“Misplaced Priorities” is an opinion article in the US News that tells about the way the country spends more money on jailing people and less on the education of people. According to the author, these misplaced priorities have a very bad effect on the neighborhoods that are poor. The poor neighborhoods experience high rates of incarceration, and have bad schools (Stone, 2014). The author feels that priority should be given to education of people rather than on incarceration.
Bad schools do not provide quality education to students. The consequence of this is that students drop out of schools; or finish schools and cannot get jobs. Lack of jobs increases poverty in a region. People become very poor because they do not have a source of income to sustain their livelihood. As a result these people start committing crimes so as to get money for their basic needs and wants. Poverty drives people to criminal activities because they have a great desire to stay alive. The Bible says that poor people should be helped. In this case the government can play a role in helping the poor by providing them with quality education and basic needs. Helping the poor will alleviate poverty, and reduce the rate of crime.
According to the author, compared to the year 1978, the rates of incarceration have tripled in 36 states. In 4 states the rate of incarceration has experienced a six-fold increase. Further research into the story shows that the high rates of incarceration are not caused only by criminals, but even other offenders (Stone, 2014). There has been a tendency to incarcerate offenders, and keep them in jail for longer periods. That is why the budget been allocated to jailing is bigger than that of education. Keeping the offenders in jail for longer periods is denying them their rights. The Bible says that the rights of the poor should be protected. The offenders should not be held in jail for long periods because their rights are being violated. They should be released, and given support so that they may not commit offences again.
References
Stone Chad. Misplaced Priorities: States Spend Too Much of Their Budgets Jailing People and Not Enough Educating Them. 2014. Retrieved from: http://www.usnews.com/opinion/economic-intelligence/2014/11/07/high-incarceration-rates-put-pressure-on-state-budgets-hurt-the-poor
