When a prison system passes 18 year olds from juvenile facilities to adult facilities is there any doubt there are profound problems with incarceration. Young minds and hearts are far easier to reform and bring a better understanding to the meaning of life. But, it doesn't happen and career criminals start young.
July 19, 2015
By Peter Funt
...The tide of opinion (click here) is turning quickly concerning the gaping hole in America’s promise to treat citizens fairly. Our poorly run, overcrowded, shamefully inequitable incarceration system is all of a sudden under intense review.
At the El Reno prison in Oklahoma, the president stood outside a 9-by-10 cell that confines three men at a time. “These are young people who made mistakes that aren’t that different from the mistakes I made,” he said, referring to his experiments with drugs while growing up in Hawaii. “The difference is, they did not have the kind of support structures, the second chances, the resources that would allow them to survive those mistakes.”
The president made clear that his focus is on nonviolent offenders, many serving terms imposed under rigid mandatory sentencing laws which have caused the nation’s prison population to explode. This has disproportionately affected young Hispanic and African-American men....
By Peter Funt
...The tide of opinion (click here) is turning quickly concerning the gaping hole in America’s promise to treat citizens fairly. Our poorly run, overcrowded, shamefully inequitable incarceration system is all of a sudden under intense review.
At the El Reno prison in Oklahoma, the president stood outside a 9-by-10 cell that confines three men at a time. “These are young people who made mistakes that aren’t that different from the mistakes I made,” he said, referring to his experiments with drugs while growing up in Hawaii. “The difference is, they did not have the kind of support structures, the second chances, the resources that would allow them to survive those mistakes.”
The president made clear that his focus is on nonviolent offenders, many serving terms imposed under rigid mandatory sentencing laws which have caused the nation’s prison population to explode. This has disproportionately affected young Hispanic and African-American men....
