TAKE NOTE:
I am including facts at the end of this blog, if you should find yourself wanting to know more about why I'm sounding off regarding this matter. Remember I am the proud owner of a brain possessing many great braincells. I also have a heart of gold. Unfortunately I can't pawn it for the money to help people in a less fortunate financial state than I am.
3G VENTING:
There are starving children right here in America. They wake up to nothing in the fridge and nothing in the bread drawer. They go to sleep hungry, wondering what they've done wrong to deserve the life they are forced to live. Some of those children have a daddy or a mommy or somebody who is supposed to be caring for them that, instead of spending money on food and clothing for a child depending on them, choose to spend it on drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, fancy cars, bling, clothing and what have you. Some people really are that selfish. I myself went to bed hungry because my mom at one point in my life believed it was more important for her to have nice clothes so she could be a better salesperson than it was for her children to have food in the cupboards. She changed. People can change, but I know that pain. We all know pain, right? There are families that deserve to have a roof over their head, but are forced to walk the streets homeless, longing for a change for the better. They struggle to find food, shelter and work with little hope left in their hearts. Naturally I blame that infamous ARM glitch on mortgages, the economical status we currently struggle with as a nation and various other reasons for that problem. There are so many other things that the government could be using our tax money for, but instead... we pay for boarding serial killers, murderers, child rapists, rapists fed and clothed. Now believe me, I have mad respect for those who DO turn their lives around upon being released from prison. If they learn from it and better themselves as a person because of that experience, all the more power to them. I see that as being a rare occurance, though. Now back to those without the will to change: I see THEM as a waste of life, time and money... when they have no remorse and there is no real chance for rehabilitating them. It costs an average of $22,000 per year to imprison somebody. I strongly believe that money could be used to feed starving children, help homeless people/families, better our education system, provide health care for those who cannot afford it and SO much more. What are YOUR thoughts on this, people?
IMPRISONMENT FACTS:
http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~tonya/spring/cap/pro5.htm
At the end of 1992 State and Federal prisons reached a record high of 883,593 prisoners. This record means that approximately 1,143 prison bed spaces are needed per week due to overcrowding. To put this in an economic prospective, on the average each prisoner cost $22,000 per year, and the cost of new construction averages almost $54,000 per bed (AAE "Prison"). The 883,593 prisoners are costing the American taxpayers approximately $19.4 billion plus another $61.7 million for the construction of the 1,143 spaces needed. Why should we, the tax payers/the victims, support these criminals? It's true that not all the prisoners are hard core, but in 1992, 2,575 prisoners -- all murderers -- were sentenced to death (BJS 5-93). 31 (one female) of the 2,575 (36 female) murderers had been executed during 1992. This is the largest number of people executed for any year since 1976 (BJS 12-92). By executing these murders, the American tax money could be used for something more useful. Thus the economy benefits from the death penalty. Plus, it helps lower the prison population by the number executed.
The average time a death row prisoner has to spend in jail until the death sentence is carried out is about nine years and six months (BJS 12-92). It's more economical to keep them in prison for those nine years and execute them, rather than give let them spend their life in jail, taking up space and tax money. Those who argue that it's more expensive to execute a prisoner don't look at the overall picture. Suppose the Amount A equals the amount of money to support one prisoner per year ($22,000) and Amount B equals the cost of the execution (negligible). We are talking about paying Amount A times the nine years spent in jail plus Amount B for the execution plus the cost for new construction during the nine years (total is approx. $690,000), as opposed to paying Amount A times an average of 60 years the prisoner would spend in jail plus the cost of new construction during an average of 60 years (total is approx. $4,560,000). Even if the prisoner spent 20 years in prison the cost would be approx. $1,520,000.
HOMELESS&HUNGER STATISTICS&FACTS:
National Homeless Estimates: 700,000 per night; 2 million/year. (National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, 1999).
Thirty-one million Americans now live in hunger or on the edge of hunger. (State Government Responses to the Food Assistance Gap 2000, Third Annual Report and 50 State Survey, December 2000).
One in five people in a soup kitchen line is a child (America's Second Harvest, Hunger 1997: The Faces & Facts).
In 1999, approximately 12 million American children were hungry or at risk of hunger (United States Department of Agriculture, Household Food Security in the United States, Fall 2000).
Families are the largest and fastest growing segment of the homeless population. New York City officials report a record of 6,252 families with a total of 20, 655 members are lodging nightly in city shelters, with rapid increase. (Use of Shelters By Families Sets Record in City, New York Times; Metropolitan Desk, August 1, 2001). In 2000, requests for emergency food assistance from families with children increased by 16% in American cities over the past year, the highest rate of increase since the recession of 1991 (U.S. Conference of Mayors, Hunger and Homelessness in America's Cities, December 2000).
Nearly 1 in 5 children (more than 12 million) in the U.S. live in poverty (U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, October 2000 Update). The U.S. child poverty rate is higher than that of most other industrialized nations.
In 1999, more than half of all food stamp recipients, 9.3 million people were children (Children's Defense Fund, Poverty Matters: The Cost of Child Poverty in America, 2000).
Nearly 9 million children in the U.S. live in working poor families (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, The Poverty Despite Work Handbook, 1999).
In its 1998 survey of 30 cities, the U.S. Conference of Mayors found that the homeless population was 49% African-American, 32% Caucasian, 12% Hispanic, 4% Native American, and 3% Asian (U.S. Conference of Mayors, 1998).
46% of cities surveyed by the U.S. Conference of Mayors identified domestic violence as a primary cause of homelessness (U.S. Conference of Mayors, 1998).
Research indicates that 40% of homeless men have served in the armed forces, as compared to 34% of the general adult male population (Rosenheck, Robert, Homeless Veterans, in Homelessness in America, 1996).
Approximately 20-25% of the single adult homeless population suffers from some form of severe and persistent mental illness (Koegel, Paul, The Causes of Homelessness, Homelessness in America, 1996, Oryx Press.). According to the Federal Task Force on Homelessness and Severe Mental Illness, only 5-7% of homeless persons with mental illness require institutionalization; most can live in the community with the appropriate supportive housing options (Federal Task Force on Homelessness and Severe Mental Illness, 1992).
Recent research indicates that even mild under-nutrition experienced by young children during critical periods of growth may lead to reductions in physical growth and affect brain development (The Links Between Nutrition and Cognitive Development of Children, 1998, Tufts University School of Nutrition Science and Policy).
There were record levels of homelessness in New York after the Sept 11 terrorist attacks. (New Wave of the Homeless Floods Cities' Shelters, The New York Times; National Desk, December 18, 2001)
* The 500,000-600,000 estimate is sometimes updated by using a projected rate of increase of 5% a year to produce an estimate of over 700,000 people homeless on any given night, and up to 2 million people who experience homelessness during one year. As a result of methodological and financial constraints, most studies are limited to counting people who are literally homeless -- that is, in shelters or on the streets. While this approach may yield useful information about the number of people who use services such as shelters and soup kitchens, or who are easy to locate on the street, it can result in underestimates of homelessness.
