Eighty percent of women prisoners are convicted for non-violent, economic crimes. An almost equally high percentage of women prisoners are mothers. When mothers are incarcerated it has a more destructive impact on the family unit. That means more children in the foster care system, and potentially more children on the streets, all of that equates to more expenses for the taxpayer. It would be much more cost effective to stop the destruction of the family unit in the first place by using alternative methods of restriction in payment for the crime.
Family ties can reduce crime and save tax dollars.
By overhauling a prison system that presently exacerbates the problem and replacing it with one that is designed to strengthen the family unit, we are rewarded with less dysfunctional mothers, less repeat prison sentences, less angry kids, less violence, and less cost to the taxpayer in the long run. About the Free Press . Letters to the Editor .