Too Many In Jail

The United States is good at a lot of things. We're a generous people, we give to other nations and citizens in need during natural disasters. We support women's rights in parts of the world that are hundreds of years behind the times in that area. We at least try to keep the air and water clean for future generations. We have a really good interstate highway system and an even better parks and national forest system. In all those areas we shine. Not so much in our prison system.

In the United States we have 2.3 millions people behind bars. That's more than the population of 15 of our states. We incarcerate more people than any other country in the world. We have five times the number of people behind bars than England, nine times more than Germany and 12 times more than Japan.

Thank goodness Congress is finally trying to do something about these disturbing numbers. They now realize that if we invest more in education and other obvious prevention programs, we'd be well ahead of the game.

It costs $50,000 a year to incarcerate someone in a California prison. It costs less thank $8000 a year to edcuate that same person for a year in the publoic school system.

Senator James Webb D-Virginia is proposing a National Criminal Justice System to take a close up look at the prison system in America. His bill passed the House without opposition but there is a procedural objection by Republican Senator Tom Coburn R-Oklahoma that could stall it in the Senate.

We need this commission and cannot worry about short term costs when we are already spending billions to keep people in jail who should not be there.