USA: LAND OF THE IMPRISONED

In America if you screw up, you go directly to jail. You don't pass
go, and you definitely don't collect $200.

The United States comprises less than 5 percent of the world's
population, but holds almost a quarter of the world's prisoners.
Currently, there are nearly 2.3 million Americans behind bars.

This high number of prisoners reflects America's tough and entirely
distinct approach to crime and punishment. Americans are locked up
for a greater array of crimes and for much longer than almost any
other country in the world.

From writing bad checks or abusing drugs, to committing murder -
there are countless offenses that can get you locked up.
Criminologists and legal experts point to a number of different
factors to explain America's extraordinarily high incarceration rate:
harsher sentence laws, the ongoing war against drugs, higher levels
of violent crime, racial turmoil and America's anomaly for tough justice.

Whatever the reasons, there is little dispute that America's
exceptionally high incarceration rate has impacted crime. America's
stance on tough justice has taken criminals off the streets and put
them behind bars where they belong, thus lowering crime rates and
making our nation safer.

Critics say incarceration is costly, and I'm not denying that. The
U.S. spends billions of dollars each year on corrections, but the
benefits of incarcerating criminals greatly outweighs both economic
and societal costs. Criminologist and author John Dilulio estimates
that the annual cost of keeping a criminal in jail is at least
$25,000, while the total social and economic cost to society
(including policing, insurance, injuries, replacing stolen property
and household expenditures on security measures) of allowing an
offender to remain at large is $70,098.

From a financial standpoint, prison is a bargain. Looking at this
issue from a societal point of view, incarceration lowers crime rates
and ultimately keeps Americans safe.

From 1981 to 1995 the risk of punishment rose in the United States
and fell in England, according to U.S. Department of Justice
Statistics. The crime rates predictably moved in opposite directions,
falling in the United States and rising in England.

Simply put, when America got "tough" on justice, crime rates dropped.
When England got "soft" on crime, rates increased.

It's not rocket science.

Some argue that offenders, especially drug offenders, do not belong
in prison. This view is very shortsighted.

Research establishes a strong correlation between daily drug use and
criminal activities, according to David Rasmussen and Bruce Benson in
their book, "The Economic Anatomy of a Drug War."

Incarcerating people involved in drug trade is imperative because it
helps thwart the demand for illegal drugs and drives down other
crime. Confirming this notion is research that finds that criminal
activity increases with the intensity of drug use. A decline in drug
use by offenders results in a reduction of non-drug criminal
activity, particularly income-generating crimes such as robbery,
burglary and theft, according to Rasmussen and Benson.

"The simple truth is that imprisonment works," Kent Scheidegger and
Michael Rushford of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation wrote in
The Stanford Law and Policy Review. "Locking up criminals for longer
periods reduces the level of crime. The benefits of doing so far
offset the costs."

Americans feel safer and sleep better at night because of tough crime
policies. You can try to blame poverty or race, but you cannot blame
miscommunication. Learning right from wrong starts at an elementary
level. The inmate population of this nation is a group of people who
never learned to make good choices.

The recidivism rate in this country is astounding: 67 percent of
offenders will get thrown back in jail. We should not be focused on
reducing sentence guidelines or trying to change laws that give
criminal offenders a second chance. The current laws are effective.

If you still find it puzzling that crime rates decrease when more
criminals are put behind bars, go back to elementary school. You need
a refresher course in basic math.