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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsLeniency or smart punishment strategy
As prisons continue to grow and states struggle to pay the costs, the disastrous consequences of the prison industrial complex have come into focus.
In 1998, Eric Schlosser, in an Atlantic Monthly article, defined the prison industrial complex as a set of bureaucratic, political, and economic interests that encourage increased spending on imprisonment, regardless of the actual need.
The future looks bleak as well. According to the Justice Policy Institute, one in every 15 Americans born in 2001 is expected to serve at least a year in prison during their lifetime. The news is equally bleak on the federal level. The Bureau of Prisons is more than 30 percent over capacity, and the cost of federal prisons has increased by more than 1,100 percent.
A bipartisan group of senators has introduced the Smarter Sentencing Act of 2015 to modernize federal drug sentencing policies by giving federal judges more discretion in sentencing those convicted of nonviolent drug offenses. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that implementation of the act would save taxpayers approximately $3 billion in corrections costs over 10 years. "
In response, U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, lamented what he called the leniency industrial complex."
*While Sen. Grassley raises the specter of the leniency industrial complex, he ignores the pervasive abuse brought on by the prison industrial complex. Whole families and entire communities are devastated when the coercive influence of government is used for the gain of a select few."
http://www.southcoasttoday.com/article/20150313/NEWS/150319702/101194/rss32
Salviati
(6,008 posts)Last edited Sat Mar 14, 2015, 02:20 PM - Edit history (1)
WTF does that even mean? Seriously, hearing that trainwreck of a phrase come out of someones mouth should instantaneously qualify them to the dustbin of irrelevance as much as the word "toxins". Nothing that comes out of their mouth after that can possibly have any importance for any rational discussion, ever.
Nye Bevan
(25,406 posts)so there will be immense resistance to revolutionary concepts like not putting people into prison. I hope that this resistance can be overcome.
damnedifIknow
(3,183 posts)"The future looks bleak as well. According to the Justice Policy Institute, one in every 15 Americans born in 2001 is expected to serve at least a year in prison during their lifetime.'"
NaturalHigh
(12,778 posts)should not be cause for prison time.