Prison Is Not The Answer To Crime

It’s time to question our assumptions about crime and punishment.

Everybody knows that prisons don’t work to rehabilitate. If, in fact, we know they do just the opposite, which is to say they turn minor criminals into major ones, why do we have them? Why do we send our social outcasts to criminal academies?

— “The Ethical Assassin” by David Liss

“Do the crime, do the time” is a pretty accurate summary of American judicial philosophy. The assumption that law-breakers should be incarcerated is so fundamental that most people have trouble imagining anything else. However, there are more effective and less expensive solutions to many of the problems generally labeled as “crime.”

First of all, what is a crime? An act that is against the law? Not too long ago, it was against the law for a woman to vote, or for a white person to marry a non-white person. Those aren’t crimes anymore, but there are so many other laws on the books that almost everyone could be considered a criminal. Have you broken the speed limit? Gotten paid in cash that you didn’t declare on your income tax return? Broken any one of the thousands of obscure rules and regulations that are on the Federal, state, or municipal codes? Well, you’re a criminal, and the only thing standing between you and a jail…