Mass Incarceration Pros And Cons

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The second policy initiative that this memorandum proposes to positively impact mass incarceration is ASC (A Second Chance) which deals with reentry. Fiscal savings from the sentencing aspects of the New Orleans plan will be invested in programs to lower recidivism and help convicts get back on their feet. In the state of Louisiana, convicts will be eligible for welfare programs and student loans, encouraging ex-cons to pursue a college education will be a priority for entry and welfare programs are necessary to help convicts stay off the street. Public housing laws that allow discrimination will be abolished and reformed so that prisons will stop being the main housing program for the urban poor and homeless convicts will stop reverting to …show more content…
Programs will provide tutors, help register people for colleges, job training programs for various trades, and give people interview skills to help them turn their life around and avoid crime. Those arrested for a drug offense will go through education and job training as well, however, they will have to go through a drug education program, that ends with them volunteering at drug rehabilitation centers for a few days. The goal in this is not just them getting educated and giving back, but letting them see the harm drugs can have on one’s life which will deter them from abusing more than prison ever …show more content…
Studies of the mandatory minimum sentencing laws across the states suggest increasing sentences by 10% cuts crime by 1% so crime rate decreasing and the incarceration rate increase does not correlate. The sentencing system has not been working and crime will not increase, this has been proven by numerous states who have enacted sentencing reform and alternatives to incarceration and now are reaping the benefits. New York rolled back on their harsh mandatory sentencing laws and began sending drug offenders to drug courts and since then they’ve closed multiple prisons, have low recidivism rates, saved the state and taxpayers millions, and now New York has the lowest crime and incarceration rate out of any large state in the nation. Texas stopped building more prisons and began to strengthen alternative sanctions and their incarceration rate had dropped more than 9 percent and crime by a whopping 12 percent. Banning the box and getting rid of public housing discrimination laws will deter criminals from committing more crime, punishing convicts when they get out is a surefire way to ensure to go right back, but helping them renter society will make them want to

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