America's prisons have been called "graduate schools for crime." It stands to reason: Take a group of people, strip them of possessions and privacy, expose them to constant threats of violence, overcrowd their block, deprive them of meaningful work, and the result is an embittered underclass more intent on getting even with society than contributing to Prisons take the nonviolent offender and make him live by violence. Theytake the nonviolent offender and make him a hardened killer. America hasto wake up and realize that the current structure of our penal system isfailing terribly. The government has to devise new ways to punish theguilty, and still manage to keep American citizens satisfied that ourprisonsystem is still effective.Americans pay a great deal for prisons to fail so badly. Like all biggovernment solutions, they are expensive. In the course of my studiesdealing with the criminal justice system, I have learned that thegovernment spends approximately eighty-thousand dollars to build one cell,and $28,000 per year to keep a prisoner locked up. That's about the sameas the cost of sending a student to Harvard. Because of overcrowding, itisestimated that more than ten-billion dollars in construction is needed tocreate sufficient space for just the current prison population. The plaintruth is that the very nature of prison, no matter how humane societyattempts to make it, produces an environment that is inevitablydevastatingto its residents. Even if their release is delayed by longer sentences,thoseresidents inevitably return to damage the community, and we are payingtop dollar to make this possible.Why should tax payers be forced to pay amounts to keepnonviolent criminals sitting in prison cells where they become bitter andmore likely to repeat their offenses when they are released? Instead, whynot put them to work outside prison where they could pay back the victims of their crimes? The government should initiate...
