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November 30, 2006

Land of the free, home of the imprisoned?

One out of every 32 adults in the United States is either in prison, on probation or on parole according to the Justice Department. Not surprising statistics considering the fact that we imprison a higher percentage of our population than does any other nation on the planet.

As a culture we have a decidedly passive/aggressive relationship with our much vaunted freedoms. Which is further underscored by the Christian Coalition's recent rejection of Christ's teaching in favor of a more repressive and intrusive agenda. And it all comes at a cost that goes well beyond exposing the hyperbolic "they hate our freedom" as the misdirection that it so obviously is.

"Today's figures fail to capture incarceration's impact on the thousands of children left behind by mothers in prison," Marc Mauer, the executive director of the Sentencing Project, a Washington-based group supporting criminal justice reform, said in a statement. "Misguided policies that create harsher sentences for nonviolent drug offenses are disproportionately responsible for the increasing rates of women in prisons and jails."

From 1995 to 2003, inmates in federal prison for drug offenses have accounted for 49 percent of total prison population growth.

Of course most of that 49% is men. And Mauer inexplicably doesn't mention incarceration's impact on the thousands of children whose fathers are in prison. Presumably his omission doesn't imply that he believes that the presence of fathers is irrelevant to the wellfare of those children. In any case, we know that Parents or Prison is a disfunctional dynamic which impacts not just the immediate family, but the larger society as well.

So what do we do? Build more prisons? If so, with what money?

Are you willing to pay more taxes to pay for building more and more prisons?

Might not there be a more cost-effective way of using those same funds?

(cross-posted at Indie Castle)

Posted by Kevin at November 30, 2006 11:43 AM