American people could be funding the trip to Mars instead of what they are now funding. We are funding the wrong future with mass incarceration. We don't have to have people miss their children's birthday or Christmas if we fix the incarceration system. American taxpayers are wasting valuable resources by investing too much in the prison systems.
Our first order of business, we need to stop the severe overpopulation and overspending of prisons. "...We will spend an additional $9.8 billion to incarcerate our fellow Americans"(Freidman 16). With this absurd sum of money, you could buy a plane skip the private jet, a 747 to yourself. But, what if the government had this extra money? They could add to NASA's annual budget and possibly fast-track the Mars expedition. However, at the pace of annual incarceration, several more taxpayer's dollars will go into the prison system."There is a 1050% change of the amount of inmates in prison from 1970 to 2016"(Sentencing 1). At that rate, we will have an estimated total of 2,683,333 if we do not start the change now. We need to use different methods of imprisonment. We need to possibly use probation more and for more drastic situations we could use the death sentence.
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"With drug trafficking and possession sentences with probation is 5.29%"(US 1). The other 94.71% goes to jail for possession of drugs. They do not need to go to prison, they just need rehab. Also, I am sure that rehab is cheaper than feeding, clothing, and housing. Another issue is we incarcerate more than other countries."U.S. has the highest incarceration rate out of all of Europe"(Sentencing 17). We do not have to imprison everyone if they do a wrong. Prisons should be a last resort, not a first option. Prison should only hold killers or drug lords, not some person who accidentally got involved with illegal