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RSS FeedThe Second Chance Act: Should we be locking up our sick?
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| No | 68% | 19 votes | Total: 28 votes | |
| Yes | 32% | 9 votes |
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Add to FavoritesWhat do you do with a nonviolent offender? How effective are the correctional facilities in deterring crime? What is the result of locking up millions of our US citizens for things like drug use or alcohol abuse with violent criminals? Does it increase the moral fiber of the nation to release hundreds of thousands of prisoners each year? What tools do the penal institutions offer for those they keep incarcerated? What exactly has the penal institutions done to better inmates and prepare them for society?
These are some of the questions I have thought about and can't seem to find answers for. We take a major crack-down on those afflicted by drugs and alcohol (often repeat offenders) and put them behind bars. During the time behind bars, they have restricted privileges, very little exposure to any treatment for their problems- if any, have them rub shoulders with sex-offenders, pedophiles, murderers, rapists etc., and what results are we getting?
America currently houses 2.3 million of its citizens in jail or prison. Check this against the change in crime rates- especially when some 650,000 inmates are released each year. In our country we are spending upwards of $23,000 to build one prison cell to hold someone who may have committed a minor infraction- but drugs or alcohol was involved. It has been compared to building a bridge to nowhere.
Jails and prisons are big business. Sure I believe we need to lock up the violent criminal. But what are you offering those who violated strict drug laws but haven't committed anything heinous? We use things like drug-courts and treatment centers to help turn an individual around and become better citizens, but those able to take advantage are few and far between because of the need to work and provide for themselves and sometimes a family.
President Bush just signed a law called the Second Chance Act in April. This is designed to offer addiction treatment and other services for offenders reentering the community. Somehow this seems, in my opinion, to put the horse behind the cart. If they actually receive funding for the Second Chance Act, then it could help change many lives. It would however make more sense to me to offer the treatment in the place of jail or prison to those who have done nothing more than become repeat offenders.
There are a couple of popular sayings that might apply to this scenario- "If you keep doing what you have always done, you will continue to get what you always got". Or, "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results."
What are the benefits of locking up non-violent offenders? Why is the judgment for all crime- jail or prison? Why pour billions of dollars into building more jails and prisons while neglecting the need for better treatment centers? What are the returns for the taxpayers' money? We have more educated criminals- educated by their fellow inmates.
I truly hope this Second Chance Law actually gets the funding it needs and not just offers what we currently know as run down buildings and ill funded programs as all that we have to offer our addicted. Republican Danny Davis said of the Second Chance Act "A second chance means an opportunity to turn a life around. A chance to break the grip of a drug habit. A chance to support a family, to pay taxes, to be self-sufficient."
A quote from Malakkar Vohryzek, an administrative associate at the Drug Policy Alliance, recently wrote in a column on AlterNet that the signing of the Second Chance Act brought "an ounce of sanity to our drug laws."
Vohryzek, while fiercely critical of drug Prohibition and the Bush administration's broader drug policy, described the Act as a "second chance for our nation's failed drug policies because it acknowledges that people with problematic relationships with drugs need treatment and other kinds of assistance, not jails and prison records.
If America really wants to make a change in the lives of it's addicted society, it needs to get to the root of the problem and not make money off of those who have nothing to repay. Focus needs to shift to helping those with addiction problems, who are suffering from mental health and dual-diagnosis issues.
Without a proper focus, the taxpayer will continue to fund this hamster wheel referred to as correctional facilities. Our current answer to the non-violent criminal seems to offer a lot of action, but truly is going nowhere.
Learn more about this author, Judy Masching.
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Yes
While in the Marines I was able to help a lot of people, but I was also able to view things in our county and in other countries that I never thought I would see.
Sick people that did what I witnessed them do should be locked up and the key thrown away. In other countries as well as our own I've seen people purposely infect other innocent people with diseases. In other countries girls come by to sleep with my male marines, and without them knowing it they have been infected with everything from herpes to aids and other diseases that are just known to their region of the country. It's heart breaking to have to help a young marine over to medical and then see them diagnosed with a disease that has no cure especially if it's a disease that the United States has never had on it shores before.
In our very own country, there are men and women that use the diseases that they have as weapons. They are upset and angry with themselves or the person that infected them and therefore they feel that the answer is to use their bodies to help slowly kill other innocent people. What would you do if you met someone then found out that they infected you with AIDS just because? I've seen people do it for all sorts of reasons and when there finished hundreds of people could be infected just because they have a grudge.
The mentally ill as bad as we might feel for someone that needs mental help, they too need to be under supervision that they cannot escape. Story after story is on the news about a man or a woman killing their children or their entire family sometimes self included because they needed some type of help that they weren't able to get. The signs are there most of the time and when noticed we need to take immediate action. Mentally ill people however don't necessarily have to be locked up for that long. They just need help to keep them from being a danger to themselves and others before they can join society again.
People who maliciously use themselves as weapons are people that we should have no room for in our society. They use their bodies as if it was a gun or knife and strike down those who don't know the truth about them and for that they should pay dearly. The mentally ill come with a range of extreme to minimal and should be locked away and helped based on how violent they can become. We have to keep ourselves safe and sometimes to lock away those that they may have disease is the only choice.
Learn more about this author, Latoya Wills.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.
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