This is Almost Funny: I could see this being a "News Report" on Saturday Night Live - as a comedy sketch. Many states are spending more money on prisoners than on college students.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I could see this being a "News Report" on Saturday Night Live - as a comedy sketch. Many states are spending more money on prisoners than on college students.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/07/07/the-states-that-spend-more-money-on-prisoners-than-college-students/?wpisrc=nl_rainbow&wpmm=1

micolh Loc: NYC

jerryc41 wrote:

I could see this being a "News Report" on Saturday Night Live - as a comedy sketch. Many states are spending more money on prisoners than on college students.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/07/07/the-states-that-spend-more-money-on-prisoners-than-college-students/?wpisrc=nl_rainbow&wpmm=1

Of course, the easy answer is to convince criminals not to commit crimes. If that would come to pass there would a greater endowment for things that will reap a benefit for taxpayers.

exakta56 Loc: Orford,New Hampshire

In some respects it is like what came first? The chicken or the egg? Poor schools= poorly educated kids. Under educated young people= first to be laid-off in a recession. All of this feeds into a desperate condition creating a poverty of economics and a poverty of spirit.Crime rises, drug use escalates= prisons overflow. This article sadly states the fact that we spend more money on incarceration than schooling!!!! Well nourished well educated children are our hope for realizing a healthy prosperous future for our country.

JCam Loc: MD Eastern Shore

Or make the sentences and the "time" less desirable and have them serve the full time! If we don't have enough prisons, build them; in the long run it would be much less expensive than the revolving doors on the prisons!

micolh Loc: NYC

exakta56 wrote:

In some respects it is like what came first? The c... (show quote)

I think perhaps the problem is closer to home than that. No two parent support for children. Almost 60% of African American children born without support, of a male parent. In the last 50 year's a ton of money has been spent and that trend will continue. There is no incentive or family guidance to change. There is under education because there is no family support to be educated. We are forced to spend more money on prisons because of criminal activity. There is a culture of indifference to education. There is indifference to the needs of the children that have born. These children will repeat the only process they know. Failure. Both political parties say they have the answer. Regrettably, the answer lies in personal p***e and not continued programs that reward failure.

Shellback Loc: North of Cheyenne Bottoms Wetlands - Kansas

Hmmm - prisons are now a private company run business and the prisons need prisoners to be profitable - The more prisons that are built, the more tax revenue to the county and income to the businesses as guards and staff will be hired and earning/spending locally. Makes sense to incarcerate instead of train/educate - more money for the coffers...
Just my thoughts...

JCam Loc: MD Eastern Shore

Shellback wrote:

Hmmm - prisons are now a private company run business and the prisons need prisoners to be profitable - The more prisons that are built, the more tax revenue to the county and income to the businesses as guards and staff will be hired and earning/spending locally. Makes sense to incarcerate instead of train/educate - more money for the coffers...
Just my thoughts...

Shellback,

I don't really care who runs the prisons, but the fast in and out just leads to higher crime rates, more costs for their victims, and more police and court time which also cost money. Warehousing the convicts in an atmosphere where they have all the amenities possible that we pay for certainly isn't solving the problem. Prison should not be an unearned period of relative luxury. I agree that taking the opportunity to teach them an honest trade, other than making small rocks out of larger rocks, would be the best solution, but the inmates must want to learn.

Just how do you propose to convince them of the error of their ways and educate them they are not under some control. Within a few years of intensive and interesting education, they should be able to learn useful sk**ls; then the problem is to get them hired at a job that uses the sk**l, maybe set up an employment department in the prisons? It makes no sense to teach out dated technology such as manual machining sk**ls when most shops are now using CAD machines.

