What do you do with a nonviolent offender? How effective are the correctional facilities in deterring crime? What is the result of locking up millions of our US citizens for things like drug use or alcohol abuse with violent criminals? Does it increase the moral fiber of the nation to release hundreds of thousands of prisoners each year? What tools do the penal institutions offer for those they keep incarcerated? What exactly has the penal institutions done to better inmates and prepare them for society?

America currently houses 2.3 million of its citizens in jail or prison. Check this against the change in crime rates- especially when some 650,000 inmates are released each year. In our country we are spending upwards of $23,000 to build one prison cell to hold someone who may have committed a minor infraction- but drugs or alcohol was involved. It has been compared to building a bridge to nowhere.

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http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/754071/the_second_act_law_signed_by_...