| Problem | Components |
|---|---|
| Policy issue area: | Society |
| Policy issue: | Crime |
| Description: | High rate of crime and harsh sentencing require continuous building and overcrowding of Federal, state and local prisons. |
| Symptoms: | U.S. incarceration rate is the highest in the world, with more than one million people imprisoned; many overcrowded prisons; increasingly brutal treatment of prisoners by officials; racist attitudes single out African-American males for punishment. |
| Causes: | Insufficient attention and emphasis to social problems that foster criminal attitudes; glorification of violence in the media and in public attitudes, such as militarism; epidemic of drug abuse, including alcohol and chemical substances; mandatory sentencing guidelines and other punitive community attitudes. |
| Cost of problem: | $25,000 per year to house a prisoner; removal of large numbers of potential workers from the economy. |
| Solution | Components |
| Resources: | Concerned citizens and community organizations; research institutes; Federal, state and local governments. |
| Goal: | Reduce crime and imprisonment levels to those in other industrial countries (80% reduction). |
| Program area: | Human resources development |
| Program-remedy: | 1. Focus detection and imprisonment on habitual offenders. 2. Modify mandatory sentencing laws 3. Develop alternatives to incarceration, such as boot camps and electronic monitoring of parolees. |
| Program-prevent: | 1. Develop programs that attack underlying social problems and causes contributing
to crime and delinquency -- generate employment, provide quality education, health
care and housing 2. Educational system and community organizations working together to educate in traditional moral values. |
| Cost of program: | - |
| Beneficiaries: | Potential victims of crime; business and industry |