Both sides of the pond are facing a prison problem. In the US, states facing budget crises are now looking at an alternative to raising taxes — let's just say it's a lock-checking idea. They're letting prisoners go free well before their sentences are completed.
In a time of tough budget decisions and rising prison costs, a choice has to be made. Marc Mauer, executive director of the Sentencing Project, a Washington located group that supports fairer sentencing, said: “Do you want to build prisons or build colleges? If you’re a governor, it’s kind of come to that choice right now.”
To see how some states are compromising on containment, and what's happening in the UK, read more.
- California, one of the hardest hit states has proposed letting go 22,000 nonviolent, nonsexual offenders nearly two years earlier than sentenced to save nearly $1.1 billion over two years.
- Providence, RI approved a “good time” early-release program, which will place a greater number of inmates under post-prison supervision and is expected to save $8 billion over five years.
- Mississippi has seen their inmate population double during the past twelve years. Governor Haley Barbour has signed into law two measures to ease the financial burden. One is to let nonviolent offenders go after serving 25% of their term and the other is to release terminally ill prisoners.
- Kentucky is looking at a $900 million deficit over two years and has a plan to let non-violent, non-sexual offenders serve 180 days of their terms at home, which is expected to save $30 million.
It's not just the US experiencing a problem holding their prisoners. A new documentary paints a scary picture: to ease similar overcrowding, hundreds of dangerous offenders, including murderers, are being sent to low security open prisons and then — oops — escaping.
Apparently since Labour came to power almost ten years ago, 14,000 criminals have “absconded” from open prisons, including many dangerous offenders, and some 149 offenders are still at large — including murderers, armed robbers and drug smugglers. The low-security prisons are aptly named — 130 murderers have escaped from them in the past 10 years - more than one a month.
Considering that the US has 25 percent of the world's prison population is this a troubling trend? Do states have the right priorities choosing education over prison funding, or is the choice ridiculous? Are we skimping on funding public safety?
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The main problem is that sentences across the USofA are not standardized. A person in VA who uses a gun in a crime is an automatic five year sentence. Don't know where else that is applicable.
The second, and probably most important, reason for so many violent offenders in our prison system is that we dropped the death penalty in so many states. Unfortunately, there are some criminals who "just need killin'" as we say in the South. It is impossible to rehabilitate some violent offenders such as serial killers or rapists. If a person cannot be rehabilitated, he or she is taking up time, space and money just sitting in a jail waiting to die of old age. I've said previously, if a person denies another person his/her right to live to old age, then the person who took that right does not deserve to live to old age.
A few public lynchings might deter more people from a life of crime than a long jail sentence with a roof over their heads, three square meals, television, library and a structured life of 'ease.'
Non violent criminals are too often given sentences which are not consistent with the crime. Sentences could include less jail time and longer restitution payments. With a tracking device as part of their permanent jewelry.
A THIRD reason costs are so high is all the amenities, including meals, in prisons to "calm" the prisoners. If ONLY violent criminals were jailed, and all amenities were withdrawn, and meals were standardized, met the nutritional requirements with no frills, and prisoners had to be in their 5x8 foot cells 23 hours a day (1 hour for a shower and 15 minutes for each meal), prison life would become so unbearable that criminals might give up their life of crime. Or they might decide to save the government the cost of prison time and end their own lives by their own hand.
I have no sympathy for a person who chooses a life of crime when we in the USofA have so many opportunities within the law.