Also, a cause for such a dramatic increase in the prison population is that it is now BIG Business. There is a tremendous amount in profits being made by prison privatization and a great deal of judges and prosecutors have vested interests in those profits and benefit from those sentenced. As someone once said, “There are more criminal behind the bench then ever will be in front.” Note all the convicted criminals that were on death row that have been found innocent through DNA testing. An attestation to our insanely corrupt legal system.
Yup, I agree. In Cali, the largest lobbyist group used to be Teachers - now it’s Correctional Officers, and they have a vested interest in keeping as many people behind bars as possible. In fact, I understand they are the major financial contributors to insuring cannabis stays illegal, as it’s far easier to control a group of peace loving hippies, then a gang of hardcore crackheads. We spend more per year to keep an individual locked up behind bars than if we gave the same person a full scholarship at a leading university. Ridiculousness
I’m just curious here - can you back up any of these claims with facts?
I assume this is the columnyou are referring to?
It’s nice to have a link so everybody’s on the same page talking about it.
Welcome to the Straight Dope Message Boards, tedallen1958, we’re glad to have yhou with us. Our Archives contain hundreds of columns, so when you start a thread, it’s helpful to other readers to provide a link. It’s also helpful if the thread title reflects what the thread is about, so that you attract readers and posters who are interested in that topic.
I’ve edited your thread title to be more descriptive, and constanze has provided what we assume is the link. No biggie, you’ll know for next time, and, as I say, welcome indeed!