Prison Path
Pres. Obama: 80 Billion Dollars for Prisons Hurts USA
On April 23, Pres. Obama stated that the annual cost for incarcerating defendants and inmates has become too costly for the American economy. Annually, we spend 80 billion dollars on our local, state, and federal prisons. The United States has 25% of the world’s inmates and only 5% of the world’s population. We have more prisons and jails than China and Russia combined.
Jason Furman, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, in Friday’s New York Times, described the growth of the U.S. prison population “staggering.” Furman noted that repeat-offender laws and other stricter sentencing rules contributed to our massive growth of inmates. He noted that new studies revealed that “many of those provisions do not appear to have a deterrent effect,”on crime.
Obama stated nearly 60 percent of the country’s 2.2 million prisoners have serious mental health problems and that about 70 percent are in need of drug treatment. Many of the mentally ill inmates and prisoners with addictions were charged or convicted of nonviolent offenses. For example, Texas has hundreds of mentally ill men and women locked up in jails because there are no beds available at state mental hospitals. Nonviolent inmates suffering from serious mental health issues are easy prey for violent inmates.
Pres. Obama has made criminal justice reform one of his presidential priorities. He has launched new policies to help the more than 600,000 inmates released from our jails and prisons annually to become “productive, contributing members of their families and communities.”
The White House has called for companies to join “The Fair Chance Business Pledge.” Major companies including Facebook, Uber, Starbucks, The Hershey Company and Coca-Cola have pledged to help released inmates find jobs by changing their approach to job applications. They have agreed to delay questions on job applications about an applicant’s criminal record until it can be “considered in context.” The job applicant, at the interview, would have an opportunity to explain his record, life experiences, and what he or she can offer the company.
Reformation of our broken system of criminal justice is long overdue not only for humanitarian reasons, but also for our national economic health.
By: Bradley Schwartz
Founder of prisonpath.com
J. R. — As helpful as “ban the box” measures are (and they should be promoted), only a practical degree can give ex-offenders a realistic chance at competing for the best jobs.
What’s happening with the Second Chance Pell Grant program announced more than a year ago? Is it under way? Are any Christian colleges getting involved with it? How come we’re not hearing anything about it?
Jim– Do away with for pay prisons
Jesse– Non violent offenses need to be handled without prison time for most
Richard–What does he think it does to the gross domestic product ? Hiring a returning citizen can and will cut this 80 billion dollars spent on prisons . Hire a returning citizen today.
Charlie–Some laws are outdated,why put someone in jail for non payment for child support,how can he even try to pay that back? Violent crimes like gun possession,armed robbery,rape, should be tough not lienent, if you are a repeat offender ,you should do your time.
Stephan– Nobody is against tough sentences for violent criminals. This is about for-profit prisons.
Manny– Be proud. The only things the USA is #1 in is number of incarcerated ( more than China or even Russia) and defense spending. We out spend the top 26 nations in the world on defense, and 25 of those are our allies. Merika rules
Mike–Trump wins are you moving to Canada with Whoopi and Rosie O’Donnell?
Manny—- Fuck that woman hating bigot
$80 billion is peanuts. We spend about $1 trillion in entitlements, about $600 million on education, and about the same on healthcare. The $80 billion includes $30 billion for jails which are, for the most part, temporary holding facilities. $50 billion is for prisons. States, on average, spend a measly 4% of their budget on corrections compared to all other budget items.
http://www.cbpp.org/research/policy-basics-where-do-our-state-tax-dollars-go
Cyndy–This policy of not asking about a criminal record has been going on in Massachusetts for a couple of years now and it has proven little or no relief to people dealing with this barrier to employment. There needs to be criminal record reform in the vein of unless the job you are applying for directly relates to children, elderly,medical or finance then you can’t run a criminal background check. Does anyone really think that Coca-cola is going to say that they aren’t hiring you because you have a drug charge…no they will say, we found a better candidate. This… Read more »
Bridgette– Speak to the billions earned by prisoners from the products they produce for 8¢ an hour. They more than pay for the housing and salaries of staff that police them.Yet when they come home they are shut out of the work forces. And become a product for those who start re-entry programs. These programs get funded and the ex-offender is still working on resume writing two and three years after release. Matter of fact, they are the gross domestic product!
William– Mental illness is a medical and social services problem. Calls for service, place police at the center of the problem. Ineffective social policies result in last resort admission to jails. I am not seeing a comprehensive, preventative approach to the mental health problem, only band aid approach or using current conditions to further other political agendas. Look past the talking points and deliver solutions to the citizens.
Charlie– Some laws are oudated,why put someone in jail for non payment for child support,how can he even try to pay that back? Violent crimes like gun possession,armed robbery,rape, should be tough not lienent, if you are a repeat offender ,you should do your time.
