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Prisons over education { November 19 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.statehornet.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2003/11/19/3fbad879e5061http://www.statehornet.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2003/11/19/3fbad879e5061
Prison time takes priority over college education
TAYLOR TIPTON
November 19, 2003
Most of us know someone that has gone to prison or someone that might be headed in that direction.
A study conducted by CNN found that, at the end of 2001, one in every 37 adults had been imprisioned at some point in their life. Each inmate costs the state $28,000 to $35,000 annually, according to Sue North, chief of staff for state Sen. John Vasconcellos, a member of the Senate committee that oversees prisons.
It tends to be quite a fine to society. California alone spent 25 billion dollars in housing such convicts. This, compared to the $9.7 billion allotted to higher education, is quite a chunk of our budget. This is the same budget that is in a deficit.
What is wrong with the United States when we as a country have 5% of the world’s population and 25% of them prisoners?
Last year 6.5 million people were involved in the California corrections system in one way or another. That is a scary number but what is even scarier is to look at what exactly this means for 6.5 million families that were effected by this lock up.
It is without debate that the majority of these families are lower class, unemployed or minority families.
The large majority of these prisoners are men. 1 in 4 black males is said to be have been arrested. This leaves single mothers, even poorer families, and more strain on our welfare, unemployment and prison systems.
With the growing numbers of ex-prisoners means more people in society have difficulty finding jobs because they have felony convictions. If you were an employer and given the choice between an ex-con or a non-ex-con, who would you choose?
The current slight recession makes it hard enough to find a job. If you don’t work, you are left with few options other than crime.
We have made it so that ex-felons cannot even vote. We are overlooking a large part of society when we deny these people a constitution given right.
Since these are mainly poor and minorities it is very easy to look pass them. Especially when our judicial system is run by rich white men.
The chunk of individuals who are effected most by the law can’t even vote on it.
You can give a man 15 years in prison because he comes home and sees his wife cheating on him and kills her.
The penalty of the crime almost assuredly didn’t deter him. He was heated and out of his mind when he killed them both. We will have to pay up to $525,000 to house him for his term.
Would it hurt if we only put him in for five years?
When he gets out I would bet money on him never committing the same crime again.
There needs to be a societal reform. The present trend with laws like three strikes is to lock people up and throw away the key. We are definitely locking them up but we are paying for it.
Throwing away the key is costing us three times as much as what is allotted to higher education. Locking up everyone for even longer means that children go without parents and wives without husbands. We need to correct people instead of warehousing them.
The number of people sent to prison for the first time tripled from 1974 to 2001 as sentences got tougher, especially for drug offenses. There are more ex-prisoners as well, the result of longer life expectancies and a larger U.S. population.
Looking at the bigger picture… Schools Not Jails! (http://www.studentsforjustice.net/article07.html)· The California prison budget this year will increase by $16 million
· From 1852 to 1984 (132 years) California built 12 prisons
· From 1984 to 1998 (14 years) California opened 21 new prisons
· From 1988 to 1998 (10 years) California built 1 CSU and 1 UC campus.
The report concludes that California’s higher education systems face many challenges over the next several years, chief among them being increasing enrollment pressures.
The Post-secondary Education Commission recently updated is 1999 enrollment projections and now estimates that nearly 442,000 new students will enroll in the community colleges, State University, and Univer-University of California between 2002 and 2010. Published by The California Postsecondary Education Commission.
Our problem remains with a state congressional branch that is afraid to commit political suicide by going “soft” on criminals. The only way that we can possibly change is to have a change of heart.
It might be a possibilty that criminals are criminal for other reasons than making unwise decisions. Going “soft” on criminals is nothing more than trying to help other human beings.
Should we lock up Taylor and throw away the key?
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