A whopping 50% of these prisoners are imprisoned for drug related crimes. Addiction to drugs used to be something seen as a problem for which one must receive medical attention and guidance. Instead, the justice systems are scooping them up to place them in jail before they are even given a chance to rehabilitate. To make matters worse, instead of giving these people proper treatment so that they can recover and be more responsible upon their release, they are locked away and force to face withdrawl without guidance and assistance. Why is this? In society today people look down upon criminals not only for their actions, but for using their tax dollars. We think "Why should we pay more money to help them? What did they do to help society?". But it is just like Morgan says on the show 30 Days, that helping these people will ultimately create a ripple effect even from just that even 1% of criminals who do recover. It eventually creates a ripple effect so big that it would seem worth it to pay to help these people out.
As a whole the justice system needs to be changed itself. It acts as a revolving door: most who are imprisoned, come back soon after their release. Why? Because as Americans we like to think we are perfect. We make mistakes, but we don't acknowledge them. So most Americans say "once a criminal, always a criminal". This most likely causes criminals to go back to jail. They are rejected by society so they regress back to the last place they felt more accepted by their peers even if it is behind steel bars.
