Who gets your vote in 2012?

Barack Obama (BO)	Mike Huckabee (MH)
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Prison System

Home » Issues » Crime and Punishment From the Left   From the Right Prison System The prison system refers to the bureaucracy which has been set in place to administer the day to day operations of America’s prisons. The Federal government is in charge of the overall system, while the individual state governments are involved as well. Of course, given the diverse nature of the inmate population, it is not surprising that a one-size-first-all approach is not only nonsensical but would actually do a vast disservice to the inmates who may be in the system on probation, who may be punished for felony offenses, or who may be housed at a Supermax facility. There has been a clamor for prison system reform – many consider the fact that seemingly harmless drug offenders are serving as much time as hardened criminals, an abomination of justice – yet thus far it has been more of a tug of war of ideas than any real substantive moves toward change. Republican leaders do not want to focus any more on rehabilitation of criminals than is already being done, but instead want to assure victims of crime that their victimizers will not roam the streets once again any time soon. To this end more and more Republicans are looking at the attractive option of privatizing the prison system. The cost reduction that could be experienced would indeed let the budget breathe a sigh of relief, yet details such as standardized care of inmates, as well as transparency of operations still need to be discussed further. Focusing on this issue quickly will bring welcome relief to an overcrowded prison population.