Do you think the price of crime in America is too small, hence the high crime rate? Rapists, murderers, etc?

Question

People in prison get to sit there,( if convicted in a fair and just manner) and live on tax payers money. Do you think they should have a system whereby they could help contribute something to the GDP per capita. They are indeed adding figures to the demand curve, why not add figures to the supply curve by increasing productivity? The money spent on prisoners could be diverted perhaps to health care. What do you think?

Answer 1

This has been a difficult subject of debate for a very long time. Unfortunately the primary directive of "rehabilitation" and or "corrections" has somehow gotten lost in the grand scheme of our society. Although there are some crimes that may warrant extended and or indefinite lengths of incarceration I believe that there are many that do not warrant even half the punishments provided. Punishements and consequential guidelines have really had little effect on the crime rate and has been an ineffective effort to deter criminal activity. In my personal experience I've found some prison environments to be nothing more than breeding grounds and almost a conference center for plotting and or organizing further criminal activity. Yes, I do strongly agree that those who have been mandated to serve out sentences should pay back the communites and victims (by the way, there is no such thing as a victimless crime) and that a primary focus of the institutions should be to create and organize programs to help balance out our GDP. Our current prisons systems are failing miserably from the directives as before mentioned, as well the transitioning ex criminals are provided very little resources to reintegrate themeselves back into mainstream society. This subject is so complicated that there is no real quick and easy answer.
Interesting note that many of our jails today here in the US are not even operated by a Department of the Government or authority. Shocking as it may seem the Government has sold out the prison systems to big business and industry and many of our largest prisons are owned and operated by private businesses, it's a multi million dollar industry. Many states actually pay these prison companies to release themselves of the care and maintenance of the prisoners. They are herded and shipped off to these centers of rehabilitation. The institutions of criminal corrections is fast becoming a profitable and fast growing industry for the private sector. These centers are actually quite comfortable and very little emphasis is put on reintegration and contribution to society in general. It's no wonder the directives have all gone arye, why rehabilitate when these criminals are worth so much money? It's a sad state of affairs, I know because I experienced it first hand and could write about this all day.

Answer 2

There was that line of thought in Canada, make the prisoners work in controlled factories producing goods. There was a aufull lot of opposion due to the competition with the private sector. It was decided that only goods that were used in the prisons would be attempted. Hence farms, slaughter houses, mainly consumables.
If you fit the time to the crime , you will on average be where you are today.Raising the time will fill the jails faster.Maybe the idea is to have more non-violent offender on the street in a restricted sense. Also do as has been suggested already; provide incentive and support for released indeviduals without the stigma of a released offender. Day work in a work - training- on- site setting would be another option to look at.
The largest problem I see is the resistance to change the status quo

Answer 3

How? I think your intentions here are grand, but how? What can you possibly have prisoners do that will contribute to the GDP? What system could they put in place? Make them work? We already do that to some extent, but there is only so much you can have them do before they are just taking jobs away from normal people. What else is there? It is easy to point out problems. It is not so easy to provide solutions. I don't mean any offense by it, though. I know, because I do the same thing sometimes!

Answer 4

I don't think punishment and deterrents would really lower the crime rate.

In some states of the US, there capital punishment. Loss of life would surely be the ultimate detterent yet people continue to commit crimes. I think that no matter what punishments you put in place, crimes will still be committed for the following reasons:

Lack of resources for police and other such agencies - if someone thinks they can get away with a crime, why would the punishment stop them?

Lack of resources for the mentally ill - A lot of crimes are committed by people with disorders such as schizophrenia, paranoia, borderline personality disorder and so on. Of course not all people with mental ailments do commit crimes, but statistically speaking over 90% of prisoners have a mental illness which hasn't been treated. If their mental illnesses were treated then perhaps some crimes could be prevented.

Poverty - crime is generally excacerbated by poverty stricken individuals or those in lower socio economic areas. Why? Lack of education, disrespect for law enforcement agencies, lack of respect for others and so on. Once again not everyone from a lower socio economic background will be a criminal but resources towards these areas may reduce crime rates.

Lack of Opportunity - This category meshes with the above in some ways, but people without the opportunity to live a law abiding life, may turn to a life of crime. This would explain why 90% of those who are released from prison re-offend. Think about it, when somebody leaves prison they have a criminal record. They apply for jobs - nobody wants to hire someone with a criminal record. If they get a job it's a low skilled job, ie; Pizza Hut. They become disillusioned turn to a life they know they can succeed in (crime).

Basically all of the above contribute to crime, and as such, harsher punishments are not going to lower the crime rate significantly. If someone is going to commit a crime then why would a harsher penalty stop them? A perfect example of this is in England during the industrial revolution. Many were poverty stricken as they lost their jobs as machines could now do the work. Many were forced to commit crime to support their families. As such the penalties were increased to include death or transportation to AUstralia for as little as stealing a loaf of bread. People still committed crime as they were desperate.

The second part of your question is interesting. In Australia (where I'm from), prisoners do increase GDP. They work in low skilled jobs whilst in prison (for instance as cooks, aking license plates etc) and contribute to either the running of the prison or society. They have the opportunity to learn practical skills (such as capentry) as they work or study. This is aimed at giving them the skills required to return to society.

However it still costs the tax payers an approximate $100,000 per prisoner per year to house, secure, educate, train etc each prisoner. If we diverted this money, many prison programs which aim to rehabilitate prisoners would disappear and leave the prisoners sitting there with nothing to do.

In order to allow prisoners to contribute to society and the economy, more money needs to be spent. It depends where your values lie.

Answer 5

What type of work would they do? I don't want a car-jacker or drug dealer/user driving my cab, or a rapist cutting my hair, or a robber as a clerk in my store, or a murderer as my night watchman. Aren't most of these people in jail because they are a danger to others? I agree, less or no perks, but keep the true monsters separated from society.

Answer 6

#1 - reduce the penalties on non-violent or victim-less crimes.
#2 - no support for prisoners besides maybe bread and water, possibly a vitamin pill - leave it to friends and family to support them (if they have any).
#3 - no entertainment, sports, exercise, etc - no free ride.
#4 - apply this to all criminals - white collar as well as blue collar.

Answer 7

DRUG DEALERS WHO SELL ANYTHING BESIDES WEED NEED TO GET WHAT THEY GET IN THAILAND- 30 YS NO SRIKES/AUTOMATIC. THAT WOULD CERTAINLY CUT THE CRIME RATE. DO DRUGS=30 YRS. ANY ONW WITH MINOR OFFENSES LET THEM GO. TEENS GO RIGHT TO BOOT CAMP AFTER 3 OFFENSES AFTER 13YRS OF AGE. RAPISTS GET 10 YRS, MURDERERS GET 25-LIFE AND PEDOPHILES GET 30. YOUR TIME IN JAIL IS TO LEARN TRADE LIKE CARS OR COOKING, OR SEWING, OR PAINTING- SOMETHING CONSTRUCTIVE AND HAVE AN EXCON PROGRAM, NATIONWIDE FOR THE ONE'S WHO CAN PROVETHEY CAN HANDLE IT WHEN THEY GET OUT. TOO MANY EX-CONS GET A BAD RAP AND THAT ISN'T ALWAYS FAIR.

Answer 8

Increase the number of capital crimes to include rape, adultery, treason and terrorism.
Introduce a year's compulsory military service for all young men to teach them some respect.

Answer 9

Don't forget they get humped up the butt in prison. Don't let anyone tell you they don't. It's a well known fact.