

California Prison Academy: Better than a Harvard Degree - SnowyEgret
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704132204576285471510530398.html

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rauljara
"Over 120,000 people apply every year, according to the state Legislative
Analyst's Office, but the academy only enrolls about 900."

I could only think about how if California spent a similar amount of money on
teachers, they could (apparently) attract some serious talent that they could
be very selective with. Such a talented pool of teachers might be able to
produce a generation with a much lower crime rate (reducing the need for
California's insane prison system) and much higher productivity (tax base).
Countries like Singapore have proven what a valuable investment education is.
It is maddening to see how much more we invest maintaining the highest
incarceration rate in the world
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_incarceration_rat...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_incarceration_rate)).

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xiaoma
Singapore does invest heavily in education and with great results. Since the
discussion is about prison population and expenses, though, it's worth
mentioning that Singapore's correctional regularly employs executions rather
than paying to for the housing and correctional officers necessary to hold a
prisoner for decades. Also, unlike the US, where executions are extremely
difficult, controversial and expensive, they're efficient and cheap.

It's hard to dispute the economic success of Singapore's model, but it's not
one that any western countries could or would emulate.

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smutticus
At least when I'm sitting behind my desk getting fat and ruining my body I
don't regularly have to worry about getting stabbed.

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rms
A California police officer in a major cities makes even more but those jobs
are just as hard to get.

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eru
So America is a crazy place. We already know that.

