There is a problem with the justice system today, we all know this. The prisons are over crowded, but yet only a fraction of known crimes end in arrest and conviction. Meanwhile, the price to house and feed the criminals who are imprisoned is enormous, totally nearly $25.5K a year per inmate. So what can we do about it? There are several proposals out there.
The first thing that comes to mind is that many deviants do not believe that anything will happen. They think they are either smarter than the law enforcement agencies and will not get caught, or have a belief that if they are caught, they will get the minimal punishment and be free soon after. I think this starts at an early age, honestly. As a mother of three young children, I see it everyday. The school systems and even daycares are not allowed to punish our children.
The most recent example that I can think of is one of my friend's preschoolers. The teachers at the preschool are not allowed to punish the child when he misbehaves, and instead must call the parents. Obviously the parents need to be involved in the process, but the fact that the child knows nothing will happen to him while he's in the classroom is not helping his behavior. He spends the majority of his time in the school. Once he gets home, it's dinner, bath and bed due to the parent's work schedule. This hasn't changed from before the child started preschool, so where's the consequence for his behavior in the classroom? Calling dad at work? What's dad going to do at that time?
I'm not saying abuse the children, by no means. But our society has gone so far to the extreme as far as protecting our children's psychie that we are raising children who do not know responsibility and accountability for their own actions. And then we wonder why those same children, as adults, act the same way? Children need to understand that if they do something that is against the established rules there will be a consequence because they are expected to behave within the limits of the rules.
This will take time to fix. We didn't go from spanking our children to "sparring the rod and spoiling the child" overnight, and so we can't move to the happy medium over night either. So meanwhile, what do we do with those individuals who have committed crimes? I'm not against prison. Yes, it is expensive, so how can we fix that?
First of all, harsher consequences for murderers and rapists. I'm not against an "eye for an eye" as far as this goes. I think that all murderers should have the death penalty. And they shouldn't necessarily be on death row for years and years. Let's only give them one appeal, and give them a time limit on that. Once they have lost their appeal, because they are obviously guilty, within a week or two, after they have had a chance to say their goodbyes to their loved ones, instigate that death penalty.
Secondly, for those who are doing a shorter term in prison, and will eventually be out, make them pay a portion of their "room and board" back once they are out. This proposal is problematic because many released convicts do not acclimate back into society as productive citizens quickly. But once an ex-con does establish him/herself with a job, garnish a portion of his wages to pay back some of the expenses. Afterall, we've already established that the worst criminals should not get free room and board, and should have the death penalty. Why should the "lesser" crimes have it "easy"? What about those who do not acclimate? If the ex-con hasn't become employed in society after a given amount of time, perhaps a year, then what about employing them in the prison system? Instead of paying a salary to the food service personnel or the janitorial service, have ex-cons who cannot find a job on the outside do those jobs, perhaps even at a cut rate, but at the least garnish the wages to pay back some of what was spent on them while they were imprisoned.
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