Prison reform is much needed in America. According to the US Department of Justice, in 2005 there were 2,193,798 prisoners in American Prisons and Jails a 2.7% increase over 2004. Society is getting worse and yet the prison system remains the same. What can we do about this? Obviously when you read below you will see there is a great need to reform the current system. Not in a small way, we need to reinvent the wheel in this case.

Sexual Violence Reported by Correctional Authorities Correctional authorities substantiated 885 incidents of sexual violence in 2005, 15% of completed investigations. 38% of allegations involved staff sexual misconduct; 35% inmate-on-inmate nonconsensual sexual acts; 17%, staff sexual harassment; and 10% inmate-on-inmate abusive sexual contact. Half of inmate-on-inmate sexual violence involved physical force or threat of force.

In 2002 --

• 68% of jail inmates reported symptoms in the year before their admission to jail that met substance dependence or abuse criteria.
• 16% of convicted jail inmates said that they committed their offense to get money for drugs.
• 63% of inmates who met substance dependence or abuse criteria had participated in substance treatment or other programs.

Thanks to the ACLU prisoners are still allowed pornography in prison. Go figure, perhaps we should supply them Viagra as well.

The adult probation population grew 0.5% in 2005. This was an increase of 19,070 probationers, or the smallest increase in the last 26 years.

• About 50% of all probationers had been convicted of a felony, 49% of a misdemeanor, and 1% of other infractions. Twenty-eight percent were on probation for a drug law violation, and 15% for driving while intoxicated.

I guess this is one more reason to legalize marijuana. If you make it legal we won’t have crime. Yeah, this makes sense and while we are at it lets legalize violent crimes so we don’t have them either.

Why is it that they can stay in their cell 24/7 and not have to work? These people need to be trained. We should not have to pay state road crews, paint crews etc. when we have people that we can utilize as part of their sentence. Not only do criminals victimize us once, but then we have to pay for housing, dental, health. They should have to work off their sentence, no exceptions.                                                                                                                                   Out of the illegal aliens in our country according to the government agency http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d05646r.pdf 97% of illegal aliens were arrested at least one time. Man that makes me feel good to know that congress and senate have our best interest on the immigration issue.

So what can we do? Get out of your comfort zone and call your senators, congressman and President and tell them you demand a change.

Capitol switch board (202)224-3121 and ask for your senators' and/or representative's office or email: http://www.congress.org/congressorg/issues/basics/?style=comm For the President: (202) 456-1414 email: president@whitehouse.gov