"Land of the Free" ?

        With the number of incarcerated increasing again, it’s really hard to call United States the “land of the free”. It has had the reputation of having the highest prisoner population rate in the world. And then you begin to wonder, what’s the purpose of keeping so many people in prison, and whether out national government values retribution or rehabilitation.

       On the United States Department of Justice website it says “More than 650,000 ex-offenders are released from prison every year, and studies show that approximately two-thirds will likely be rearrested within three years of release.” So if the U.S has this information, how come there isn’t a visible change? It seems as if our prison system focuses more on pushing problems under a rock instead of acknowledging it and solving it. I understand that a murderer deserves punishment but someone who is in there for drug abuse due to being raised in an unfortunate environment, deserves help and rehabilitation. The people that are released should be able to come back as better civilians rather than people that are simply expected to go back to jail. The government should make it a priority to invest money into programs within prison systems that help inmates for the better. If people find this to be an unnecessary funding then think of how it affects the society. If these inmates are released and not treated they will only hurt people and cause more complications.

    However, as many years worth of stats have shown, the U.S government only seems to find wasting money on wars and military reasonable. I mean, not like America has any other major problems that could use the time and money, right?