Prisons Aren't Meant to Be "The Projects"

Prisons aren't meant to be the projects; of course, I'm not sure which has the most fences surrounding it- of course that is a whole other topic...A New York Times article prompted this blog:

Reported by New York Time's Adam Liptak:

"Conditions in California’s overcrowded prisons are so bad that they violate the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment, the Supreme Court ruled on Monday, ordering the state to reduce its prison population by more than 30,000 inmates."

The United States is the world's leader in incarceration with 2.3 million people currently in the nation's prisons or jails -- a 500% increase over the past thirty years. These trends have resulted in prison overcrowding and state governments being overwhelmed by the burden of funding a rapidly expanding penal system, despite increasing evidence that large-scale incarceration is not the most effective means of achieving public safety.

The Sentencing Project provides this very glaring statistic:

More than 60% of the people in prison are now racial and ethnic minorities. For Black males in their twenties, 1 in every 8 is in prison or jail on any given day. These trends have been intensified by the disproportionate impact of the "war on drugs," in which three-fourths of all persons in prison for drug offenses are people of color.

What this statistic doesn't tell us, is how resources that should be used to house those within our society that should be in prison for "rehabilitation" is being used to house people that pose no real threat to society. The people were arrested for PURCHASING DRUGS FOR PERSONAL USE. I am not condoning drug use, I am merely highlighting a fact that gets lost in the statistics game of law enforcement. I understand that drug abuse is not only the user; those that sell drugs are addicted to the life that drug trafficking has provided. A drug conviction (especially crack cocaine) is not considered a violent crime, but a "crime of violence." The lifestyle and violence that goes along with crack cocaine is what these men (mainly people of color) are being convicted on; distribution, or possession with the intent to distribute. When paraphernalia carries a 10 year prison term, we have a problem.

Prisons are dangerously overcrowded and that forces the co-habitation of inmates that pose a threat to everyone, and inmates that could be better served with proper rehabilitation programs. Many of these programs have been discontinued due to "lack of funding," which leads to churches and communities taking on the burden of providing a service in which they are not properly qualified, staffed, or educated. If you came to this blog by way of Facebook, please go to The Sentencing Project's page. Don't just click like, read the material; know what is happening, because contrary to popular belief the punishment doesn't always fit the crime.

This blog is not sponsored by The Sentencing Project, and the statements made herein may or may not reflect the views of the Sentencing Project, its affiliates, subsidiaries, sponsors or parent companies.