Ten Reasons for Prison Reform

Avid conservatives want smaller government; they believe in the independence and ability of the people. Ironically, it’s the conservatives that support and fortify one of California’s biggest government agencies, the corrections system, a massive juggernaut that has proven to be a failure.
Here are ten reasons why it needs to be downsized and totally revamped:
1. The recidivism rate is the highest in the nation, at 69 percent—a leading indicator of failure.
2. In 2004 the prison budget was $5.3 billion. Five years later it’s double that—eclipsing higher education – and increasing an average of $1 billion a year.
3. In addition, the feds want $11 billion to reform the failed prison medical system they commandeered due to rampant malpractice and neglect.
4. Another $7.4 billion is needed to pay for the 53,000 bed expansion aimed at temporarily reducing overcrowding.
5. It is a known fact that prisons facilitate and proliferate destructive gang culture—on both sides of the walls.
6. According to psychologists and other behavioral and health specialists, prisons are enduringly harmful to prisoners and guards.
7. The majority of prisoners are non-violent, elderly, and mentally challenged, and should be patients, not prisoners.
8. The Board of Parole Hearings was created to reform prisoners and release them, yet it grants less than 5% of lifers release a year—a glaring failure.
9. Prison systems relegated to housing violent offenders—with rehabilitation programs—are the safest and most successful; Google it, field your own research.
10. California can’t afford not to downsize and revamp!