FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Today, there is growing interest in conditions in U.S. prisons, reflected in both films and TV series on prisoners and stories about prisons and prisoners in the news. For example, the hit TV series Orange Is the New Black just released its 6th season on Netflix; recent news stories have examined the prison conditions of the thousands of illegal and undocumented immigrants held in prisons; and the trial and prison sentence of Paul Manafort has been headline news as well as grist for the late night comment.
But what hasn't been talked about that much is the mounting costs of both government run and private prisons. And that's been a subject extensively discussed in The Costly U.S. Prison System by Paul Brakke, published by American Leadership Books. (www.americanleadershipbooks.com). He also has mounted a social media campaign and created a video on the topic: "Why Our Costs for Prisoners Are Out of Control" https://youtu.be/3jTfCaJEi64 to draw attention to this problem and propose some solution.
As he describes in a series of social media posts:
- The prison population has mushroomed, along with the high costs for each prisoner, due to three strikes laws, harsher sentencing, and sentences for non-violent drug possession or dealing small amounts of drugs.
- The costs of prisons and the rest of our correctional system are too high. The U.S. spends $250 billion yearly on criminal justice and $60-70 billion on prisons and jails alone.
- The costs of criminal justice include investigating/trying the case, loss of paid work by the convict, and family costs, often leading to poverty.
And then there are many costs due to gang violence, riots, extra medical care due to poor treatment for prisoners, and other expenses that are increased by poor prison management.
So one approach might be assigning prisoners with health and mental problems, drug addiction, or learning disabilities to treatment facilities where they might be better served at a lower cost.
As Brakke points out as the leitmotif of this lower prison costs campaign: "Let's cut costs with better policies."
It's an appeal that should appeal on both sides of the political aisle -- to conservatives who are especially concerned about effective prison management, reducing crime, and keeping costs down to liberals who are especially concerned with better treatment for prisoners and returning prisoners to their homes as quickly as possible. After all, reducing incarceration and better treatment contributes to less recidivism, greater productivity when ex-convicts return to the community, and lower costs. So as Brakke emphasizes in his campaign based on The Costly U.S. Prison System: "Let's cut costs with better policies."
For more information and to set up radio interviews:
Jana Collins
Jones & O'Malley
Toluca Lake, California
jana@jonesomalley.com
(818) 762-8353