Is the Crackdown on Crime a Failing Investment?

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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.
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-Qaeda
    As 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 Hawaii
    Environmentalists 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.

FBI's Preliminary Crime Statistics for 2005

Prison Commission's report, 'Confronting Confinement'

Rand on substance abuse

Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Coral Reef Ecosystem Reserve

James Campbell National Wildlife Refuge Expansion Act of 2005

1906 Antiquities Act

Jean-Michel Cousteau's Voyage to Kure

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Host:

Warren Olney