It’s high time that we revisited our attitude on incarceration. In particular, we need to rethink our philosophy about how to deal with non-violent offenders. The broad brush approach simply doesn’t work. Neither does mandatory sentencing—even though mandatory sentencing may be politically popular especially following heinous crimes. We need to bring a little more common sense into our criminal justice system. It’s time for us to shun kneejerk reactions and focus our attention on finding less costly solutions that actually work.

The Three Arches Hotel in Jerusalem

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Today’s Feature

Are You Ready to Embrace the Truth?

The Messiah is the central figure in the Old Testament from Genesis to Malachi. The prophet Nathan promised Israel’s King David a permanent, royal dynasty (2 Samuel 7: 11), and throughout the Scriptures his Descendant—the Anointed One, the Messiah, Ha Mashiach ben David—is referred to as the Suffering Servant and the Eternal King.

Isaiah refers to the Messiah as Immanuel (Isaiah 7: 14), God with us, and Jeremiah calls Him Yahweh Tsidkenu (Jeremiah 23: 5-6), Yahweh our righteousness. These two Names sum up the Messiah’s mission in its purest and simplest sense. Ezekiel presents Him as a Prince, and he describes the Messiah as the Mediator and as the Shepherd of His people. (Ezekiel 34: 23-24 and Ezekiel 37: 24-25) Zechariah portrays Him as a humble King who returns to rule His dominion. (Zechariah 9: 9-10)

The Messiah appears in many ways in the Scriptures. For instance, He is Yahweh’s Servant, His Strong Right Arm, an Offshoot of Jessie’s root, the Branch of David, the Son of Man, the Teacher of His people, and the Light to the nations. He was despised and rejected by His own people, yet He laid down His life for our redemption and salvation.

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SnyderTalk® Commentary

It’s time to rethink the criminal justice system in the United States

Basic Statistical Information:

Incarceration population totals by country—top 10:

U.S.—2,310,984
China—1,565,771
R.F. (Russian Federation)—880,671
Brazil—469, 546
India—373,271
Mexico—227,735
Thailand—199,607
South Africa—163,479
Iran—158-351
Ukraine—144,380

Source: King’s College London, International Center for Prison Studies. To see a complete list showing incarceration populations by country, click here.

Incarceration rates by country per 100,000 population—top 10:

U.S.—760
St. Kitts and Nevis—660
R.F.—622
Rwanda—593
Cuba—531
Virgin Islands (U.S.)—512
Virgin Islands (U.K.)—488
Palau—478
Belize—476
Grenada—430

Source: King’s College London, International Center for Prison Studies. To see a complete list showing incarceration rates by country, click here.

Foreign prisoners by country (percentage within the prison population)—top 10:

United Arab Emirates (UAE)—92.2%
Andorra—83.3%
Monaco—83.3%
Luxemborg—73.3%
Saudi Arabia—72%
Switzerland—69.7%
Gambia—66.7%
American Samoa—66%
Qatar—59.7%
Cyprus—53.2%

FYI—The U.S. ranks 78 with 5.9% of our prison population coming from other countries.

Source: King’s College London, International Center for Prison Studies. To see a complete list showing foreign prisoners by country, click here.

Cost of incarceration per prisoner per year—2004 numbers:

Imprisonment in Bureau of Prisons Facility—$23,205
Community Correction Centers—$20,102
Supervision by Probation Officers—$3,452

Source: The Third Branch

Interesting points:

“The United States has less than 5 percent of the world’s population. But it has almost a quarter of the world’s prisoners.”
“Americans are locked up for crimes—from writing bad checks to using drugs—that would rarely produce prison sentences in other countries.”
“The gap between American justice and that of the rest of the world is enormous and growing.”
“People who commit nonviolent crimes in the rest of the world are less likely to receive prison time and certainly less likely to receive long sentences. The United States is, for instance, the only advanced country that incarcerates people for minor property crimes like passing bad checks.”
“Many American prosecutors…say that locking up people involved in the drug trade is imperative, as it helps thwart demand for illegal drugs and drives down other kinds of crime.”
“Many specialists dismissed race as an important distinguishing factor in the American prison rate.”
“’The simple truth is that imprisonment works,’ wrote Kent Scheidegger and Michael Rushford of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation in The Stanford Law and Policy Review. ‘Locking up criminals for longer periods reduces the level of crime. The benefits of doing so far offset the costs.’”

