Why We Must Fix Our Prisons.

This article starts off rather quickly. The first line reading, "America's criminal justice system has deteriorated to the point that it is a national disgrace." Senator Jim Webb argues that we are wasting billions of dollars and diminishing million of lives. In comparison to other Nations such as Japan, our prison population is soaring. In 1985, The United States was incarcerating 580,000 sentenced offenders, as oppose to Japan's 40,000. Almost two and a half decades later however, Japan's number have increased to 71,00, while the U.S. prison population has quadrupled to 2.3 million. This all comes at a very high price to taxpayers: Local, state, and federal spending on corrections adds up to about $68 billion a year. And with these numbers, Webb's article reads, "With so many of our citizens in prison compared with the rest of the world, there are only two possibilities: Either we are home to the most evil people on earth or we are doing something different--and vastly counterproductive. Obviously, the answer is the latter." It goes on to explain that most of the arrests and imprisonments made are due to drug offenders, most of which have no illegal history, and are arrested for possession, not selling.
He finishes the article with a huge problem in the United States today: Mexican drug cartels, whose combined profits are estimated at $25 billion a year. Mexican cartels are now reported to be running operations in some 230 American cities. "In short, we are not protecting our citizens from the increasing danger of criminals who perpetrate violence and intimidation as a way of life, and we are locking up too many people who do not belong in jail."

I'm very happy to be reading an aticle like this finally. I read all about the Mexican drug trafficking and I'm wondering why it's lasted so long. I knew that our prison population was a problem but 2.3 million? That is an outrageous figure. With all the capital the Mexican are pulling in, and all the weapon they can so very easily aquire, and on top of that now I know they don't only exist in Mexico but in 230 American cities; I fear for the safety of a lot of innocent Americans. I'm very afriad this who operation will go haywire and turn into an ugly mess, I just wish we had a little more room in our prisons for those that deserve to be there. I read an article the other day about two juvenile judges who were arrested because they were throwing kids in jail without listening to their stories or really doing their job. They realized they can make some more money by doing this and our economy is bad-so, what the heck, right?
Wrong. I'm so sick of society. Imbiciles. We have all this potential and I feel the more we are selfish the more it hurts us in the end and from my point of view or justice system has been very selfish. Fizing this problem is very very easy to say and talk about but doing it and going through with whatever it takes will be a huge challenge. For everyone.