Crime

6 Pages 1610 Words

l population at the end of 2001, an increase of 147,000 from the end of 2000. This is 3.1 percent of the nation’s adult population incarcerated or under community supervision. There are over 2 million people in prisons in the U.S. The nations parole population grew by 1 percent in 2001, increasing by 7,249 men and women. (The Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics.) This expansion is the focus of many policy makers; who view rehabilitating prisoners as being “soft on crime”. Punishment, not rehabilitation is the name of the game. A main goal of prisons should be reduction of recidivism. However, such reduction would directly conflict with private prisons’ main interest: profit. The longer a prisoner resides in their prison, and the more often they return to prison, the more that company will profit. For example, the state of Virginia expects to receive more than eighty million dollars this year for “housing” their inmates. (New York Times)
The longer a prisoner is incarcerate...