The Importance Of Budget Cuts

Studies have shown that art programs help the development of the brain by improving “mental representations of what is observed or imagined; symbolic, allegorical and metaphorical representations; careful observation of the world; and abstraction from complexity”(How the Arts). So why would the school board or government allow budget cuts in school art programs if it helps improve a child's development of the brain? Even though language arts and mathematics are important and basic courses that every student may need in the future, art programs should not have budget cuts because it helps improve a child’s learning ability and understanding of the world around them. It also helps students and children in low income communities that may not have

Sterbenz, Christina. “Why Norway’s Prison System Is so Successful.” Business Insider. Business Insider, 11 Dec. 2014. Web. 13 Apr. 2017.

In today’s school systems, art and music classes are not mandatory to be taught. This makes them very vulnerable to budget cuts in struggling schools. It is estimated that more than eighty percent of schools nationwide have experienced cuts to their budgets since 2008 (Metla). Every child in America deserves a complete education, and a complete education includes the arts. Due to budget cuts, many students do not receive instruction in art and music and therefore do not receive a full education. Music and art classes in schools are just as important as core classes and should not be subject to budget cuts.

In contrast, Hernu’s story “Norway’s Ideal Prison” from One World, Many Cultures talks about the world’s first human “Ecological Prison” on Bastoy Island, Norway. Bastoy Prison is Norway’s largest low-security prison. On the island murders and other violent felons are found, but the guards trust them with knives, chainsaws, and other weapons. “‘I have not had one violent incident here,’ the governor continues. ‘One inmate did managed to escape by stealing a fishing boat one night, and his punishment was to be sent back to a closed prison’” (Hernu 247). Bastoy prison is pretty lenient, and laid back when it comes to prisoners but if you break any of the rules you will be sent back immediately. Frank, a cattle herder said, “‘…For the first time in my life I feel motivated and believe in myself. I really believe I can break my circle of crime’” (Hernu 250). The results Bastoy Prison has produced shows that the “Ecological Prison” does work.

There is a great debate throughout our country, and in individual states, over how long criminals should be incarcerated for various crimes. The relationship between the length of prison terms and recidivism is one of the central points of the debate in sentencing and corrections policy. Many people assert that longer prison terms are more effective at deterring future crimes because they set higher price for criminal behavior and because they hold offenders until they are more likely to “age out” of a criminal life style. However, others argue just the opposite and that is more time behind bars increases the chances that inmates will reoffend later because it breaks their supportive bonds in the community and hardens their associations with other criminals. According to Oliver (2011), both of these arguments are accurate because the strongest research finds that these two theories cancel each other out. Several studies, looking at different populations and using varied methodologies, have attempted to find a relationship between the length of prison terms and recidivism but have failed to find a consistent impact, either positive or negative. There is one thing for sure and that is incarceration and recidivism is a very active cycle which affects the lives of many

Laws needed to be revised and sentencing policies put in place to produce these services. This showcases the budgetary instruments of policy and the services provided by the government to fund and create these programs. For some states, this is a change primarily to create free beds and loosen the budget. However, the changes in Maryland are not budget driven (Swope, 2004). Without an emphasis on providing treatment to convicts, there is a great risk of creating a cycle that ends in reconviction.

“Rehabilitation Over Incarceration” is an essay written by a K-State student on the issue of prisoners being rehabilitated back into the real world/ rather than imprisoning, rehabilitating into society. The writer focuses on Norway’s prison system versus the United States as well as education between prisoners in the two country’s systems. Next, the writer focuses on the values of educating the U.S. prisoners, including benefits as well as outlined cost to do so. Lastly, the student asks us the why portion which includes statistics on ethnicities in colleges and universities (1-9).

