Understanding causes of criminal activity, and the cost of incarceration.

[Ester Holzendorf]

In August 2003 Gail Russell Chaddock staff writer for the Christian Science Monitor stated more than 5.6 million American's are in prison or have served time there, according to a report by the Justice Department. That's 1 in 37 adults living in the United States, the highest level in the world at that time. According to an article posted June 12, 2008 in the Washington Post, written by Darryl Fears that number had risen to 7.2 million in 2006. These numbers have broad implications not only for the state fiscal crisis but also how the rest of the world views the American experience. The prison population has quadrupled sinse 1980. Much of that surge is the result of public policy such as the "war" on drugs and mandatory sentencing. How long does a nation fight a "war" while winning absolutely nothing? What can we do? According to "The effective National Drug Control Strategy 1999" one goal should be to reduce the harm caused by the "war" on drugs. Our international drug control strategy is ineffective and continues to follow seriously flawed approaches. The world wide illicit drug business generates as much as $400 BILLION in trade annualy according to the United Nations International Drug Control program. Emphases is placed on interdiction and eradication. It appears the focus should be on drug prevention and treatment as well as economic development, rather than continuing to follow failed policies. In order to develop sensible international drug policy, the United States must recognize that drug control begins at home. The focus of our policies would then go to the root cause--- Consumer demand for prohibited substances. Rather than pouring more money into intervention and eradication, and blaming countries for producing and transporting drugs, the United States should focus it's international drug control efforts on economic development in partnership with source countries and developing alternative economic activities for the impovished farmers who grow drug crops. The drug certification process needs to end. If a country is decertified, it loses foreign aide and faces economic sanction that lead to horrible humanitarian problems, that causes the people and foreign governments to become angry with us due to the U.S annual judgement of their efforts to fight this "war" on drugs. Certification is bad foreign policy because it holds other priorities such as human rights hostage to the single issue of drug control. According to the article written by Fears the cost of incarceration about $45 BILLIOn is causing the state of California to reconsider harsh criminal penalities. To relieve overcrowding states are exporting some of it's inmates to privately run institutions. Some are miles away from the state of conviction. "Rebecca Blank, a senior fellow in economics studies at the Brookings Institution, a centrist think tank, stated the problem just keeps getting bigger and bigger. You're paying a lot of money here." According to Ryan King, policy analyst for the liberal sentencing project, it's like a runaway train. Nobody's taking a step back and asking where are all these billions of dollars going?

Additional post will be done. Feel free to add your post, or comments. Please remember this is a social networking effort, and all comments are to be respectful and relevant.