Pubdate: Mon, 30 Mar 2009
Source: Tomah Journal, The (WI)
Copyright: 2009 The Tomah Journal
Contact:  http://www.tomahjournal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4120

INCARCERATION LOBBY DESERVES TOUGH QUESTIONS

Here's a question to those who gathered in Sparta last week to 
criticize Gov. Jim Doyle's public safety budget:

Why does the United States, with just 5 percent of the world's 
population, house 25 percent of the world's prisoners?

Led by Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen, several public officials 
blasted Doyle's budget, which calls for the early release of 
non-violent prisoners and cutting back on supervision and parole. 
They levelled the criticism despite a huge state budget deficit and a 
corrections budget already grown at a staggering pace. Consider that:

*In 1996, Wisconsin spent $360 million corrections. It was $1 billion in 2008.

*In 1982, one out of every 437 Wisconsin residents was in jail or 
prison. In 2007, it was one out of 109.

Wisconsin, of course, isn't alone in its appetite to throw people in 
prison and keep them there for a long time. The United States 
incarcerates more people per capita than any nation in the world, but 
it's not anywhere near the safest nation in the world. America, for 
example, has the world's 24th highest homicide rate. That's higher 
than every country in Western Europe, which imprisons a much smaller 
percentage of its people.

It's time to ask some very tough questions about our criminal justice 
system, including:

* Do prisons perform the function of keeping us safe, or are they 
finishing schools that leave prisoners even more dangerous when 
they're released?

* Is our criminal justice system one that's based on retribution at 
the expense of rehabilitation, and does the emphasis on the former 
impose unnecessary costs on taxpayers and diminish public safety?

* Given that crime is a tough racket and criminals, especially those 
who specialize in property crimes, burn out around age 35, does it 
really make sense to keep thousands of offenders incarcerated into 
their 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s, truth-in-sentencing laws notwithstanding?

* Are too many things against the law? Is there any reason, for 
example, for anyone to serve a day of jail time for selling marijuana?

If stuffing people into prison guaranteed safety, then America would 
be the safest country in the world. We aren't, and it's the 
incarceration lobby, not the governor, that deserves the political hot seat. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake