Pubdate: Tue, 13 May 2003
Source: Montgomery Advertiser (AL)
Copyright: 2003sThe Advertiser Co.
Contact:  http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1088
Author: Rebecca Brower

CURRENT APPROACH FEEDS PROBLEM

The sad irony of the prison crisis is that our get-tough-on-crime stance is 
actually creating more hardened criminals and increasing violent crime 
rates. Nonviolent offenders are imprisoned with violent criminals, so by 
the time they're released, they're more violent than when they were sent to 
prison. Naturally, they proceed to go out and re-offend, and the vicious 
cycle starts again.

We need to do at least five things to reform the system:

a.. Make a distinction between violent and nonviolent offenders and keep 
them separated in prison.

b.. Make a two-strikes-you're-out law so that violent criminals can't harm 
society again.

c.. Research the cheapest programs with the lowest recidivism rates for 
nonviolent offenders and adopt them here. The focus needs to be on cost 
effectiveness, not ideology. I'm tired of throwing my tax money away on 
overcrowded prisons when there are cheaper alternatives that reduce crime 
in the process.

d.. We need at least three different types of programs: drug treatment, 
crime prevention programs for juveniles, and work release programs. 
Juvenile programs prevent kids from becoming criminals in the first place, 
and work release programs allow prisoners to repay their debt to society 
and learn a skill so that they don't turn to crime when they return to the 
community.

e.. Since poverty and crime are strongly correlated, in the long term we 
need to give people access to family planning and adequate education so 
that children don't grow up in poverty and ignorance.

Rebecca Brower

Montgomery
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MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens