A overall look at the American prison system and what it costs the taxpayers.
Is the Prison System Working? In a recent study done by the U.S. Department of Justice, the prisons population grew to a little over 1.3 million inmates by mid-year 2000. This is an annual increase of 5.6% annually since 1990. Of these 1.3 million inmates, an estimated 16-18% will return to prison within three many years of their release. In round numbers we are looking at 200,000 repeat offenders released onto the streets as rehabilitated and ready to rejoin society and failing to successfully merge back into society. The popular answer to the problem is to lengthen prison terms thereby delaying the inevitable. Unfortunately, statistics have proven this to be the wrong answer. The rate at which offenders returned to Federal prison increased with the amount of time that they served in prison. The question is why. One theory is that the treatment of inmates is such as to not prepare them for return to society. They become accustomed to the prison mentality of survival and no longer understand what it is like not to be caged and told what to do every waking hour of the day. Instead of rehabilitating the average prisoner, they are demoralized and stripped of all sense of belonging. Instead of teaching them to survive on the outside, we have become a country bent on not rehabilitation but punishing offenders and this approach is not solving the problem. Another theory is prison overcrowding is leading to prisoners being released before they have served their full sentence and the answer has been to make more prisons and even to resort to privately operate for profit prisons in several states. At our current rate of increase, America is looking at a projected 2 million inmates by late 2001. Apparently, something is not working. What has been proven to work is a program in Fulton County, Georgia where recruits volunteer to serve as companions for youthful offenders. The recidivism rate is down from 25 percent to 5 percent. McKean Federal Correctional Institute in Pennsylvania has used decent living conditions and educational opportunities to maintain low recidivism and fewer behavior problems with the inmates and this was done at a lower cost per inmate than the average facility of its type. Others believe the answer lies in assimilating inmates to society under a period of supervision such as parole officers and halfway houses before letting them loose on the streets alone. What is the correct answer? Is it all of the above? Something no one has thought of yet? I do not understand the answer. What I do know is the problem will not go away by forgetting the prisoners exist. The problem will not go by building a new prison on ever corner. Eventually, most of these criminals, these prisoners tucked away behind walls and barbed wire will return to stroll the streets side by side with the rest of us. If we are to continue to spend billions of tax dollars to convict and incarcerate these men, women, and sometimes children, we should expect to see some positive results. To feel the streets are safe to walk and that an inmate released may be trusted in the business of the innocent. And if not, then perhaps they should remain inmates. Perhaps education is the answer, if not education for the prisoners, then education for society as a whole. For most of us, we do not understand anyone in prison or who has served instant. The whole issue is remote to us or we see it as victims looking for punishment. But, what if one day, we are unfortunate enough to find ourselves behind bars or we find our children behind bars, is that the measure to worry about prison conditions? Is that the instant to worry about whether we will survive the acquired skill and become a better human or if our child is being properly fed and provided adequate health care and mentally stimulated to grow as a person and evolve into someone we could be proud of?