driven by and acceleration in the nation’s crime rate, which has been stable overall and declining for certain types of crime since the 1970’s. (DeLuca, H.R. 43) The prison-space crisis was created by the simple fact that we are incarcerating more nonviolent offenders for longer sentences. In 1994, 92 percent of federal prisoners were incarcerated for committing nonviolent crimes, costing taxpayers more then $23,000 per year per inmate. (McGovern, Celeste. 44) What needs to be done is we need to have the nonviolent offenders involved in programs to help them understand why what they did was wrong. They need to learn how to learn from their mistakes and bad choices. It seems that they need to have a chance to correct themselves. The only way this can be achieved is by putting them into programs to correct and rehabilitate these ill people. Despite the costs of housing inmates, the government says that is what the people want. Who said the government is always right? What will happen is an overrun prison community which has no programs such as vocational training, drug treatment, and religious teaching. This will only lead to ruin and chaos.(DeLuca, H.R. 46) Sometimes people in our society make bad decisions. They make these irrational mistakes and have a clouded perspective of what will manifest from those actions. People like this need to know the ramifications to their actions. Every action has a equal or greater reaction. As a society we need to teach people that crime is not the only way to escape from their troubles. It possibly could seem as a loss of responsibility but it is not . We need prisoners to learn how to better themselves which will in fact better society as a whole. The only way to try to rehabilitate criminals is to allow them to take certain programs which will help the individual stay sane, learn a trade, and meet god. Having prisoners set goals in their time of imprisonment will surly make the prison ...
