"The Unwanted"

            I agree with Ardiana's blog "The Unwanted", if a person is convicted for killing another person then why don’t they convict all the women that are killing their unborn babies.  A baby has no fault in the decision that their parents take, so why are they the ones being punished. Of course just like all the cases, there are some circumstances that might lead to pregnancy like rape. That’s one of the only times when a woman should have a right to choose, continuing with the pregnancy or to abort. In my opinion they should pass a law making abortion illegal.

Incarceration for the Innocents

Incarceration for the Innocents

            According to reason, United States is one of the countries that has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world. There are 1,524,513 prisoners in state and federal prisons. The International Centre for Prison studies calculated that U.S. has an incarceration rate of 743 per 100,000 people. Compared with other countries, our rate for incarceration is at least double. The U.S.  Incarceration rates have increased in the last three decades, why? It’s all due to the recent policies that have been passed that determines who goes to prison and how much time he does. Does that mean that were surrounded by criminals, no it only means that people are being thrown in jail for misdemeanors.

            I think that, that number is way to high for a great country that we are. Personally, I think that only dangerous criminals and people that endangering people’s lives should be in jail serving time. We are in a period of time that you can be incarcerated for a simple think like possession of drugs like weed in small amounts. According to the CEPR (Center of Economic and Policy Research), nonviolent offenders make up more than 60% of the prison and jail population. Nonviolent drug offenders now account for about one-fourth of all inmates. In other words, many innocent people that were found guilty for non-dangerous things are being placed in jail. There have been some circumstances that people that committed a more serious crime spent less time in prison than someone that was in for a misdemeanor.

            I think that there are many consequences of this wrongdoing. The first thing that comes to my mind is family. All those people that are placed in prison are being separated from their families. There are a lot of kids that are being left without a dad or mom; which really has an emotional effect on them. There is a big financial benefit of not incarcerating people for nonviolent crimes. Right now the cost for correctional spending is over $50 billion a year. With that money that we could save, we could improve and fund other aspects like education. For me, incarceration for nonviolent crimes seems like a joke.