the blog of LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange
Georgia is number 1 in something: locking people up,
1 in 13 of adults,
according to the Pew Center on the States.
That costs us more than a billion dollars a year in tax money,
5.9% of the state budget.
That's up from $133.26 million in 1983, increased by more than a factor of seven.
Meanwhile, the correctional population swelled from around 100,000 in 1982 to more
than 550,000 in 2007.
And while other states have started decreasing their prison populations,
Georgia's continues to increase.
The state is even coming up with new ways to lock people up,
such as kicking them out of mental institutions.
We seem headed back towards
plantation slave labor
and
prison road gangs
in for minor drug infractions.
How about we reverse this trend?
It's time to
call off the global drug war
that locks up more than half of U.S. prisoners even by official prison statistics,
while many current or former law enforcement officers say
"as much as 80% of all felony crime is caused by drug addiction prohibition."
It's time to legalize, regulate, and tax.
Meanwhile, we don't need a private prison in Lowndes County, Georgia. Let's use those tax dollars for rehabilitation and education.
-jsq
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