Locking Away a Problem

("Smarter Sentencing")

It is a confluence of troubling facts and figures, as the prison system in this country demonstrates that it is broken and broke.

The response of Mr. Holder is an encouraging step, if long overdue. There can be no rational justification for the massive rate of incarceration in this country, totally out of proportion to other civilized countries. We continue to destroy the fabric of the poorest communities, taking away large segments of their population and creating an endless cycle of despair and destruction.

There should be a loud and clear mandate to stop reacting to the symptom and instead treat the cause. The impoverished, the uneducated, must be given reasonable opportunities to rise above their current station. It is well past time that we learned that spending billions of dollars each year to hide away a problem in jails around our country does not eradicate the issue, does not make our nation safer, and ultimately serves the best interest of no one. Our energies and our dollars should be expended not on correctional institutions but rather on corrective actions.