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The prisons across America are bursting at the seams. The more prisons that are built, the more beds that will be filled. There's a saying, "If you build it, they will come." There was a time when no one wanted a prison in their community. Now, prisons are BIG BUSINESS! Building a prison means more jobs in that community; more jobs mean that people have more money to spend. When there's more money to spend you need a place to spend that new money; so here come the new malls and the new access roads that lead to the new malls. Boom! Now you have a new community built on the ever-rising prison population. Mandatory sentencing is one of the culprits that has lead to our prison overpopulation of the past 2 decades (that was a really well thought out law), as well as the unswiftness of so called justice. The majority of prisoners are incarcerated due to drug-related crimes. Only a small percentage of prisoners are in prison for life, never to return to society again. It costs over $20,000.00 to incarcerate 1 prisoner for a year. I'm no genius or anything, but can you imagine if we were to take that $20,000.00 plus and used it to educate and provide the necesary treatment for each one of these individuals. Let's take it a step further so that there wouldn't even be as great a need to do that. Remember, I'm no genius, just an average citizen who recognizes that what has been done thus far hasn't worked, isn't going to work and never will work, not in the least. What if the powers that be were to use enough of our tax dollars to reform, actually overhaul, our education systems, meeting the individual and collective needs of today's students. And those who do find themselves on the wrong side of the law must undergo a rigorous, individualized education and treatment plan to meet their individual needs (which would incorporate all the necessary ingredients to give that person a real opportunity to succeed; addressing family issues, education issues, pre-employement/employment issues, community resources and the building of a solid support system as a long-term infrastructure-including a peer mentor, same-sex professional/career mentor and incorporating career internships). Just a thought from an average citizen. The students of today have different needs than when I was in school. We need to bring our thinking up to the level of need of our students. We can't continue to fail our students by passing them along to the next grade and they can't even read, as well as ignoring the skyrocketing drop-out and illiteracy rates. There are hardly any after school programs or community centers anymore, where youth could go and extend their studies with one-on-one help, as well as getting exposed to something positive and productive. What has become the alternative to this is the streets; the streets have become the after school programming of choice and as a result, the streets are raising our children, our future; and we see what that has done (hmm, remember the overpopulated prison system, skyrocketing drop-out and illiteracy rates, drug-related crimes?) This is not rocket science people. We have all these mega college degrees, can send people into outer space, invent new ways to do anything we choose, etc. Maybe that's the issue, society doesn't want to change these aspects of our justice and education systems. We spend money on what we think is a priority. Obviously, our youth, their future, their education, their value to themselves and to society is not a priority for us. How did we let this get so out of control? Why aren't we making our voices heard in our local, state and federal governments? Are we even voting? It doesn't seem like we stand for anything anymore. What happened to us? We used to be fighters, people of substance. It's a good thing ending slavery, desegregation, the right to vote, advancing the civil rights movement, etc., didn't depend on this last generation. All that being said, it's still not too late for change . We can still make a difference! Please don't get me wrong, I believe that certain people need to be incarcerated, away from the general public, like violent offenders. But for those who don't meet that criteria, and incarceration has not proven to be effective for them, which is the majority of the prison population, we need to do something different.....and quick! Community interveniton is mandatory. You are the community! Can we really afford to continue down this youth-defeating, community-defeating road; if we do, we will have lost a generation. And I, for one, am not ready to give-up on this and future generations.It's crisis time everyone. And in a crisis you have to come together to provide for those in need by organizing ourselves and gathering resources. I'm calling on those who are seriously interested in the issues presented in this 'Social Commentary' discussion to think about how you can get involved. We need to have representatives in each state to head their community teams. That's the first step, seeing who wants to get involved. Think about the level of involvement and commitment that you can make to this cause and post your interest. I will be in touch soon with another posting to give further information and instruction on organizing this movement. God bless you all, Sharon