Room, Board, Jumpsuits Included

DEBORAH CHEN
Copy Editor

Crime is like a disease that worms its way into society, inevitably creating obstacles. The question is how this problem can be dealt with.
Keeping a prisoner incarcerated costs $44,563 a year in California. That is nearly the same price as a year at Harvard University, including room and board. Is incarcerating one prisoner equally important as education in one of the world’s most prestigious universities? The fact that California is utilizing a large amount of its state budget to keep criminals in jail instead of gearing their funds toward education, which can bring about unfavorable effects. The foundation for success in society is established by acquiring an education. Funding education should be the government’s main priority. Although the government should continue funding jails, officials need to balance the state budget in order to prioritize education. Students cannot attain quality education without adequate funding.
Prisoners should be given an alternative to incarceration because prison is not always effective. Every offender is unique and should therefore be treated as such. Creating a sentence that tailors specifically to a certain criminal will be more cost-effective and will provide the criminal with a better chance at rehabilitation.
Alternatives may include, but are not limited to, house arrest, fines, boot camp and community service.
Finding alternatives to incarceration can be beneficial to many. It can save taxpayers millions of dollars because the alternatives are cheaper and prevent overcrowded prisons. In addition, applying alternatives such as community service will allow them to contribute to society.
According to Families Against Mandatory Minimums, over half of all the people who leave prison will be back in prison within three years of their release. This shows that sending prisoners to jail may not be as useful as we thought it was. However, other options such as therapy have been proven to help the offender get to the underlying causes of their crime. This will then help prevent criminals from committing new crimes.
The state must seek out alternatives to prison and apply them to the criminals they sentence so that the results will garner the highest success rate. We need to think outside the box instead of throwing all prisoners into jail, with the belief that it will magically solve all of our problems.
The public must also consider that education needs to be emphasized and a way to do it is through balanced state funding.