Study: 7.3 million in U.S. prison system in '07

This article talked about how many more people are being sent to prison nowadays then before. The prisons are becoming more and more full, and have began to skyrocket over the last quarter of a century. There are so many people getting it trouble that it is said that one in every 31 people are being sent to jail, prison, or some sort of correctional facility. A lot of people get sent to prison and jail over small little crimes, but there isn't anything else for these people to do. These aren't any other things in the community that these people can do, such as charity work, so they are stuck going to jail or prison. This causes a lot of overloading problems. The reason for a lot of this is because of state choices, and people believe that if the state made the choices to get us into this mess then they can make the choice to get us of the mess. I believe that a lot of these issues could be solved by people doing other things, besides being locked up. Giving people with small crimes could be put on probabation and be made to do community service and this would solve a big amount of the problems the we are having with being overly full in prisons and jails.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/03/02/record.prison.population/index.html

I feel as though there are more people going to prison nowadays for a number of reasons. First, our job market is crummy, so if there are no jobs than how are people going to put food on the table? The answer is crime, which will almost always lead to getting caught. Second is drug addiction. When people are in a state of extreme addiction, they will almost always do whatever they need to do to get their next fix. Third is psychological problems, there are a number of them that lead to acts of violence and other criminal acts. In addition, I believe that rap music heavily influences crime, especially to younger children who idolize people that speak out about selling drugs and being criminals. I could go on about this all day so I will stop there.

I think that there are a few more reasons why there are more people in prison today. One reason is that there are more people now than there use to be. (I just wonder if the percentage of the population that is in prison is increasing.) Also, I believe that what is shown on T.V. and at the movies are big reasons for an increase in crime and prison population. Statistics have shown that sex, violence, and drugs shown on T.V. has a big impact on young people of this day, however there has not been any real action taken to reduce it. Television shows, movies, and even songs on the radio are only getting worse. Many parents are concerned but don’t know what to do about it. Other reasons for an increase in prison population are poverty and the increase in working mothers. There has been an increase in latchkey children and therefore an increase in crime for teens from 4 to 7 P.M., the three hours following school. I think that it would be good to allow some of the lesser criminals free with community service, but I think more needs to be done in crime prevention.

After the article I wrote last week I realized that a lot of people are going to jail or prison for really small things. But what isn't being said is that people are desperate nowadays. There aren't many people who can afford things like they used to and so they turn to crimes such as robbery to live. They then get caught and get sentenced to so many years in jail. People aren't forced to do things such as murder and I can understand why people go to prison for that but there are a lot of reasons as to why people are committing crimes that aren't being taken into consideration. I think the government is to be blamed for all of it and that these people who aren't committing serious crimes should only have to do community service or something along those lines. We can’t make money if we don’t have jobs and right now we don’t have jobs so people are looking for other ways to make sure their families are safe and taken care of.