So the Richmond Times Dispatch reported the other day that
the Justice Policy Institute presented its study on the Virginia prison system
to Governor McAuliffe. In one glaring
item, the JPI noted that “community corrections” in Virginia costs less than $2
per day per offender versus almost $14 per day to keep a person behind bars.
Governor McAuliffe may be ready to lead Virginia to real
prison reform, the kind of reform that will lead to the release of sizeable
numbers of incarcerated men and women doing excessive sentences for non-violent
felonies in facilities where meaningful rehabilitation is non-existent.
As I have written numerous times, prison will not
rehabilitate a person. It is a mind
numbing, soul crushing, dehumanizing experience. There are so many more cost effective ways to
address the majority of criminal behaviors.
Prisons drain resources that could go for better schools,
better mental health services, more effective drug and alcohol treatments.
The swamp that is Virginia’s prison system only survives
because it is fed with taxpayer money and politician’s lies and
distortions. It’s time to drain the
swamp.
