Last week, I posted a link to a short article I wrote in which I argued that society does not need prisons.
Shortly after that, I came across a Washington Post article that reports that now more than one in 100 adults in the United States is in jail or prison. According to the article, the United States leads the world in both the number and percentage of residents it incarcerates.
I find it both absurd and sad that the United States throws so many people behind bars, especially considering that about 25% of the inmates have merely been charged with non-violent drug offenses.
I believe that prisons do not rehabilitate people. Prisons make people more dangerous. I bet that many non-violent drug offenders come out of jail as violent criminals.
Some United States citizens like to call their country the freest in the world. But I cannot believe that claim if the country incarcerates so many people.
Worse yet, consider all the resources wasted by stuffing people in jail for non-violent drug offenses and other victimless crimes. Those resources could have been put towards stopping victimization and violent crime such as rape and murder.
What do you think?
