Is Prison a Drug?

In some neighborhouds one in 9 men is in prison. Let me put this simply. This means that there are 9 women to 8 men and human nature takes over, leading to unstable fanilies and children likely to grow up to be offenders themselves. So imprisoning people now means that we will have plenty of hoodlums to imprison in 2030 and imprisoning people next year means that we will have plenty more in 2031. Now there is no choice but to imprison violent crimainals, but in doing so we ensure that we must continue to do so. Just like a drug we must take it to feel good now, but in doing so we continue to feed our addiction. And we are getting more addicted, the prison population was 3,500 in 1980, but 19,000+ now. Some modest efforts have been made which have perhaps reduced the population by a 1,000 or so. However after the Cheshire home invasion, Governor Rell, and you have to sympathize with her, put a hold on the parole system, that left 300 people in prison who would have otherwise been out. Just like an addict having a bad day, we had a relapse. What we need is a "circuit breaker" to stop this endless cycle. Reforming drug policy is a big part of that. It does not fit neatly into a "sound bite", but the Green Party emphasizes sound thinking, not sound bites.