REFORM & SECOND CHANCES
It costs taxpayers, on average, $60,000 to incarcerate one person for one year. I want you to think about this for a moment: sending someone to jail costs more than providing them treatment, stable housing, and private college education. Simply put, sending someone in a jail cell for a disease is far more expensive than rehabilitating them.
Did you know?
America is home to only 5% of the world's total population, but 30% of the world's incarcerated population.
After jail or prison, the punishment does not stop. For those stamped with a felony. 8 times out of 10, that person will struggle to find meaningful work, recidivate, and end up becoming a “public charge" (I was one).
Limited options to become self-reliant increases a person’s reliance on federal programs such as supplemental Security Income (SSI); Temporary Assistance for Needy Families ; Medicaid; and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)—programs that our tax dollars pay dearly for.
Instead of setting people up to become public charges, let’s help set them up to become productive taxpayers. Let’s be generous with second chances and allow those who made mistakes to try again. Let’s implement sentencing reforms that eliminate unnecessarily long prison stays.
Let’s focus on setting our fellow humans up for success, because, at the end of the day, it is far more productive and cost-effective than setting them up to fail.