if everyone knows education is the key to success, why are americans so eager to build more prisons?

Question

Locking up more people only reduces crime if those being locked up are serious criminals. If it's a serial rapist, that makes an impact on crime, but if it's a kid selling crack on the corner, that just creates a job opening for someone else.

Existing jails in CA serve as gateways for the 21 new prisons the state has built since 1980. Over the past two decades, the number of inmates in those prisons has grown sevenfold, to more than 160,000. It cost California taxpayers nearly $5.3 billion to build the new lockups -- and it costs another $4.8 billion every year to keep them running.

Locking up so many inmates is not cheap. Design-Build, a construction trade magazine, estimates that 3,300 new prisons were built during the 1990s at a cost of nearly $27 billion, with another 268 in the pipeline valued at an additional $2.4 billion. And construction costs are only the beginning of this. The new jail in LA sat empty for one year because the county couldnt afford to open it.

Answer 1

Au contraire, in most inner-city, urban, metropolitan areas, our schools have become prisons themselves. Walk down the halls of Jefferson High School in Compton, CA and you will likely get stabbed, raped and sodomized in the boys locker room.

Perhaps building more prisons is what we do need.

Answer 2

I was actually in a convo today along the same lines as this. It's interesting how there is always talk about improving schools but there hasn't been any improvments in many years. So many places are desprate for new schools to be built because over crowding in classes can really hurt learning. I live near Charlotte NC and the schools around here are horrible. The last time I heard of a new school being built was a few years ago. It was a huge deal because not only was there over crowding but one of the schools in the area was a health hazard to the students. I was lucky enough to be homeschooled 6th through graduation and so is my younger brother. When I was homeschooled is wasn't a well know thing. These days I see more and more parents pulling their kids out of horrible schools to be homeschooled. All though in a lot of cases it can be great I've also seen cases where the parents are clueless what to do which greatly effect their kid(s) learning.
Prisons are not the only tax dollar waste but it is kind of ironic that some crimes happen because of lack of knowlege and ignorence. Something that a great school might have been able to change. When a teenager or adults can't even read or do simple math problems it's no wonder they turn into criminals.

Answer 3

Sounds like you have done your homework. It all starts in the inner cities.Lets get real here, there are more black kids running around with no fathers,and only ther mothers to care for them. These kids don't have much of a chance if we and our goverment don't start getting qualified teachers, and more blacks that have "made it" out back to thier roots to help. They are going to keep building more prisons. It's sad because it will only mean, one more generation of kids with no chance. I've got more if you want, I have been talking about this for years and nobody seems to care. I'm not saying prisons are full off only black inmates, there are plenty of ther races behind bars, whites, hispanics, asians, etc. Do you think that with so many already locked up, had they had Moms Dads or people that cared, and oh yea teachers, that could teach, and a goverment that had a clue. I'm done. P.S. Spend the money on people that want to help. Not Prisons.

Answer 4

Well if half the prison populations in many border states are illegal immigrants, it means we have to become responsible for education in all those foreign countries too when they can't fix our own education system. They are building more prisons because the politicians only know how to throw more money at the problem, same as they think giving bad teachers more money will produce better student, it's the "easy out." It's true, that every person in prison represents a family and school that failed a child. you need good parents or parental figures in raising a child, and good teachers who care about teaching. As long as there is no required test to become a parent, and as long as teachers have practically unbreakable tenure and no mandatory annual subject testing, and as long as border security is a joke and criminals (not all immigrants are, but foreign countries like Mexico heavily encourage the criminals to leave), we will need more prisons.

Answer 5

First, how does education fit with prisons?
Second, prison does help some minor criminals to change.
Third, some serious criminals do not change in prison, they are only timed our from preying on others until the next opportunity.
You might look at the crimes for which people are incarcerated. One good way to reduce crime is to change drug laws, de-criminalizing all drug use.
Only one tenth of one percent of drugs are interdicted. We have lost the war on drugs. We can still win the war on education and treatment.

Answer 6

dangle on Matty as somebody knocked your donkey over , , there is alot to united statesa. that some human beings and that is composed of us brits don,t understand approximately, I recommend they think of a era is a niche !! and whilst i replaced into as quickly as asked by an American woman the place replaced into I from and that i pronounced the united kingdom she pronounced and that i quote "what language do you communicate there " it,s real they suspect a rubber is going excessive of ya D*ck and not on the top of a pencil ,and all of us understand that no longer all can communicate or write engish in it,s perfect variety and on your Defence!! I believe you and relating to the reformatory inhabitants purely in united statesa. could they do a jailbreak by helicopter and the police set up highway blocks yet look on the defense force their marvelous Marines that's relatively stands for muscular tissues Are Required Intelligence None needed a minimum of the adult males get equipped to bypass to conflict . yet all joking aside till you have been and visited or lived there like I relatively have performed, then you definately purely see what's on T.V and the media specifically. human beings are very heat and captivating human beings , admittedly I lived in Tennesee the two in Nashville and up in the Smokie Mountains and if I had the money I.d flow returned day after today yet once you ever bypass there you will see that ninety 9.9% of domicile grown human beings are superb adult males sand ladies now end moaning and get the coffee on huge Mac p.s eating ordinary coke is the terrific element in the worldwide to apply on your motor vehicle engine as a cleanser the truckers at coke' who grant it instructed me that lol

Answer 7

More laws = more prisons=more government jobs=more government funds=more money for lawyers=more money for judges/cops/politicians.

Answer: Decriminalize victimless crimes. Increase education (not education spending). Forget the "No child left behind" BS. Not every child is suited for college. Let those children learn what they are suited for....Military, labor, trades, the service sector.......BOCES and internships at the high school level for those who choose that avenue of education. Lets stop using our schools as glorified day-care centers.

Get involved in your local school boards activities. Vote against ANY politician who would send people to jail for a victimless crime.....EX: DWI where no damage has been done. Marijuana possession/sale/growing to adults. Possession of controlled substance of any kind. Lets take back our right to do whatever we like to ourselves. It isn't the job of our legal system to protect us from ourselves, only to protect us from one another, and from other governments that would take those freedoms from us. If a terrorist organization tried to tell us that we could no longer educate our women, or could no longer say certain words or they would attack us...what would we do? Yet we allow our lawyers and politicians to take away our freedom to satisfy minorities, religious cults, extremist organizations (MADD, Christians, Muslims, Satanists, (NOW) (NRA) (AFL/CIO) Organized crime (most belong to, and donate to the Catholic church). Im sure that the majority of americans would agree, but we dont have an organization that votes as a group, or funds political candidates.

Answer 8

Hard for me to utter the phrase "everyone knows" as there is no one thing that universally is known by everyone. When working for the Feds they taught us to think of it as a lack of common sense. They conjecture that there is no such thing as common sense as there is no one piece of information that every child or adult is taught or learns. So without the main ascertation of your question, it is rendered moot.

Answer 9

Friend - Just let me know, you have my vote. Educate! - GBY

Answer 10

dunno