The Justice Department reported last week that at the end of 2001, more than 5.6 million adults -- one in every 37 U.S. adults -- were either in state or federal prison or had done prison time during their lives.*
What does this say about American society? Almost 2.5% of all Americans have served prison time? Does that include all the ones who were charged, given probated sentences, and successfully fufilled served out their probation? If not, I suspect those numbers would increase the percentage of Americans who have been charged with a major crime. This is both alarming and appalling. Is our society so decadent and evil? I disbelieve that we have this many truly bad people in our country. I just can't do that. In fact, as a criminal defense attorney for a number of years, I find that most of those charged with crimes are not all that evil, are not all that bad, and mostly are just stupid or did something stupid. Money, or the lack or it, has a lot to do with the propensity of someone to do something categorized as criminal, whether it be selling drugs, using drugs or taking something of value from someone else. Sex seems to be the second motivation for people doing something that would be categorized as criminal. Most violent crimes seem to take place in the household and are emotional reactions. They are very disturbing, but often the situation is the result of the several people's activity, and yet only one gets punished. I still don't know all the answers, but the continual warehousing of people is such a big drain on the government coffers, it seems there should be some discussion of alternatives.
*This quote comes from 2002 crime rate lowest since studies began in 1973, report finds CURT ANDERSON, Associated Press Writer as reported on SFGate.com. attribution: TalkLeft
Posted by Tiger at August 24, 2003 11:23 AM | TrackBack