Shellback Loc: North of Cheyenne Bottoms Wetlands - Kansas

There is no easy answer. My thoughts are - Instead of pouring money to the political leadership of corrupt countries in the guise of "foreign aid" - let's keep the money in-country and put it to use in our schools systems and aid for the poverty stricken areas.
We can't continue to dump money into social welfare programs that are not working - need to apply common sense to the issues - not let some "doctorate" tell us how to fix things - they have been trying that for years and it isn't working.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Shellback wrote:

Hmmm - prisons are now a private company run business and the prisons need prisoners to be profitable - The more prisons that are built, the more tax revenue to the county and income to the businesses as guards and staff will be hired and earning/spending locally. Makes sense to incarcerate instead of train/educate - more money for the coffers...
Just my thoughts...

Yes, private for-profit prisons have become a big business, but it's the tax dollars that supply the profit to the CEOs who own them.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

micolh wrote:

I think perhaps the problem is closer to home than... (show quote)

I partially agree. Parents who support their kids over the school system and who want high marks without the work are lowering standards. If the parents - even in single-parent households - make education a priority and support the school system, kids will get a better education. In every graduating class, there are kids who go to ivy league schools, and kids who head for the bagging jobs at a supermarket. They all had the same chance at a free education.

micolh Loc: NYC

jerryc41 wrote:

Yes, private for-profit prisons have become a big business, but it's the tax dollars that supply the profit to the CEOs who own them.

Thanks to the criminals. The bigger business is the cost of these criminals and their crimes on society.

GeorgeH Loc: Jonesboro, GA

Shellback wrote:

Hmmm - prisons are now a private company run business and the prisons need prisoners to be profitable - The more prisons that are built, the more tax revenue to the county and income to the businesses as guards and staff will be hired and earning/spending locally. Makes sense to incarcerate instead of train/educate - more money for the coffers...
Just my thoughts...

Have to agree with you! There are governmental functions which should NEVER be privatized. The police, the military, the prison system, for openers. These all grant the government power over the individual in ways unlike, for example, a road department. Conflict of interest is almost guaranteed: a privatized police force might receive more funds for more arrests, whether the arrests are worthy or not. During the Revolutionary war the British hired Hessian mercenaries, a move decried by the Americans. And how did Blackwater work out during the Iraq Debacle?

Water departments are another questionable goal for privatization. Atlanta, for example, tried privatization and found that needed repairs, etc, weren't done in a timely matter.

micolh Loc: NYC

jerryc41 wrote:

I partially agree. Parents who support their kids over the school system and who want high marks without the work are lowering standards. If the parents - even in single-parent households - make education a priority and support the school system, kids will get a better education. In every graduating class, there are kids who go to ivy league schools, and kids who head for the bagging jobs at a supermarket. They all had the same chance at a free education.

It would be interesting to see how many kids from NYC, Chicago, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Washington and LA public school system can get into college based on their SAT scores. I think I read somewhere that a graduating 12th-grade student is at a 9th-grade level. A March 2011 article in the NY Times stated that 3/4 of the incoming class to CUNY needed remedial classes. I doubt from then to now that number has changed much.

GeorgeH Loc: Jonesboro, GA

Shellback wrote:

There is no easy answer. My thoughts are - Instea... (show quote)

Well, the amount of foreign aid, at around 1% of the US budget probably wouldn't go as far as you would hope. Here's a link: https://www.nationalpriorities.org/blog/2013/05/06/how-much-foreign-aid-does-us-give-away/?gclid=Cj0KEQjwnv27BRCmuZqMg_Ddmt0BEiQAgeY1l5UkWpdswB2VMy7me9xxZG5eUnhAahWyhzqgbVXhYn8aAk9D8P8HAQ

Don't forget that Israel, for example, gets a considerable amount of foreign aid, so its not given just to corrupt countries.... There's a link in the above to give individual recipients.

micolh Loc: NYC

GeorgeH wrote:

Well, the amount of foreign aid, at around 1% of t... (show quote)

Israel is our aircraft carrier in the Middle East. Money well spent. Not so with all the money for i*****l a***ns. Their food, housing, clothing and the list goes on.