Wiped Out Budgets Set Prisoners Free

By JoeC

Let me serve you a few lemons:

1. One quarter of all the prisoners in the world reside in the United States. (Home of the free?)



2. Fifty state treasuries are feeling the pinch of an economy gone to hell, and they are going to have to trim their budgets.

So, how do we make lemonade?

For starters, let's release the prisoners.


The AP reports:

At least eight states are considering freeing inmates or sending some convicts to rehabilitation programs instead of prison, according to an Associated Press analysis of legislative proposals. If adopted, the early release programs could save an estimated $450 million in California and Kentucky alone.

On the surface, it sounds like a horrible idea: drug addicts, thieves, and violent criminals released into our neighborhoods...neighborhoods already collapsing under the strain of illegal gardeners who won't be good amigos and leave their children at home, or go all the way to their own Emergency Room in Chihuahua when the hedge clippers lop off a finger. I mean, can't they just trim my lawn and pick my food for almost free so I can keep more of my money? If I have to give more money to the schools and hospitals to support them, then it's all a wash. And I want something for nothing, darn it! And if it takes stomping my feet to get it, I'll do it. That's what my president does.

But I digress...

Anyway, it sounds bad on the surface, but isn't releasing the prisoners what many cooler heads and trusting people have been asking for?

Folks, this economic downturn could be the nail in the coffin of the War on Drugs -- you know, one of those unwinnable ideological wars the elite sell us on, take our money to fix, and then turn into a quagmire money pit. And, unless you own a large stake in the exploding growth of America's prison-industrial complex, it might make some very delicious lemonade indeed.

We Americans (our tax dollars) spend over $60 billion dollars a year to keep half-a-million non-violent offenders locked up.

Heck, let's get a better perspective:

• In the United States, 701 of every 100,000 people are behind bars.


• Russia has 606 per 100,000 behind bars.


• South Africa has 402 per 100,000 behind bars.


• And mean old China? Only 117 per 100,000 are behind bars.

So, does anybody put a higher percentage of people behind bars than the United States?

Of course they do! In North Korea, 900 of every 100,000 are behind bars. So much for being in good company. Actually, to be in good company -- like, almost all our industrialized peers -- we'd have to release over 500 of every 100,000 Americans from jail or prison.

If that means not locking up Johnny for 10 years because he bought a marijuana cigarette from an undercover cop, so be it. I'm not saying it's right. I'm saying if it's wrong, it's more in line with throwing a paper cup out the car window. Litterbugs don't typically get 10 years with limited parole.

So, maybe this economic downturn will derail the War on Drugs. Maybe instead of prison, drug-addicted inmates will be funneled into treatment -- a cheaper option. Maybe the price of drugs will come down, and the unlucky few who do become addicts won't have to become thieves to support their habits.

Maybe America can be the home of the free again.

Here's to that lemonade!