In todays society with many people unemployed, poor, and trying to fend for themselves or families and because of this there is a lot of crime happening. Almost every time you turn on the news, it seems you hear about someone being murdered or robbed. Usually we take these criminals and throw them in jail, but what many of us don’t think about is how much money is coming out of our pockets to keep prisons running. So I ask, should we enforce the death penalty more often or even some sort of physical punishment to keep criminals from doing crime? I say yes because I believe it would lower our budget on corrections spending, lower the amount of prisoners we have, and stop criminals from repeating crimes once out of jail.
First, I would like to talk about the death penalty. I am one who believes in “eye for an eye” so when somebody murders another, I think the criminal should have the same fate. I do not believe, like some people, that putting someone in jail for years and then releasing them will fix anything. I believe if they are crazy enough to murder someone once, they always will be. Also almost all of us have a fear of death, so if a criminal knows their fate, they may think twice before committing a crime.
I also think that today we are too nice to criminals. While in jail they get free food and free housing, neither is very good in quality, but free none the less. I think that roughing up some of these criminals may have a positive effect. If there is a way law enforcement could scare criminals into not committing crimes again, then trying to attain that should be a very high priority. Also, like I said above many criminals usually come from some sort of poverty. I think that if we could get them some sort of minimum wage job after they pay for their actions would help lower crime rates.
The next thing I would like to address is how high our corrections spending budget is. It has steadily increased through the years and is now so high it is almost unbelievable. As seen in this image, our budget was about $20 billion in the early 1960’s and has now risen to about $72 billion in 2007. If we could lower the budget of corrections spending, we could put the money we saved towards just about anything, like our national debt or mandatory repairs that our buildings and roadways need.
Another problem we sometimes face is the over population of prisons. If a prison is over populated, it could lead to large-scale riots that are hard for guards to contain or maybe even a rise up of prisoners to attack guards and try to escape. Furthermore if a prison is over populated, they will eventually need to transport these criminals to other locations which could be a very dangerous task; and the prisoners will need another facility to be taken to which will lead to the corrections budget to increase further. In the past forty years, the number of criminals has risen from 300,000 to 2 million and is an average of 700 out of every 100,000 people behind bars, about five times higher than the international average (Conyers Jr. 377-387). Who knows how many more criminals we will put in jail in the coming years. With so many people trying to get what they need to survive but can’t because of low income, the number will keep rising which means there will be more over population of prisons and more prisons needing to be built. we obviously need to do something to keep criminals from committing crimes and keep the prison population down.
The final issue I would like to address and the one I think is the most crucial is being able to stop criminals from repeating crimes. This is where I think setting the criminals straight is the best way. I think we should literally put them through hell instead of letting them just sit in jail. I think it we scare the criminals enough they are less likely to repeat crimes. A study in 2007 done by BJS (Bureau of Justice Statistics) showed that 70% of robbers, 74% of burglars, 74% of larcenists, 78% of motor vehicle thieves, 77% of people selling stolen property, and 70% of people selling/buying illegal weaponry were rearrested again for the same crime within three years.
After reading this I hope that you agree something needs to be done about criminals. We need to make punishment more severe to scare people who are likely to commit crime and to keep present criminals from repeating crimes again once they are released from jail. Also we need to use the death penalty on people who commit more serious crimes such as murder so that the crime occurs less. I feel if we stop going easy on criminals and start treating them like they should be, we could see crime rates drop and see our corrections budget drop. This would be good for America because we spend too much on criminals when they don’t deserve anything.
Works Cited
“Corrections Spending In The U.S., 1982-2007” The Imprisoner’s Dilemma: A Cost-Benefit Approach to Incarceration. Abrams, David S., 2013, Web. 10 Nov. 2013.
Conyers Jr., John. The Incarceration Explosion. Yale Law & Policy Review. Spring 2013, Vol. 31 Issue 2, P377-387. Print
Bureau of Justice Statistics “Recidivism” Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2007, 10 Nov, 2013.
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