Of course, the jail is too small. Of course, prisons are too expensive. How can this be a surprise when the U.S. chooses to incarcerate 2 million of its citizens at annual cost of more than $80 billion, an annual cost of more than $39,000 per inmate in federal prisons and nearly $70,000 per inmate in the state of Washington?
Better questions: Why don’t we prioritize rehabilitating our fellow citizens over punishing them? Why don’t we notice Norway’s humane and effective policies toward law-breakers and its 25 percent recidivism, compared to our 44 percent?
Why don’t we favor training our people instead of locking them up? Why don’t we provide free college education, as many European nations do, considering that education costs less than $13,000 per student annually, a small fraction of the cost of incarceration?
