Falling Crime, Teeming Prisons

        The number of people in jail is increasing, while the crime rate is decreasing. The relationship was confusing at first, but then it made sense. The crime rate is decreasing because everyone who committed the crime is in jail, overpopulating the prisons. "The United States has 5 percent of the world’s population, yet 25 percent of the world’s prisoners.", this is pathetic. Is this because of incompetent parents, the area which we grew up in, or the bad economy? There are many factors that could affect this statistic, but none are mentioned in this article. "Spending on prisons has reached $77 billion a year" and now we have to wonder if we really want our tax dollars to be spent on criminals that probably have never paid into our government because they are spending life in prison. Prisons are now being used as a, "warehouse for people with drug or alcohol addiction", with less than half of the inmates being charged with a violet crime. We need prison reform.
      The New York Times editorial is very informative and influential. They want prison reform very badly and expressed everything in a short, but strong manner. I would not want to be the one in charge of prison reform, but this problem will not go away overnight. Prison reform was put on the back burner because of the weak economy, but its now or never to fix this ever-growing problem.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/30/opinion/sunday/falling-crime-teeming-prisons.html?src=recg