Locked Away
Alyssa Pierce Nov. 23, 2015
Summary
Many prisoners are locked away for long times because of sentencing laws. Prisoners serving time for non violent crimes should be released so that the government wont spend so much money on keeping the prisons running. It cost taxpayers $80 billion a year just to keep people locked up. By reducing sentencing and giving early release to prisoners is a start to changing sentencing laws.
Supporting Details
- “Far too many people have lost years of their lives to draconian sentencing laws,”
- "2.2 million people are behind bars in the U.S. (About 211,000 are in federal prisons; the rest are in state lockups.)"
- "It costs taxpayers $80 billion a year to keep all those people locked up."
- "One-third of the Justice Department’s budget is spent on running federal prisons"
Real-World Application
As the article states its cost taxpayers $80 billion a year. If sentencing was reduced and some inmates were released early, taxes would be a less. The money the government takes from all American's taxes goes towards keeping prisons running even when there are non-violent inmates . By reducing sentencing and early release the money collected by taxes would decrease and the money spent towards prisons would decrease like they need too.