Prison Spending

What this new study, reported by the New York Times, indicates is how deeply the problem of recidivism is, that fully one out of 31 Americans are under criminal justice sanctions and there seems no solution in sight.

Until rehabilitative practitioners realize that becoming and remaining a criminal is largely an internal personal decision, and choosing to leave the criminal world requires evidence of crystal clarity that making that internal personal decision is not only the right one, but one that promises much greater rewards than those offered by a successful criminal career; the solution will remain obscure.

Becoming Catholic—orthodox and sacramental through daily practice—is the only decision that delivers on that promise for penitential criminals.

An excerpt.

“One in every 31 adults, or 7.3 million Americans, is in prison, on parole or probation, at a cost to the states of $47 billion in 2008, according to a new study.

“Criminal correction spending is outpacing budget growth in education, transportation and public assistance, based on state and federal data. Only Medicaid spending grew faster than state corrections spending, which quadrupled in the past two decades, according to the report today by the Pew Center on the States, the first breakdown of spending in confinement and supervision in the past seven years.

“The increases in the number of people in some form of correctional control occurred even as crime rates sharply declined, by about 25 percent in the past two decades.
At a time when states are facing huge budget shortfalls, prisons, which hold 1.5 million adults, are driving the spending increases.”