9 Charts And Maps That Will Make You Ashamed Of America's Prison System {IMAGES}

[xchrom]

http://www.businessinsider.com/charts-and-maps-that-show-americas-broken-prison-system-2014-9

US prisons aren't very effective at rehabilitating inmates. Most convicts return to prison within five years of their release.



The prison population is aging quickly, and older inmates cost prisons more because they require more care and medical treatment.



The US prison population has ballooned throughout the past few decades, since the war on drugs began.



This growth in inmate population has made the US the world leader in prisoners per capita, with the exception of the tiny African country of Seychelles.

[stevenleser]

1. We are one of the worst in the world at rehabilitating offenders.

That is part of the reason why our incarceration rate is so high.

Our prisons are cesspools.

[hobbit709]

2. And if you have a record it's almost impossible to get a job that pays a living wage.

It's difficult enough to get a job paying minimum wage with a record.

[Warren Stupidity]

3. well yes we are horrible at rehabilitation but the major driver of incarceration

rates is the war on drugs and its related draconian mandatory prison sentences. Until we end both of those policies nothing will change.

[NYC_SKP]

4. Corporations aren't interested in rehabilitation, and success in the real world is hopeless.

.
Placing blame on prisons is fine, we lost our way with respect to rehabilitation a LONG time ago.

Many would, instead, blame the 'criminal'; the individual.

But I blame us, society, we've dumbed ourselves down, we don't vote, we've given away the farm to corporate control.

And, for them, there's more money in taking money to run prisons then there is in creating actual meaningful jobs, effective educational programs, or otherwise giving people any sense of hope.

I think it's beyond salvation; that a crisis of great magnitude has to come our way before we'll change.

And even then, I'm not too optimistic.

[NJCher]

5. for a country like the U.S.

It's a no-brainer: which would you rather do?

--Spend tax dollars hiring social workers, teachers, and mental health workers?

or

--Spend tax dollars with your corporate donors who own the private prisons?

The latter is such a simple solution. Out of sight, out of mind.

Social workers, teachers, and mental health workers can't do miracles and they do have to be given enough resources. Even in a successful program, it's still about human nature and there will be some slip-ups that could publicly embarrass the system. It is the humane way to handle it, however.


Cher

[logosoco]

6. If I was in charge of the world....

there would be a huge system of alternative sentencing. One example: Putting someone in jail because fighting an arrest for shoplifting is a felony. This does not serve society, it actually COSTS taxpayers to house them for a year or more. These people could actually do something like go to schools (in groups, with "guards&quot to shovel snow or tend the landscape. Something along those lines. I think that would be a better change to change a person, not putting them in a confined space.
But, then the private prison industry would not profit, so my ideas aren't going anywhere.