By: dkitness

dkitness — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 18:21:00 +0000

This is a big problem. We convict people for doing these small things thinking it will clean up our streets. The sentencing of major crimes seems to be backwards in this country. A man who rapes a woman will get less time than one who steals a car or robs a bank. A young person who has consentual sex with another young person, maybe only 2 years younger than themself can be convicted of statutory rape and spend a lifetime on a list along with pedophiles that are many years older than their child victims. People on parole can be violated and sent into the prison system for something as small as leaving the state for their mothers funeral. Most probation and parole offices in big cities have less than 4 officers for over 4000 men and women who range from petty criminals to murders and rapists who have been released early into an environment that doesn’t want or except them,causing problems for everyone. Our lawmakers need to learn how to manage these issues in the proper ways. Fitting the punishment with the crime and treating the problems rather than enhancing them by throwing away the key when one person who would benefit from treatment has fallen into a pattern of crime due to mental illness or other outside circumstance. If we use the proper treatment we will have less cost and less crime.

By: Emily Goodall

Emily Goodall — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 07:14:00 +0000

With 5.2 million people behind bars, China, not the U.S., has more people locked up in their prison system than any other country in the world.

Comments on: America’s Prison Problem

By: dkitness

By: Emily Goodall