Since I am a bit late on blogging, I wanted to post two today to catch up. Another guest speaker who really spoke to me talked about prisons in the United States. She opened our eyes to the reality of our justice system, and I couldn't agree with her more. I did a presentation on rehabilitation vs incarceration during my sophomore year at LCC, and the statistics are truly startling. The recidivism rates are outrageous; this especially true for Hawaii, where the majority of arrests are drug offenders.
Having had a family member who has struggled with addiction, I completely understand how serious this problem is. We are not dealing with the crisis at hand in the correct way. Sending a drug addict to prison and expecting them to be released and live a normal life is ridiculous. I believe strongly that we need to offer, in every prison, a way out. We need to allow them the opportunity to recover. We need to treat them like human beings. Drug addicts are not bad people; they just made bad choices. If our tax dollars are going towards locking these people up, I think it's a real waste if they're just going to end up right back behind bars. We need to work on a solution. We need to remember that we are all human, and we all deserve that second chance at life.
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