http://www.freep.com/news/metro/cooper16e_20041116.htm
Desiree Cooper
"With such a wide swath of our citizenry behind bars, the effects of prison have spread beyond the offender. Society itself is now at risk. More than 2 million Americans are now behind bars -- the highest number in our history and the highest rate of incarceration in the world. It seems that as a society, we've decided that it's worth $50 billion a year -- nearly $30 billion more what's being proposed to combat AIDS in Africa and send a man to Mars combined -- to keep society safe from the nation's most dangerous elements.
We hold onto that belief despite the fact that crime has been plummeting for the past decade and 70 percent of the people behind bars are nonviolent offenders. And we continue to invest in harsh, mandatory sentences although they are completely ineffective in the war on drugs."
