Get Tough & Smart - How to Start Winning the War on Drug Addiction

Prison Reform = Modern Day Abolitionism = Smaller Government = Better U.S. Economy = Tradition = Scripture = More Effective = Original Intent of U.S. Constitution = Prison Industry Re-Vitalization Through Free Enterprise Hiring Prisoners = More Rehabilitation = Less Recidivism = More Deterrence = Less Incapacitation = More Liberty = Admitting Past Failures = Fewer Prisoners = What George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln & Theodore Roosevelt would do = Proven By Experience  ...   ...   ...                   

Some people look forward to the expanded Medicaid available through ObamaCare.  More prisoners will obtain mental healthcare under ObamaCare.  Ultimately, this will shift costs from state and county prisons and jails to the federal government.  The total cost of incarceration will rise, but be spread across all the states through the federal government.  Even citizens in states that opt out of the new Medicaid expansion will pay more. In government shut-downs, pubic funds still fully support the incarcerated.  This inelastic expense requirement, supporting prisoners, demonstrates why cutting the incarcerated population in half would save the federal, state, county and city governments untold amounts of money.  How much money should we spend to make an inefficient punishment better?       

Here's a simple argument against excessive incarceration, not applicable to everyone, but only to those who should be punished by other means:  " We cannot afford it ." (This is a follow-up to the last post.)

    A Warning from the Accountants  by  John Dewar Gleissner A widely cited Associated Press article recently reported that New York City's annual cost per inmate was $167,731 in 2012.  Every year, hundreds of millions of dollars are spent a year to run a 400-acre island in the East River that has 10 jail facilities, staff, a power plant and bakery.  The city's Independent Budget Office annual figure of $167,731 ($460 per day for the 12,287 average daily New York City inmates last year) was based on $2 billion in total operating expenses for the NYC Department of Correction.  They have transportation costs; 261,158 inmates had to visit court last year. The former commissioner wanted to put the jails near the courthouses, but residents don't like that idea. Los Angeles reportedly spent $128.94 a day, or $47,063 a year, for 17,400 inmates in fiscal year 2011-12, per its sheri...