Incarceration is a dumbing down environment as well as a sobering up (for some). The court costs for pre-trial time were hidden for me and seem absurd; the arrested did not choose to be incarcerated and should not be responsible for that even if found guilty later. The debt presumption seems consistent with a free market system however that system presumes a free rather than a duressed contractual relationship.
The incarcerated suffer high social opportunity costs (an economics concept) rather than correction in some cases. I think it worth reminding that not all of the arrested are the same socially or behaviorally. It is true that many may be poor, yet poverty is a condition of the young rather than the old generally, at least at the start of adult life, so the arrested who happen to be under 35 and delinquent from work and stable environment may be young and poor logically.
Family life may be destroyed for the incarcerated. Yet that is again variegated per the circumstance of the individual, and society already has been attacking the family and Christian values for a few decades. Since the Supreme Court forced homosexual marriage on the nation one might wonder if prisoners that are homosexual should be segregated from themselves so they don't enjoy incarceration, and straight prisoners shouldn't be free from incarceration with homosexuals.
The prison system can't fix a badly designed economic system that permits poverty to exist, yet neither should one blame poverty for the choices people make to use drugs, alcohol and commit crimes. Marijuana and meth each cause brain damage to some extent. Laws to prevent that and encourage people to benefit society rather than to be degenerate and contribute to social decline are worth keeping. Some of the young don't realize that life is not just partying. It is necessary for the poor to eschew drugs and alcohol entirely, keep one's wits about and get a job. When they don't they may steal to pay for addictions that those already prosperous have no trouble affording.
A society that does not encourage employers to hire those out of work longest with tax credits cannot be serious about reducing poverty . Pre-trial incarceration, money bail and plea bargaining were the three biggest challenges that one public defender mentioned as problem, and they are related to the poverty of those incarcerated. TO some it is evident the poor aren’t able to afford adequate and equal legal rights of defense as those not poor.
The incarcerated suffer high social opportunity costs (an economics concept) rather than correction in some cases. I think it worth reminding that not all of the arrested are the same socially or behaviorally. It is true that many may be poor, yet poverty is a condition of the young rather than the old generally, at least at the start of adult life, so the arrested who happen to be under 35 and delinquent from work and stable environment may be young and poor logically.
Family life may be destroyed for the incarcerated. Yet that is again variegated per the circumstance of the individual, and society already has been attacking the family and Christian values for a few decades. Since the Supreme Court forced homosexual marriage on the nation one might wonder if prisoners that are homosexual should be segregated from themselves so they don't enjoy incarceration, and straight prisoners shouldn't be free from incarceration with homosexuals.
The prison system can't fix a badly designed economic system that permits poverty to exist, yet neither should one blame poverty for the choices people make to use drugs, alcohol and commit crimes. Marijuana and meth each cause brain damage to some extent. Laws to prevent that and encourage people to benefit society rather than to be degenerate and contribute to social decline are worth keeping. Some of the young don't realize that life is not just partying. It is necessary for the poor to eschew drugs and alcohol entirely, keep one's wits about and get a job. When they don't they may steal to pay for addictions that those already prosperous have no trouble affording.
A society that does not encourage employers to hire those out of work longest with tax credits cannot be serious about reducing poverty . Pre-trial incarceration, money bail and plea bargaining were the three biggest challenges that one public defender mentioned as problem, and they are related to the poverty of those incarcerated. TO some it is evident the poor aren’t able to afford adequate and equal legal rights of defense as those not poor.
Image credit; Cryosphere Today
