Is the Crackdown on Crime a Failing Investment?

To the Point

KCRW

News

4.4 • 583 Ratings

🗓️ 15 June 2006

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

FBI statistics released this week show the first increase in violent crime in the past four years. Meantime, a bipartisan panel says Americans are getting a dismal return on the $60 billion they spend every year on prisons. Get-tough laws have led to massive over-crowding that allows gangs to take over; ex-convicts are returned to society without the resources to cope. What happens inside the prisons has a lot to do with what happens outside. Is it time for another look at rehabilitation? We hear from journalists, prison authorities, corrections authorities, social-justice advocates and a member of the prison commission, who says, "If these were public schools or publicly traded corporations, we'd shut them down."Making News: Iraq Declares the "Beginning of the End" of al-QaedaAs the death toll of American troops reached 2500 today, Congress staged a debate on Iraq, with Republicans using 74-pages of arguments prepared by the Pentagon. In Iraq itself, the new government claimed the "beginning of the end" to al-Qaeda in Iraq. Scott Peterson is in Baghdad for the Christian Science Monitor.Reporter's Notebook: President Bush Establishes National Monument around HawaiiEnvironmentalists are among the most outspoken critics of the Bush Administration, but today they're saying he's done something right. Today, President Bush created the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Coral Reef Ecosystem Reserve, the world's largest marine protected area. One environmentalist calls it "as important as the establishment of Yellowstone." Paul Rogers is reporting the story for the San Jose Mercury News.

Transcript

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0:00.0	From PRI, Public Radio International and KCRW Santa Monica, this is To the Point.
0:07.4	Is the crackdown on crime a failing investment?
0:14.0	Hello again, I'm Mormon Alney, and this is To the Point from Public Radio International,
0:17.9	the daily look at the issues Americans care about most.
0:20.7	FBI statistics
0:21.6	released this week show the first increase in violent crime in the past four years.
0:26.9	Meantime, a bipartisan panel says Americans are getting a dismal return on the $60 billion they spend every year on prisons.
0:34.7	Get tough laws have led to massive overcrowding that allows gangs to take over.
0:39.3	Ex-convicts are returned to society without the resources to cope. On to the point,
0:44.1	what happens inside the prisons has a lot to do with what happens outside. Is it time for
0:48.9	another look at rehabilitation? On reporter's notebook later on, environmentalists say President Bush has done something
0:56.0	right. First, here's the news.
1:00.5	Support for To the Point comes from subscribers of KCRW Santa Monica and from the Public Radio
1:06.3	International Program Fund, whose contributors include the Ford Foundation and the John
1:11.0	D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Hello again, Warren Alney, back with To the Point.
1:15.5	Americans have been spending $60 billion a year on prisons, but the FBI's latest statistics
1:20.6	show that violent crime is rising for the first time in four years. On To the Point, have
1:25.4	Get Tough laws been oversold? Is it time for another look at
1:28.8	rehabilitation? On reporter's notebook, President Bush wins rare praise from environmentalists. We'll
1:34.4	hear about the largest marine preserve in the world. First, this news update. As the death toll of
1:39.5	American troops reached 2,500 today, Congress staged a debate on Iraq, with Republicans using 74 pages
1:46.0	of arguments prepared by the Pentagon. In Iraq itself, the new government claimed the beginning
	...

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