Source: U.S. prison population dwarfs that of other nations

Conclusion

In South Carolina where I live, road signs littering the highways warn drivers that they face a prison sentence if they throw trash out of the car window. That’s absurd. I’m not a litter supporter, but every time I see one of those signs I think about how much it costs to put people in jail. If anyone goes to prison for littering, the people being punished are the taxpayers because they have to fork out to build and staff prisons to house those non-violent offenders.

Additionally, putting non-violent offenders in jail with real criminals negatively affects non-violent offenders. There is no telling how many non-violent offenders have morphed into hardened criminals while serving jail time with murderers, rapists, and other violent felons. Locking them up together is idiotic. Locking up non-violent offenders at all unless there are significant extenuating circumstances makes no sense.

The data presented above should raise a resounding cry for criminal justice reform in the U.S.—especially now. The U.S. government is running deficits exceeding $1 trillion annually and states are struggling just to make ends meet. Spending hard-earned tax dollars to put people in prison who don’t need to be there is foolish and fiscally irresponsible.

It’s high time that we revisited our attitude on incarceration. In particular, we need to rethink our philosophy about how to deal with non-violent offenders. The broad brush approach simply doesn’t work. Neither does mandatory sentencing—even though mandatory sentencing may be politically popular especially following heinous crimes. We need to bring a little more common sense into our criminal justice system. It’s time for us to shun kneejerk reactions and focus our attention on finding less costly solutions that actually work.

I’m trying to be realistic. It’s clear that what we’re doing now isn’t working. Recently, when people in California started talking about legalizing marijuana as a way to raise tax revenue, they were ridiculed, but they may be on to something. Decriminalizing marijuana will 1) raise tax revenue, 2) reduce the number of people in jail, and 3) significantly reduce the cash flow of drug cartels. Be honest and tell me if those three objectives are not worthwhile. Candidly, I don’t think the number of people in this country who use marijuana will increase if we legalize it. Why do I say that? It’s because anyone in the U.S. today who wants marijuana can get it easily. If you don’t believe me, just ask any high school student. As far as I’m concerned, legalizing marijuana makes a lot of sense.

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Today’s Events Shaping Our World

Spinning Globe

U.S. and Western Hemisphere

Video (click title)—Barack Obama on religion

Video (click title)—White House vs. Fox News

Video (click title)—questions raised by Abbas speech on Gaza War report

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Israel and Middle East

“On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have appointed watchmen; all day and all night they will never keep silent. You who remind Yahweh, take no rest for yourselves; and give Him no rest until He establishes and makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.”

Isaiah 62: 6-7

Facing East Toward the Mount of Olives

A Room with a View of the Sea of Galilee

DSC00496 edited with picasa

Timna Park: Moses Led the Children of Israel Through This Place

An urgent request from The Simon Wiesenthal Center concerning the Goldstone Report Take a minute to look at this. At Libya’s urging, the U.N. Security Council will meet this week to discuss the Goldstone Report. Our U.N. Ambassador, Susan Rice, needs to hear from people like you and me.
Netanyahu: no war crimes trials for Israeli
Photographic evidence of Palestinians using civilians and children as human shields 1
Photographic evidence of Palestinians using civilians and children as human shields 2
Palestinian Authority equates suicide bombers with Jewish homes
Arabs hijack Israeli cab, beat driver

Video (click title)—Palestinian terrorists use children as human shields

Video (click here)—more evidence of Palestinians using children as human shields

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China, Russia, India, and Asia-Pacific

Video (click title)—Inside Afghanistan

Video (click title)—N. Korea: here we go again

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Europe and Africa

Video (click title)—out of the ashes

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