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Right now in the United States of America murderers, rapists, and child molesters are being set free. Prisoners are watching T.V., eating a meal, and using exercise equipment while law abiding citizens are starving and living in the gutters. Prisoners even have their own periodical. Dangerous criminals are walking the streets and crime is a way of life to many Americans. In America, crime does pay because our nation's prison system is not working.
The nation's prison system must be changed because of major problems with the system such as overcrowding and the fact that early release programs do not work. Building more jails is expensive and does not solve anything. These problems can be solved by giving prisoners no chance for parole and imprisoning only violent offenders. The non-violent offenders should enter a work program for the duration of their sentence. Since 1980, jail and prison populations have grown by 172 percent (United States 11 Sept. 1994). Overcrowding is both inhumane to the prisoner and dangerous to the prison staff. When you put a lot of people, especially criminals, in close quarters tensions rise and the chance of a riot increases. If a riot occurs both prisoners and guards are put in danger. In some states, the jails are full. There is an estimated backlog of 29,000 state prisoners who are incarcerated in county jails awaiting new cells in Texas. (Brida 24 Nov. 1994) Texas is not the only state with overcrowding problems. For example, Ohio's prison system is operating at 180 percent of capacity. (Varnam 16) Also, the federal prison system is 37 percent over-capacity (Clark 4 Feb. 1994). Statistics like this are found across the country. Prisons should have two results; 1. Keep dange ...