Most of us know someone that has gone to prison or someone thatmight be headed in that direction.

A study conducted by CNN found that, at the end of 2001, one inevery 37 adults had been imprisioned at some point in their life.Each inmate costs the state $28,000 to $35,000 annually, accordingto Sue North, chief of staff for state Sen. John Vasconcellos, amember of the Senate committee that oversees prisons.

It tends to be quite a fine to society. California alone spent25 billion dollars in housing such convicts. This, compared to the$9.7 billion allotted to higher education, is quite a chunk of ourbudget. This is the same budget that is in a deficit.

What is wrong with the United States when we as a country have5% of the world’s population and 25% of them prisoners?

Last year 6.5 million people were involved in the Californiacorrections system in one way or another. That is a scary numberbut what is even scarier is to look at what exactly this means for6.5 million families that were effected by this lock up.

It is without debate that the majority of these families arelower class, unemployed or minority families.

The large majority of these prisoners are men. 1 in 4 blackmales is said to be have been arrested. This leaves single mothers,even poorer families, and more strain on our welfare, unemploymentand prison systems.

With the growing numbers of ex-prisoners means more people insociety have difficulty finding jobs because they have felonyconvictions. If you were an employer and given the choice betweenan ex-con or a non-ex-con, who would you choose?

The current slight recession makes it hard enough to find a job.If you don’t work, you are left with few options other thancrime.

We have made it so that ex-felons cannot even vote. We areoverlooking a large part of society when we deny these people aconstitution given right.

Since these are mainly poor and minorities it is very easy tolook pass them. Especially when our judicial system is run by richwhite men.

The chunk of individuals who are effected most by the lawcan’t even vote on it.

You can give a man 15 years in prison because he comes home andsees his wife cheating on him and kills her.

The penalty of the crime almost assuredly didn’t deterhim. He was heated and out of his mind when he killed them both. Wewill have to pay up to $525,000 to house him for his term.

Would it hurt if we only put him in for five years?

When he gets out I would bet money on him never committing thesame crime again.

There needs to be a societal reform. The present trend with lawslike three strikes is to lock people up and throw away the key. Weare definitely locking them up but we are paying for it.

Throwing away the key is costing us three times as much as whatis allotted to higher education. Locking up everyone for evenlonger means that children go without parents and wives withouthusbands. We need to correct people instead of warehousingthem.

The number of people sent to prison for the first time tripledfrom 1974 to 2001 as sentences got tougher, especially for drugoffenses. There are more ex-prisoners as well, the result of longerlife expectancies and a larger U.S. population.

Looking at the bigger picture… Schools Not Jails!(http://www.studentsforjustice.net/article07.html)· TheCalifornia prison budget this year will increase by $16 million

· From 1852 to 1984 (132 years) California built 12prisons

· From 1984 to 1998 (14 years) California opened 21 newprisons

· From 1988 to 1998 (10 years) California built 1 CSU and1 UC campus.

The report concludes that California’s higher educationsystems face many challenges over the next several years, chiefamong them being increasing enrollment pressures.

The Post-secondary Education Commission recently updated is 1999enrollment projections and now estimates that nearly 442,000 newstudents will enroll in the community colleges, State University,and Univer-University of California between 2002 and 2010.Published by The California Postsecondary Education Commission.

Our problem remains with a state congressional branch that isafraid to commit political suicide by going “soft” oncriminals. The only way that we can possibly change is to have achange of heart.

It might be a possibilty that criminals are criminal for otherreasons than making unwise decisions. Going “soft” oncriminals is nothing more than trying to help other humanbeings.

Should we lock up Taylor and throw away the key?

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