Criminal Justice???

About a month ago Senator Jim Webb, Democrat of Virginia, introduced a bill, which will try to repair our criminal justice system. The United States has more than 1 in 100 people going to prison these days. This is a result of harsher sentences, which don't normally fit the seriousness of the offense.  With these harsher sentences; prisons are becoming overcrowded, expensive and gang violence problems are growing. There are people who are in prison right now who probably don't really need to be there, but they are and we (tax payers) have to pay more and more each month for them to be there. It's not only unfair to them, but to the everyday United States citizen paying taxes. Yes they do need to be punished, but not for that long because it is too expensive. The spending costs of prisons has risen 127 percent in the last two decades. I think its funny we spend more money on prison then we do schools, hospitals, etc. If they can get in and fix the criminal justice system then we could have a little extra money to put towards something that actually needs more attention, like schools and hospital or it may be able to help reduce the amount of layoffs in the United States. That would be great, because i know a lot of families that have lost their jobs, cars, homes, etc. because of the way the economy is right now and every bit helps. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/30/opinion/30mon1.html