If you go to the Netherlands or Japan, where they have fewer police per inhabitant, it is safer than most places in the US.
Anyone who has lived there will tell you this.
We incarcerate far many people than any developed country, and we have more crime than almost all of them. What we do, does not work.
When the Feds gave Pell Grants to inmates to get a college degree, the recidivism rates of graduates fell way below that of inmates of similar abilities.
When the Republican'ts and other deluded politicians stopped giving Pell Grants, the recidivism rose again.
I recall one Florida representative who said, "It I want my son to go to college, then all I need to do is to get him to rob a liquor store."
I understand the logic, but it is purely negative. Most people would never send their son to do this, because robbing liquor stores is very dangerous: the son could be wounded for life or killed.
The argument was that, since we do not give free education, room and board to non-criminals, it is not proper to give it to inmates, who already get the room and board free. They were thinking of this in terms of negative results, because that is what people with negative mentalities do.
They did not consider that the number of crimes and crime victims and money spent on incarceration would all fall as a result of Pell Grants for inmates.
I have taught in a prison, and the inmates I had as students were the very best students I ever had anywhere. Nearly all not only read the materials assigned, they understood why the assignment made sense, suggested improvements and we have very intense intellectual discussions about the lessons.