California has one of the nation’s highest recidivism rates, which has been a well-known problem for many years. The rate has been steadily dropping. However it is still about 15% higher than the national average of 43.3% (McDonald, “California’s Recidivism Problem”). The recidivism problem in California is caused by rehabilitation programs not being effective enough to keep ex-convicts out of prison. Keeping prisoners in the California prison system is an enormous waste of taxpayer money. Instead of spending more and more on prisons, the money could be used elsewhere such as lowering college tuition for students. The government could easily save money for other purposes such as this by changing rehabilitation to make it more effective. In order to reduce spending on prisons and recidivism, prisons need to have better rehabilitation programs to make ex-convicts into productive members of society.

While the states fall short to fulfill their budgetary needs for safety, infrastructure, and education short comes, the prison population has increased each year and its annual budgets. However, in the television show on CNN discussing the failure of our prison system, “In 2011, California spent $9.6 billion on prisons, versus $5.7 billion on higher education.” (Zakaria , 2012)

That is why I have decided to give my support to help fund numerous policies that could help not only with the overcrowding issue, but could also help get these individuals the appropriate assistance they need in order for them to get back on their feet. Public policies are the perfect solution. If we could create different policies to help not only inmates, but law enforcement as well then we could reduce a lot of the issues that surround prison facilities. For instance, in the article “Incarceration Nation,” Lorna Collier discusses the Recidivism Reduction and Public Safety Act which would allow inmates to reduce their sentences by participating in a drug treatment and job training sessions (62). This policy alone could help with not only the overcrowding issue by giving inmates a lesser sentence, but it could also help these inmates in the future when they are let out. The drug treatment class would assist drug addicts in trying to better themselves and hopefully stop them from using drugs later on in life preventing repeat offences. This would not only save a lot of income that comes from tax payer’s money that goes to the prison system to incarcerate that individual, but it will also help that individual to get an opportunity at a career. The job training would be substantially beneficial for the inmates to be a part of because it could train them and give them a larger opportunity of getting a legitimate, stable, income for their family. However, this is merely one policy, and look at the effects that it can have on

As most people will agree, education is an important factor to succeed. Educated people in a society stand for a successful society. The issue in Illinois is the universities aren’t being provided the funds promised to them by the Illinois State government. The schools are being forced to make budget cuts. The teachers at the schools are being forced to take furlough days, which are day they have take off with out a pay. The cause of all of these actions is due to the major debt the State of Illinois is in. The money the state should be paying the universities, the state is using it on other items. University of Illinois is one of the schools that has to take budget cuts. This is unfair to the University of Illinois because the State

It is interesting that a long time ago President Woodrow Wilson vetoed a bill that Congress had just enacted authorizing legislation to have an executive budget.But, the very next year President Warren G. Harding decided it was time for an executive budget, and he signed it into law. This is a big contrast from not only one President to the next, but one year to the next. Each President had their own opinion on how the government should spend the people's money in this case.

With the population of the United States prisons growing every day we need to evaluate if they are doing any good. Personally, I believe that we need to keep our prison system, but we need to take steps in reforming them rather than abolish them altogether. The United States has the highest number of incarcerated people than any other country in the world. We must sit down and look at other countries and see what they are doing different than the United States. In this paper, we will first look at what the prison system in America is like and what we can do to improve upon our prison system. Then, we will also look at the Finland prison systems and see if we can learn anything from them, since they have one of the lowest incarceration and crime rate in the world. We will then look at reforming our prison system or abolishing it. Finally, we will investigate other punishment alternatives other than the prison system that we could use.

Both Norwegian and American prisons have different things that set them apart like the population, incarceration rate, sentencing, and common crimes. Both prisons

Budget cuts in schools cause turmoil and stress among the students and faculty. Drastic changes in the budgets have caused schools to negatively impact the people around them. With the lack of funding, schools are facing difficult decisions on what to do to stay within their budget. Supervision is facing much scrutiny on how to handle the lack of funding in their school districts. A solution needs to be made to improve the distribution of funding to our schools in order to keep them operating and thriving for our children to obtain their education. Budget cuts in schools have shown negative effects on employee positions, supplies, extracurricular activities.