Inmate overcrowding

The prisons in California have had a serious problem with overcrowding in the last decade. Currently California has a population of approximately 36 million while the prison population is at 166,556 and growing. The United States has the highest prison population rate in the world. Drugs make up at least 20 percent of inmates who are incarcerated.

To hold a person in prison can be very expensive and that money is coming from the tax payers. In 2005, the average yearly cost per inmate was $30,929. Since then it has gone up at least another $15,000. Do tax payers really want to be spending this amount of money on each inmate because he was arrested for the possession of marijuana?

With marijuana becoming legal it would makes a difference with the three strikes problem as well. As most people know the three strikes law locks up a criminal for life after three felonies. For many at least one of those strikes is drug related.
New approaches to the problem of crime are needed, but instead, our political leaders keep serving up the same old strategies.

Instead of the state spending their money on building more prisons for the inmates they should be paying more attention on an alternate route because the current one is not working. Marijuana’s legalization would solve a big portion of the overcrowding in prisons. If the state would legalize marijuana and put restrictions on it the government could still keep an eye on those who abuse the drug.


http://www.theinmatelocator.com/California.html
http://skeptically.org/recdrugs/id8.html
http://realcostofprisons.org/blog/archives/2005/03/la_times_overvi.html