Why do we incarcerate so many people?

Police-Prison Industrial Complex.

 

Here's why:

1) Drugs

2) The deterioration of marriage and two-parent households

3) Bad cultural influences that promote materialism, violence, and selfishness

4) Low economic opportunity in the urban (Democrat-run) areas, due to poor schools, poorly maintained communities, homelessness, and crime. Not enough commitment to religion (but not Islam) to establish a moral code and positive core values and family values.

 

A third of my family has been incarcerated over the decades and almost all of the crimes were related to drugs and alcohol. We have a lot of people in this country who have enough money to buy intoxicants but not enough executive function to stay out of trouble while using them.

 

Of the Abrahamic faiths, Islam would address most of these people’s vices. No alcohol. No drugs. No gambling. No fatherless homes. No materialism. Etc.

And while religion can guide a man, a man is his own master.



Human beings in a mob
What's a mob to a king?
What's a king to a god?
What's a god to a non-believer
Who don't believe in anything?

 

We cannot look past their abhorrent treatment of women and their proclivity for violence.

 

Crime (for the most part) is tied mostly to socio-economic status. The outlier is white collar crimes, but a lot of those folks don't end up in prison anyway. Underfunding of schools, lack of education are also main contributors (school to prison pipeline). Plus, U.S. justice and prison system puts more emphasis on punishing than it does on rehabilitation. This has the unintended consequences of turning young people who commit a minor offense into lifelong criminals.

As a country, we would rather pay a ton of money to punish people who commit crimes, instead of funding education or programs that would keep the youth from turning to crime.

 

The usual suspect for this problem and many others is Reagan.

According to Google about 44% of incarcerated individuals have a mental health disorder.

Under Reagan the Mental Health Systems Act was repealed and there was an vastly underfunded push towards community based care over institutional.

So a great majority of the incarcerated could have been kept off the streets and out of prison, if they would have received a diagnosis, treatment and possibly institutionalization early on.

 

Significant fractions of this country would be happy if significantly large sub-groups of citizens didn't exist.

They are happy to neglect them, wait for them to break, and then say, "see, I told you they were all criminals."

 

I do not think any religion would save these people from their actions.

 

There isn't a single reason.

A large part of it is cultural.

The US government focuses on national defense, a police force, protecting religious practices and individual freedoms.

Almost zero focus in on pre-natal, daycare, healthcare or keeping children with their mother or childhood development.

That results in neglect, poor mental health screening, inequality, violence and the drug dependency.

At that point, the way that it is handled is incarceration.

I don't have an issue with incarceration for violent crimes.

Until the USA decides that it is a community and cares about those outside their four walls, nothing will change.

There are many wonderful things about Americans -- but taking care of other American's is not one of them.

There should be mandatory paid off time for expectant and new mothers. There should be free day care and mandatory doctor and psychology visits for mother and child. We as a culture should venerate mothers that choose to raise their children and we should value fathers that sacrifice for their wife and children.

Until that happens -- this will only get worse.

 

Irish need not apply.

Germans go home.

Catholics aren't American.

The Chinese should leave.

We want blacks when they work for free -- but otherwise they should go back to Africa.

Mexicans should know their place.

Gays>? Liberal white women? GO AWAY

****'em all as long as I can profit off them.

 

The law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal their bread.

 

~70% of people in local jails are being held while they wait for trial, meaning they have not been convicted yet. Many are there simply because they cannot afford bail, not because they have been found dangerous. Pretrial detention costs ~$13.6 billion per year.

Definitely room for improvement.

 

Depends on where you are in the USA.

I can tell you that in Chicago there were people that we let out on bail that really should not be let out.

I didn't have any issue letting out people for theft, fraud, small time drug offenses.

While some of these people did terrible things (steal from the eldertly), they were not an immediate physical danger to the public.

In Chicago there were 18-25 year olds that shot at people in the street or on the bus posting bail and getting out, these people are ticking time bombs and shouldn't get out until they go to trial.

 

Brown people bad?

 

Once you catch a felony, finding a job becomes difficult. It’s not impossible, but when you stack that on top of having no support network, it can feel pretty close to it.

I work as a mental health counselor for jail re-entry clients. Many of my clients struggle to reach the second tier of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.