The cost of all the new laws

U.S. : Prison Growth Could Cost Up to $27.5 Billion Over Next 5 Years
Posted by Patriot on 2007/2/15 10:52:13 (66 reads)
U.S.

Washington, DC -- February 14, 2007 -- By 2011 one in every 178 U.S. residents will live in prison, according to a new report released today by the Public Safety Performance Project of The Pew Charitable Trusts. Public Safety, Public Spending: Forecasting America’s Prison Population 2007-2011 projects that by 2011 America will have more than 1.7 million men and women in prison, an increase of more than 192,000 from 2006. That increase could cost taxpayers as much as $27.5 billion over the next five years beyond what they currently spend on prisons.

“As states continue to struggle with tight budgets and competing priorities among health, education and safety, they are beginning to question whether huge additional investments in prisons are the most effective and economical way of combating crime,” said Susan Urahn, Managing Director of State Policy Initiatives at The Pew Charitable Trusts. “The challenge for state policy makers is to ensure that taxpayers are getting a strong return on their investment in corrections: safer communities, efficient use of public dollars, and ex-offenders who become productive, law-abiding members of society.”

Simple solution is to stop putting people in prison for doing nothing other than smoking a bit of pot! They do no harm to anyone else and there is no evidence to suggest they are even harming themselves!

Pretty simple and cost effective solution hey! Not only that it would free up the police forces to actually takle crime instead of arresting kids and those doing no harm to anyone!

But that won't happen becuase the laws are made to protect organised crimes profits and as such the profits from organised crime are far greater than $27 billion so they will build more jails to protect their criminal mates some of whom are in politics making the laws!

Regards
Daniel