Privacy or Public?

 We live in a society where our cell phones are used for other important things rather than just for communication. Cell phones have evolved to be our paperless diaries, secrete room, and like a mobile safe. We keep everything on our phones, and we rely on the software to keep our privacy safe! However, the government thinks otherwise. Recently, the FBI attacked Apple and it’s consumer policy on privacy. The government is trying to get into an iPhone of one of the shooters from the San Bernardino shooting back in December, but Apple won't budge.

 According to David Lazarus, a reporter of Los Angeles Times, shares his agreement with the government. He believes that the government has the right to hack the iPhone in order for public safety. He used how the federal government was able to control the auto industry to demand for seat belts and airbags for driver’s safety, but that example he used is so irrelevant with the Apple case. The governments claims they only want to hack this one phone, but who believes that? I believe it is important to keep our privacy rights protected. Our smartphones holds personal data such as credit card and bank account information, Social Security and driver license numbers, and so on. I will be beyond terrified knowing that government was able to withhold and take over another one of my amendments.

"Tough On Crime"

An article by Matt Ferner, of Huffpost Politics, talks about how our nation’s unfair punishment system has finally been brought to notice. The article provides a recent poll that was released this past week. The results of the poll pronounced an overwhelming number of Americans wanting to reform our federal justice system. Not only did the voters agree on the need to change our court system; but also, the majority of the voters believe that far too many drug offenders are locked up in our federal prisons. In fact, statics shows that over half of the population in federal prisons are drug offenders, and 70% of those inmates in local jails are sentenced for way too long. Roughly, 2.3 million people are behind bars nationwide, making the U.S the “world’s leading jailer”. Currently, the over populated prisons is costing the U.S. an awful lot of money: over $80 billion a year. Is there a solution that will reduce these numbers? Of course. According to the same poll, majority of those voters favored to allow people to shorten their sentences by participating in programs like drug treatment and job-training classes. These ideas can help lower such high figures that our prisons unfortunately holds.

I strongly believe that this article is a very important read for everyone. It is shocking to see such high numbers of innocent people being locked up, and for the nation that I live in holds the title: world’s leading jailer!