The criminal justice system includes law enforcement, the courts and corrections. All three are cultural institutions that reflect American values. Within the criminal justice system three trends are currently in progress: the distancing of police from the communities they serve; the increasingly bureaucratic and ineffective nature of the courts; and the growing tendency of prison as a means of punishing rather than rehabilitating. American prisons are jammed to capacity as states like California and Pennsylvania are spending billions on the construction of new prisons. Meanwhile the inner cities continue to suffer from poverty and lack of school funding. The lack of educational and employment opportunities in many urban largely minority areas makes such areas a feeding ground for the prison system. For this reason I am opposed to incarceration over rehabilitation. Only rehabilitation can help change current trends in arrests and incarceration rates.
One reason we need rehabilitation is because of the
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