imprisoned for a reason? In the past years there have been many negative effects that have resulted due to the amount of prisoners that do not necessarily deserve to be incarcerated. Many of these people that should not be incarcerated are non-violent drug offenders including marijuana offenders who have either already served a sufficient amount of time or are in the process of serving an unnecessary amount of time. Not many people within our society seem to be socially conscious about the fact that there are people who do not deserve to be free roaming around the streets, and people who deserve to be free behind bars. Amongst all the negative effects there are, many that interfere with our lives without us being aware about it.
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There are many people who are not aware that a bountiful amount of money that is being taken away from our taxes is used to support our federal prisons which require a set amount of money in order to continue thriving and providing the correct care for prisoners. It has been shown that annual state spending on corrections has reached a peak of $51 billion and unsurprisingly, prisons account for the vast majority of this cost (Time Served: The High Cost, Low Return of Longer Prison Terms). Now some would say that if the prisons need that money then by all means take it to help provide for the prisoners, but what most do not understand is that that vast amount of money is money that could be invested on more important things such as homeless shelters and education for many generations to come. About 84% of Americans also believe that some of the money we are spending on supporting non-violent prisoners who show little to no risk to the outer community should be shifted for use in strengthening programs such as parole and probation (Pew Center on the States). Although prisons do need that money in order to continue being in service, that set amount of money could without a doubt be reduced if we did not have unnecessary incarcerations belonging to non-violent drug offenders. It is because of these nonviolent drug offenders being held captive that we have so much of our money being taken away from us to provide for their needs that they could easily be providing for on their own if they held their freedom. A number of our non-violent drug offenders that are in federal prisons are people who were incarcerated for having marijuana found on them. Many states who have decriminalized marijuana have found that they had more money leftover to spend on beneficial things towards
There are many people who are not aware that a bountiful amount of money that is being taken away from our taxes is used to support our federal prisons which require a set amount of money in order to continue thriving and providing the correct care for prisoners. It has been shown that annual state spending on corrections has reached a peak of $51 billion and unsurprisingly, prisons account for the vast majority of this cost (Time Served: The High Cost, Low Return of Longer Prison Terms). Now some would say that if the prisons need that money then by all means take it to help provide for the prisoners, but what most do not understand is that that vast amount of money is money that could be invested on more important things such as homeless shelters and education for many generations to come. About 84% of Americans also believe that some of the money we are spending on supporting non-violent prisoners who show little to no risk to the outer community should be shifted for use in strengthening programs such as parole and probation (Pew Center on the States). Although prisons do need that money in order to continue being in service, that set amount of money could without a doubt be reduced if we did not have unnecessary incarcerations belonging to non-violent drug offenders. It is because of these nonviolent drug offenders being held captive that we have so much of our money being taken away from us to provide for their needs that they could easily be providing for on their own if they held their freedom. A number of our non-violent drug offenders that are in federal prisons are people who were incarcerated for having marijuana found on them. Many states who have decriminalized marijuana have found that they had more money leftover to spend on beneficial things towards