Prisons Eat Up Tax Dollars

Rehabilitation Failures Lead To Repeat Crimes: Is Public Truly Better
Protected?

PROVIDE MENTORS

We spend about $40,000 a year per prisoner in Wisconsin. The prison budget
is gobbling our taxes while the recidivism rate is more than 75 percent.
Those brought up in poverty are the majority filling our prisons. Is
Wisconsin spending the necessary money on children and families in poverty?
Economic incentives empower people. Having a job with a livable wage pays
everyone a dividend.

Ask prisoners what they need to stay out of jail. Maybe they would say a
mentor who cares about me and my family, a job, a place to live, drug
rehabilitation. Most prisoners have no one to model who has made it outside
jail. We would spend less money and have a lower crime rate as well as
self-respecting, tax-paying citizens if we supported all children,
especially those living in poverty.

We are a nation of laws. Incarceration alone does not work. As the old
saying goes, "You can give someone a fish when they are hungry or you can
teach them to fish and feed them for their whole life."

Beryl Gribbon Fago

Evansville