You've probably never thought about what it costs society to criminalize poverty. We've been throwing the same people in jail for decades and it has done nothing to make the country safer or alleviate the underlying problems.
Of course it has made society safer. With the criminals in prison, they aren't on the street to mug you and kill you. That's why prisons exist. Duh!
When they let large numbers of criminals out of jail in California, the crime rate skyrocketed. Practically every one of the released criminals was arrested again.
Please inform yourself on issues before you knee jerk react to them. Mass incarceration has done nothing except create a brutal industry that feeds on human misery. Most of it is the stupid drug war. We throw people in jail by the thousands and Americans can still get all the drugs they want. It is both cheaper and more effective to treat addiction but that's too nice for you law and order types. Gotta have the jails packed. Gotta justify the police state.
FALSE! Mass incarceration has kept the society outside the prison, safe from the prisoners inside it. Ask you local 10 years olds. They can tell you.
We would have MORE drugs on the street if pushers were not being arrested. As for treatment of addicts, that's already being done, and has been for decades, Did you just arrive from the moon ?
Yes, the jails DO have to be packed, for as much as it takes to keep criminals off the street. Hard to believe I have to explain this. This is how warped the liberal mind has become.