International Herald Tribune:

The population of America's jails and prisons passed two million last year, for the first time in history. The United States has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world, and one that falls unevenly. An estimated 12 percent of African-American men between 20 and 34 are behind bars, more than seven times the rate for white men the same age.

There is clearly a direct tie-in with the research I saw presented last Wednesday. According to Mark Coehn in The Monetary Value of Saving a High Risk Youth, the lifetime cost to society of a career criminal is $1.3 million per prisoner. The cost to society, therefore, is $2.6 trillion to deal with 2 million prisoners.

What to do? Support an early prevention and intervention program, such as Friends of the Children, which finds seriously at-risk children and gives them a paid adult mentor from age 6 through 18.

An ounce of prevention is certainly worth a pound of cure.

-Tim
2:08:53 PM    comment []  

CIOL:

Girls stole the show at the Intel International Science & Engineering fair held in Cleveland. The top awards this year went to Anila Madiraju, of Canada, Elena Glassman of Pennsylvania and Lisa Glukhovsky of Connecticut.

This is further evidence of the advances that girls are making at all levels.

-Tim
1:05:41 PM    comment []