Incarceration Pros And Cons

The United States only has 5 percent of the world's population and uses 75 percent of the world's prescription drugs. The United States has the highest prison population out of all the countries and almost half of the prisoners are there because of drug crimes. Due to the ever increasing drug use in the U.S. today, our society would benefit from less punishment and more rehabilitation, some benefits include less spending, lower incarceration rates and lower death rates.
Drugs affect three systems in the brain: the brain stem, limbic system, and the cerebral cortex. The brain stem is in charge of functioning all the systems we need to live, such as digesting food, moving blood, and breathing. The Limbic system helps control our emotional responses.
Even with this cut it would only drop the prison rate by 14 percent and would still leave the United States leading with the number of Incarcerations. Another vital argument is that when drug abusers are required to have prison time that it gives the court an opportunity to give fair prison time such as the harsher the crime the longer the sentence and it also guarantees that the prisoner can do no more harm to others in society. This is a very important factor of the opposing argument because many people fear for their safety and the safety of others, and if they can guarantee that safety they will. Opposers would also state that punishment is clear to criminals that what they have done was wrong, but rehabilitation shows mercy and some criminals might not learn from their actions. Also you can never really tell when rehab has worked with an abuser, so some might believe they were okay and then end up relapsing, and some might had never been okay and relapse. These are the important opposing arguments, but these arguments are not taking a stand to solve theses issues that America is facing daily, monthly,