Rxan Smith writes on his blog about America’s broken prison system. We spend more on prisons than any other nation and have the highest recidivism. Our “get-tough” approach to crime is a failure, and a very costly one.
Here’s an uncomfortable math problem nobody in Washington wants to do out loud:
America spends $182 billion per year locking people up.
That’s billion. With a B. Every year.
Not to rehabilitate. Not to reduce crime. Not to make you safer.
Just to warehouse human beings in a system so thoroughly designed to fail that two out of every three people released from prison are arrested again within three years.
Our country’s criminal justice system does not offer criminal justice, and it’s barely worthy of being called a system at all.
It’s a revolving door — and somebody built that door on purpose, installed it at taxpayer expense, and charges you rent every time it spins.
Uncomfortable Truth About “Tough on Crime”
For fifty years, American politicians — left, right, and everything in between — have campaigned on being “tough on crime.”
You know what “tough on crime” actually produced?
*The largest incarcerated population on earth: over 2 million people
*A recidivism rate of 67% within 3 years of release
*A $182 billion annual price tag that grows every year
*Communities so stripped of working-age adults that poverty compounds across generations
“Tough on crime” didn’t reduce crime. It industrialized it.
It turned human failure into a growth industry — complete with lobbyists, quarterly earnings calls, and a political class that discovered you can always raise money by scaring people.
Meanwhile, Norway — with its functional approach — runs a prison system with a 20% recidivism rate.
Ours is 67%.
Norway’s isn’t radical. It’s just effective. The difference? They decided prisons should actually produce people who don’t go back.
The Numbers Behind the Nightmare
Let’s get specific, because the specifics are infuriating:
The Scale
*United States incarcerates 655 people per 100,000 — highest rate on earth
*Rwanda is second. We beat Rwanda. Let that land.
*43% of inmates are Black Americans, who represent 13% of the population
*Average cost per inmate: $39,000 per year — more than a year at many state universities
The Recidivism Machine
*67% of released prisoners are rearrested within 3 years
*83% are rearrested within 9 years
*People released with less than $50 in their pocket, a bus ticket, and a criminal record that disqualifies them from housing, jobs, and student loans
*Then we act surprised when they come back
The Private Prison Problem
*Private prison companies manage roughly 8% of inmates but spend millions lobbying for longer sentences, mandatory minimums, and policies that ensure full occupancy
*CoreCivic and GEO Group spent over $25 million on lobbying and political donations between 2000-2020
*They are literally paid to make sure prisons stay full…
What We Got Instead of Rehabilitation
The American philosophy of incarceration rests on three pillars, all of which are broken:
Deterrence: The idea that long sentences scare people away from crime.
Reality: Most crimes are not committed by people weighing a rational cost-benefit analysis. They’re committed by desperate, mentally ill, or addicted people who aren’t doing the math. The death penalty states don’t have lower murder rates. The math doesn’t work.
Incapacitation: Lock them up so they can’t hurt anyone.
Reality: The average sentence ends. People come out. If they come out with zero support, no job prospects, and the same addiction or mental illness that got them there — you haven’t solved the problem, you’ve aged it.
Punishment: They did something wrong; they should suffer.
Reality: Fine. But suffering without any change in behavior just produces someone who suffered. If we want public safety, we need to care about what happens after the punishment ends.
We skipped the part where any of this was supposed to work.
What Rehabilitation Actually Looks Like
Other countries figured this out. We just refused to copy the homework.
The Norwegian Model (No, It’s Not Soft. It’s Smart.)
Halden Prison in Norway has a music studio, a jogging trail, a kitchen where inmates learn to cook, and individual cells with windows. Guards eat lunch with inmates. The focus is on preparing people to live normal lives.
Result: 20% recidivism rate.
The cynical American response: “That’s not punishment.”
The functional response: “Their prisons actually work.”
You want punishment or you want results?
Because right now, we have neither.
What a Real Rehabilitation System Looks Like
Open the link to learn what we should be doing instead of the present failed approach.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
It’s not called the criminal justice system because it provides justice for criminals. It’s called that because the whole system is criminal.
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exactly
It is a criminal . . . “justice” system
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Back in the era of White Supremacy, the system adjudicated people do they could be used to make things. Cotton, lumber, and coal came out cheaper by convict labor. They fought wars locally over that.
Now people get rich by convincing people to spend their taxes on safety. Keep me safe from These People.
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Do you think the era of white supremacy is over?
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No, he doesn’t. But yeah, it is far, far from over.
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Just learned that the local elementary school is requiring that people use their smart phones to purchase books at their book fair. Systemic racism and classism.
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While I do not know much about prisons, I did get some understanding from a man that did some work on my property in Florida. He is about forty years old, divorced with two children that live in a different state. He had sold drugs in his younger days and spent some time in a correctional facility, but the impact of his crime follows him everywhere today. He is routinely stopped by police when they see him in the neighborhood. He is responsible for both a fine of over $10,000 to pay plus alimony payments. If he misses an alimony payment, he gets put back in prison, which. of course, prohibits him from earning any money.
Most big companies will not even consider employing him, even though he has carpentry skills, so he left with odd jobs. He painted my kitchen cabinets and did a great job, and he didn’t do anything shady or wrong while he worked for us. He was also not able to get a driver’s license due to his $10,000 fine, which further inhibited his earning capacity. My kind husband drove him to the grocery store, and we gave him lunch when he came to work.
He revealed to my husband that he still had a drug problem. Since he had Medicaid, which is no longer available today, we called around a found a rehab facility that would accept him. He spent two weeks in a inpatient facility, which was followed by four more weeks outpatient treatment, where my kind husband provided the transportation. Then, he went back to jail for three months because he missed alimony payments, and also he lost his housing when he returned. He claims he remains clean, but lives in a different town now. I do not know if this draconian process the same in every state. I tell this tale of woe because it shows that our so-called correctional facilities in Florida are wholly punitive, not rehabilitative.
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There you have it, folks. The land of the free.
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How do they expect people to integrate into society when the state has a knee on their necks?
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Exactly. Well observed, RT!!!
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