Pew study finds one in 31 U.S. citizens are criminals

William Atkins
Tuesday, 03 March 2009 02:01

Science - Biology

One of the conclusions of the study was reported by Gelb, the director of the Public Safety Performance Project, which produced the report.

Gelb stated, “But our research shows that prisons are housing too many people who can be managed safely and held accountable in the community at far lower cost. New community supervision strategies and technologies need to be strengthened and expanded, not scaled back."

And, "Cutting them may appear to save a few dollars, but it doesn’t. It will fuel the cycle of more crime, more victims, more arrests, more prosecutions, and still more imprisonment.”

Whether you believe all of this report, some of this report, or none of it, the fact remains that the United States has one, if not the highest, percentage of its citizens in jail or prison, or on parole or prohibition, in the world.

Are we going to continue to pay this price for correctional service with little positive results or are we going to do something different and make our correctional service more efficient and, most importantly, more effective?

The choice is ours.

And, if this can happen in the United States, it can happen in any country of the world.

Maybe even yours.