Cost of sending people to jail and better Justice system.

Law and order is not in the vacuum .when we send somebody to jail as punishment we give a financial sentence to the public for the wrong doing of individual.May be it is fare as society has failed to raise upright citizens so the cost is to state as punishment.

When a judge sends a vagabond who is homeless for loitering 50 dollars it is obvious he can not pay and sentences him or her to 15 days in prison.That ends up as 1500 dollars fine to the public for maintenance of the prisoner as cost of incarnation in my state is 105 dollars per day.This does not take in account the cost to police department,legal system,public defendant and prosecutors.That may as well be another 1500 dollars .Can we afford such costs .

Missouri Tells Judges Cost of Sentences By MONICA DAVEY
Published: September 18, 2010

For the first time Judges in Missouri are told cost to state of their sentences .It is a good start and all the judges should know the cost of their sentences and better still when any legislature wants to play the game of being tuff on crime and want mandatory sentences they should be told the cost of legislation.If we know the real cost we may find alternate ways to reduce the cost of the crime.Sometimes we may find welfare and food stamps and housing assistance may be cheaper than the incarceration.

Probation and supervised house confinement is also lesser expensive way for the punishment.Long sentences and even capital punishment are no deterrent to crime.

Trying minors as adults

Today there is an editorial in NYT about this issue.It is important that we treat our children with special care and nurture them ,encourage them so they may become productive and hopefully outstanding citizens.
When children commit crimes many times states in their desire to punish them have tried these children as adults and done excessive harm to society as whole.More prisoners have just left us broke.
Can we train families to take care of young children in risk and help them so they may become productive members of our society. Parenting and ideal parenting should be taught in school .Any body single and pregnant wanting to keep the baby should be put through child raising boot camp so they may learn to be good parents .We should also make an effort to pair children at risk with parents with resources and time to care.I always hear that many families are desperate to adopt .let us create a category where a child can have a lifelong relationship with another couple(parents) for nourishment and mutual care.It would be higher than foster parents, less than total adoption where birth parents loose all the rights.May be a hybrid Parenting with children's welfare as focus.
I have read stories of American families adopting extremely handicapped children at cost of 30 to 50 thousand dollars.They have all the ingredients to be part of a needy family which may not have Ware whittles about how to raise exceptional children.