Each NY Prison Inmate Costs $167,000 a yr...Same Cost To Put A Young Person Thru Harvard for 4 yrs

[kpete]

Michael Skolnik ‏@MichaelSkolnik 2h
Each New York City prison inmate costs $167,000 a year… the same it would cost to put a young person through four years at Harvard.

https://twitter.com/MichaelSkolnik

[Xyzse]

1. That's an interesting tidbit.

Is that really true?

The prison system however has been privatized, which makes it more of a money generating scheme for the owners rather than an actual means of rehabilitiation.

I am sorry, but if that is the case, I'd rather see prisons, particularly for younger inmates to be like an enhanced school system instead.

That type of money could really be better used to fixing Public schools, and fixing neighborhoods.

I tend to subscribe to the Broken Windows Theory:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_windows_theory

Consider a building with a few broken windows. If the windows are not repaired, the tendency is for vandals to break a few more windows. Eventually, they may even break into the building, and if it's unoccupied, perhaps become squatters or light fires inside. Or consider a pavement. Some litter accumulates. Soon, more litter accumulates. Eventually, people even start leaving bags of refuse from take-out restaurants there or even break into cars.

Where, if things are fixed, people tend to act accordingly and care about their neighborhood.

Instead they just throw money away in to the prison system which doesn't really improve conditions and rehabilitation becomes the exception rather than the norm.