Prison Society Study

A reasoning society is a society where people are free to debate and each have a voice in
government.  The more we imprison the citizenry, the less free and open a society is.  

CfaRS recently performed some calculations on some statistics regarding the State of Colorado
that are relevant to this point.  The first statistic is the population growth rate for the State of
Colorado itself.  We should expect this would include those who are here for incarceration.  The
second is the growth rate for the number of people incarcerated within that population.  The
general population growth statistic is from http://www.censusscope.org/us/s8/chart_popl.html  .  
The incarceration rate statistic is from http://www.ccjrc.org.  The incarceration growth rate is for
adults only.
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According to these rates of growth, in less that 100 years, Colorado will be a complete
prison-state.  This suggests that we are becoming a less and less free society as this year
approaches.  It suggests that forums for rational discourse where people can live without fear of
institutional repercussions will evaporate as we are all incarcerated.

One might scoff at these statistics and say, "I feel free enough and that's a long time off.  And,
don't we need to keep bad people off the streets?" but this is the time to change these trends,
when we are free and can do something about it.

Citizens convert to "criminal status" because of many factors including economic need that
causes desperate actions, poor preparation for dealing with choices about drugs and other risky
behavior, and because of laws written to treat destructive behavior through criminal penalties
instead of through programs that help citizens get on the right track.  Let's start looking to
improve support for the free citizenry of Colorado, and look to keep citizens both safe and free.  
Let's also consider the biases in the advice of those who would lobby for stiff penalties to their
own advantage, like companies that make money off of for-profit prisons, prison labor, security
services, and criminal monitoring services.  While this industry is growing rapidly more
profitable, we cannot let that be an incentive that accelerate our own incarceration rate.
MOR - CfaRS
Center for a Reasoning Society