article_snippet.sent: Instead of empowering the next generation of American artists, scientists, engineers, inventors and entrepreneurs, Our country has chosen to devote a massive amount of resources, time and energy to locking people up.
article_snippet.sent: By imprisoning individuals, we also burden families, condemn generations to cycles of poverty and breed economic inequality.
article_snippet.sent: The sad reality is that in today's America, prisoners are never truly free from the burdens of our criminal justice system.
article_snippet.sent: A report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research concluded that once released from prison, an ex-offender's prospects for obtaining employment statistically decreased.
article_snippet.sent: A report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research estimated that, in 2008, ex-offender employment losses cost our economy the equivalent of 1.5 to 1.7 million workers, or $57 billion to $65 billion annually.
article_snippet.sent: It's therefore no surprise that American prisons have become revolving doors, with two out of every three former offenders rearrested within three years of American prisons release.
article_snippet.sent: The millions of wives, sisters, husbands, daughters, sons, friends and the people they love who have been incarcerated are burdened disproportionately by an outdated, archaic and overly punitive system.
article_snippet.sent: The millions of wives, sisters, husbands, daughters, sons, friends and the people they love who have been incarcerated have the ability to advance our country, our economy and our global competitiveness.
article_snippet.sent: The millions of wives, sisters, husbands, daughters, sons, friends and the people they love who have been incarcerated just need to be given the opportunity.
article_snippet.sent: American taxpayers aren't free from the burdens of American criminal justice system either.
article_snippet.sent: In addition to the billions lost in jobs and productivity, Americans spend over a quarter of a trillion dollars each year to keep millions of nonviolent, low-level offenders imprisoned.
article_snippet.sent: Imagine the good we could do if we could re-appropriate those tens of billions of dollars in taxpayer money and economic losses away from imprisonment and toward investment in our children's future.
article_snippet.sent: Instead of putting resources toward juvenile detention centers, we can put resources toward afterschool programs that have proved to help keep kids out of the juvenile justice system and in school.
article_snippet.sent: Instead of losing valuable contributors to our economy because of valuable contributors status as ex-offenders, we can develop apprenticeship and training programs that improve worker skills and jump start our economy.
article_snippet.sent: Instead of asking American taxpayers to pay for warehousing people who commit nonviolent, low-level, crimes, we can make sure that students of all ages have access to math, science and technology schooling that will help students of all ages excel in the workforce and as productive members of society.
article_snippet.sent: Let's devote our resources to empowering our citizens, not imprisoning our citizens.