Richard– Mike, When Donald Trump loses with his 40 million dollars trial lawsuit by New York Supreme Court, are you going to go and visit with him and put money on his books, so he can become wealthy again with your retirement salary.
Jimmy– He will be giving money away up till his last minute of his term .after he empties all the prisons
Beatriz– Have you ever thought that in other nations the people are better behaved than ours! Those that need incarcerating must stay and do their time. There are those that have lesser crimes have bigger sentences and need reviews.
tony–There really should be a half a dozen prisons specifically for politicians and lobbyists ….. And not some country club where they can swim, get massages and play golf…..A real hard labor one…..and no time off for good,behavior or a model prisoner
Lee– Well start teaching the bad kids how to not be arrogant little crooks and jails won’t be so busy. Stop blaming the cops for arresting crooks.
Lance– That is definitely not enough, but one way to reduce cost is to stop locking up minor drug offenders and first time non-violent offenders. Our correctional system just breeds more criminals and does very little in rehabilitation. The Criminal Justice System is bias and unfair to citizens with little or no means to defend themselves. The President like most politicians are so out of touch with what our society needs.
David– Unfortunately Lance, I find that more times than not the charge we as law enforcement officers are able to arrest chronic offenders on ends up being that of the misdemeanor drug offense. It allows the officers to arrest and deter violent offenders regardless of if they are caught at that specific time committing a violent crime. I do not want to quote numbers but I will say the vast majority of violent offenders I have arrested (Robbery, Burglary, ADW and Murder) have a history that includes Possession of Marijuana and ironically Driving with a Suspended License. When a blanket… Read more »
$80 billion per year is peanuts compared to other budget items First of all $80 billion is on the high end which includes $30 billion for jails. But even with the higher number, we spend $1 trillion on entitlements, and about $600 million/
By-Ed
First step, re-open some of the state mental hospitals that were closed in the 80’s. This would be a small first step at providing appropriate mental health care instead of “Lock them up.”
By-Brad
Agreed.
By Ed.
Freddie– Prisons are out of control today, because most of them are private own and ran. In talking to inmates, the prisons are SLAVE CAMPS for blacks, poor whites, and others. If the prisons where ran by the State or Federal we would not need 80 billion dollar to fix prisons. First, we need to demand our court systems stop over populating the prisons by sending men and women to prisons on crimes that are not a threat or harm to any person or thing. An article was posted in a well known news paper stating that ” there is… Read more »
Dissent.
By Ed
Too many misleading issues above to even respond to. Or that I haven’t responded to repeatedly before.
by Ed
Freddie’s comments are way off base! How about focusing instead on the education, poverty and crime problems that all are contributors to the prison populations? Lets also not forget the break down of the family unit. One parent households and that one parent is typically the mother. We have youths growing up with no values and a complete lack of regard for others. And of course the mental health and drug problems are another issue altogether. The scales as you say don’t start with the criminal justice system but a lot of times it ends up there because of these… Read more »
Monica Roundtree Everything said is one’s opinions, and we all have a right to one. I agree that the mental health issue needs to be address. we seem to find money for jails and prisons, or bi-sexual bathrooms but not mental health. The mental health issue has always been avoided and not address, drug abuse is on the rise, crime to obtain drugs is on the rise, hence mental health. We have kids leaving elementary school and going to juvenile institutions. Mother’s raising kids on their own when they are actually children themselves. how about and why not the justice… Read more »
We have to remember that by the time someone gets to prison, all other institutions have “failed” that individual. Families, schools, churches, etc. And yet prisons are held responsible for not turning the individual into a responsible citizen. This is like holding a hospital responsible for performing a quadruple bypass surgery on an individual who smoked, drank, over-ate, never exercised, etc. only to have him/her die post release.
By Ed
And how true, so how do we get parents educated and off of welfare, how do we encourage instead of lower one’s self esteem. How do we keep young children out of prisons, what about the elderly; why keep them in prison. How do ya, how do ya, There are so many questions that so many are looking for policy makers to answer. But who really wants to roll up their sleeves and do the work. We can all agree on one thing if nothing else, the criminal justice system needs to be overhauled, looked at and cleaned up. That’s… Read more »
The criminal justice system doesn’t need more reformation. It needs transformation. The good news is that this transformation has been happening right under the noses of “experts” who continue with the old paradigm of justice. Please read some of my material on this because there’s not enough room here to fully explain. The reform movement is primarily anti-incarceration. It depends on misleading statements, such as the subject of this discussion, to try to convert others. As I mentioned in my first response above, $80 billion on prisons is peanuts compared to other budget items (actually we spend about $50 billion… Read more »