New York state began seeing the light around the turn of the millenium when a growing group began to understand that the Rockefeller Drug Laws had been a big mistake because the citizens of New York could no longer afford to house nonviolent drug offenders in State prisons at the cost of about $60,000.00 per year per inmate. The drug offender could have been sent to the U of R for that kind of money with his room and board paid in addition to private college tuition. New Yorkers spend over $3 billion supervising 54,600 inmates in 60 facilities and 36,800 parolees in 7 regional parole offices.
There are many reasons for the problem of crime in our society many of which stem from our very poor social policies compared to other developed countries. I will be writing more about our criminal justice policies in coming weeks and months because they have a very heavy impact on us as Brockporters and New York Staters and Americans even though most Brockporters, New York Staters, and Americans are dismally unaware unless they or someone they love have been caught up in the system.
Dr. Currie writes in the preface to the 2013 edition, "The bottom line after Crime and Punishment In America warned that our dominant strategies against crime weren't working well, the United States is still distinguished by having both the world's highest level of imprisonment and the advanced world's worst levels of serious criminal violence. And we are still, for the most part, relying all too heavily on an approach to crime control that is ineffective, costly, and destructive." p.xiv
For a good over view of our criminal justice management of offenders in America I highly recommend Elliott Currie's book.
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