When we incarcerate people for petty offenses and trifling conduct which we disapprove, we not only deprive them of liberty and virtually ensure that they will never be permitted to rejoin our society as respected, responsible citizens. We rob ourselves of the talents and contributions that might otherwise help to meet the challenges of our time, and those that lie ahead. We deplete public coffers of much-needed revenue in a wasteful, destructive spiral of reckless ruination.

We fail to offer help to people who may suffer from mental illness, substance addiction, or who simply lack the skills to lead productive, law-abiding lives. We cheat victims out of any meaningful chance to recover restitution. We decimate neighborhoods, destroy families, and leave children without parents. And the outcomes we achieve with this “lock ‘em up” policy are shameful, with more than 60% of offenders going back to prison within three years.

How long would it be before you replaced a car that failed to start 60% of the time? If your employer routinely paid only 40% of your wages, how hard would it be to figure out you need a new job? Can it be anything other than irrational fear and hatred that cloud our judgement when we see a criminal justice system that fails to meet even the most rudimentary objectives of an ordered society?

But three-strikes laws, mandatory minimum sentences that strip jurists of the discretion they need to do justice, the criminalization of relatively harmless private conduct, the enactment of laws based upon the crime “du jour” (check your local listings – the headlines), and the incarceration of people who have committed no violence all lead to a prison population that exceeds any other in the world, whether measured in absolute numbers or as a percentage of the population. In fact, though the U.S. has only about 5% of the world’s population, 25% of the world’s prisoners are incarcerated in the land of the free, home of the brave. We’d do much better pouring our money down a rat hole.

Full article: http://www.examiner.com/x-18991-Corrections-Policy-Examiner~y2009m9d18-As-goes-California---