use. She was arrested in 2012, underwent drug treatment, and has been sober ever since.

She has never sold drugs for profit, but federal mandatory minimum rules, along with previous convictions for drug possession and livestock neglect, forced the judge to sentence her to ten years in prison. Each year she serves will cost taxpayers roughly $30,000—enough to pay the fees for three struggling students at the University of Iowa. When she gets out she could be old enough to draw a pension...