The New York Times has a strong editorial about prison reform and legislation that is currently in the Senate and the House. As you may know, America is really good at throwing people in jail. In fact, the U.S. has more prisoners than any other country. And while crime in major cities down from past decades, the prison population is filled with non-violent offenders and people convicted for minor crimes like possession of pot.
Each time someone is thrown in jail, it costs tax payers thousands of dollars per inmate to house, feed, guard and protect prisoners. And what does society get for their investment? Not much, because there is a revolving door of former inmates getting thrown back into jail because, say an inmates who was arrested for doing drugs never was treated for the drug addiction, they just went without access to drugs while they were in jail. Once they are freed they get back to using again, get caught and are re-arrested.
So what’s being done? Virginia Democratic Sen. Jim Webb is leading a bipartisan charge to pass prison reform legislation. His bill has cleared the Judiciary Committee in January and now it’s waiting on action to get a vote before the full Senate. And, there is a bill in the House that is very similar to Webb’s senate bill. This bill has the support from the ACLU and the Marijuana Policy Project, but it also has support from the Fraternal Order of Police and the International Association of Chiefs of Police.
Check out the NY Times’ full editorial about this legislation.
What do you think? Do you think Sen. Webb, the ACLU and the police orgs. are right when they say there is a better way to handle the nation’s criminal justice system?
