Private prison companies strive to keep millions behind bars to keep their profits up. (photo: Gallo/Getty images)
rsn editors comment:
“Despite a falling crime rate and widespread overcrowding in the nation’s prisons, approximately 2.3 million Americans are currently incarcerated. A close look as the reasons for this culture of incarceration may have more to do with money and influence than law and order.”
— JPS/RSN
By James Ridgeway, Al Jazeera
With 1 in 100 American adults behind bars, falling crime rates and a cash-strapped economy, the United States would seem ripe for the kinds of national reforms that might keep people out of prison. Recent polls have shown that even our law-and-order-minded citizenry would rather see penalties eased for certain criminals than pay more money to keep them locked up.
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