the money and resources it takes to inprison every person convicted of non violent or property crime could probably be better spent in other ways.
The reality is most behavior is learned. Hard for people to learn new behaviors, sometimes….it takes determination ect. Not making excuses for people, but, prison is a bad investment of tax dollars for non violent offenders. Bonifay, as someone who worked in the system for decades, what is your take on this? In terms of dealing with people that are not yet repeat offenders, trying to prevent that from occurring?
fearsomefour...sir there is no short simple answer here. This is way too long for a post but it is the best I can just put down for you ......you nor will any other ROD'mer Like to read what I will post. Any way you look at it is going to cost you $ You & I will have to pay for all this mess in our tax payments. My Rx is a very bitter harsh pill to even consider....but codling or pampering these first offenders
does not work out well as many uninformed public think. Experience has learned me that non violent or non repeaters are usually future serious offenders..sorry that's just the way it is. So Sad! You can disagree with me but it will not change this fact. Federal US Government stats on this subject are tainted & just false in so many ways... & nobody cares about the mass printed misinformation because the alarms would go off on correctional program failures & the river of tax $$$ that flows into their coffers.
Your statement "
prison is a bad investment of tax dollars for non violent offenders" I
do not accept your premise period! This is what we read in the press each & every day my experience is the total opposite. Its the liberal press that puts the premise that Programs is the answer. Please understand there are many different types of levels of custody in prisons. Most DOC's do a very good job with these non violent offenders with their placements. Here's an unknown fact that theses so called non violent offenders commit acts many violent inside these low custody facilities thus their continued bad behaviors will cause them to be removed from the lower facilities into a placement into a rougher level facility with other violent offenders..
All my yrs in the system I have never seen any proof that these programs work anything close to the reworked data put out to the public. I also find that the federal Gov controls so much of the state Gov. due to the many US district court decisions that insert the federal gov into the state DOC systems. For some strange reason the press & public thinks its a good ideal that the feds oversee the states DOC's ....nothing could be further from the truth. the Feds mandate high cost alleged fixes & state pay outs to many programs that from many political Correctional Agencies that rake in all the $$$ for these non prison programs or even DOC programs in the state DOC facilities ...thus making the cost of tax payers for
those who pay taxes rises at an alarming rate. What a scam! But Joe Q public believes this is the best way to handle these kids.
No one wants to place these youngins in harsh prison ....here's something else most these kids have very little education...thus the Feds mandate they get
all their education so now you have to have a school class rooms environments just like you pay for in your local schools that meet the schools out in the free world...think on that who pays for that? You have to pay teachers to enter & come into a rough corrections facility more $$$. You now need more security to protect the teachers most are all females teachers get the point here very big security issues here....more $$$ is needed. So you have programs in your local schools guess who had the right for the same type of programs yes you got it More programs from all over the spectrum ...more PC's more everything $$$$$ did I forget to bring up the $$$$. Now we need teaching directors and section heads & more test units and etc etc....$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$. all mandated by the feds who by the way just mandates by US district court orders and who pays not the feds but the STATES! There is no win in this situation! My experience is all this is mostly all impotent & FAIL written all over it. But it is ever growing as I respond to this post.
Bottom line WE
just feel better when we do not place these young misguided kids into a Corrections facility...hey Joe Q public just open up you wallets for eternity. This program element of this CJS is broken and they will not permit it to be fixed because of all the big $$$ coming from your wallet just so you will feel better no one said anything about the results...you feel better yet?
Ok what my solution? The number one way to make an impact on these kids is a State Low Custody Youth
Work Camps. But if you understand & read the above then you know that my solution is outlaw'd & not permitted by US federal government due to the US Federal law mandates from the US Courts! I had to provide the above so you would see that my solution is banned. Sorry this is just the way it is. The only other slight possible other helping solution is this....& this will really sound strange coming from a starchy conservation CJS person like me but in truth many of the US drug laws need to be addressed in a major way & I do not mean more stiffer punishments either. Its a small fix but lowering these drug offenses that are all types of degrees of
felonies to mere fines for there wrongdoings or just legalize some of these less harsh drugs would help. Not a good thing to do but it would bring relief to the courts & law enforcement.
The big big problem today as to why prison pops are out of control everywhere & so dangerous for all who enter both offenders & prison staff are the major street gangs & gang affiliation is the major contributor of prison violence that you want to protect the youngins from....once again it very hard to manage & control these predator street gangs without very harsh isolation methods that did work...years back but once again the US District Courts judges have banned these effective programs in prisons due to the offenders claims that their civil rights being violated by controlled close confinement. Oh by the many are not even US citizens . That's another long post for another day.
One last thing here we assume these offenders want to learn new good behaviors....& there are a very small % who will go against the grain & turn their lives around but in my yrs. I find this to be around the 10 % to 15 % range ...the public would like to believe the best in humanity...so would I but in reality the future of the CJS in America is a ticking time bomb. Expecting the Federal Gov & State Gov to provide & be successful in continuing doing & performing in what Government is supposed to do & one of the
reasons for their being....with their first goal of
"Protection of the Public " is a thing of the past!
