Problem

Millions of people around the world are isolated from most forms of meaningful social interaction, deprived of their political rights and given minimal economic opportunities. [CITATION NEEDED]

Scope

According to the International Centre for Prison Studies (ICPS)

“More than 10.1 million people are held in penal institutions throughout the world, mostly as pre-trial detainees/remand prisoners or as sentenced prisoners. Almost half of these are in the United States (2.29m), Russia (0.81m) or China (1.65m sentenced prisoners). In addition, more than 650,000 are in”detention centers" in China; if these are included the overall Chinese total is over 2.3 million and the world total more than 10.75 million."

While crime decreased since the 1990’s, the incarceration rate did not. In fact, the number of persons supervised by U.S. adult correctional systems has increased.

Prisons, jails, probation, and parole cost around $74 billion in 2007 according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

causes

Increasing income inequality

The “War on Drugs”

Lobbying of private parties

Increase in a type of crime not mentioned here (e.g. Drug possession, Illegal Immigration, etc)

Tractability

FIXME

Let Prisoners Take College Courses

Ecuador legalized gangs. Murder rates plummeted

Extraneous factors in judicial decisions

Neglectedness

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