America seems to be giving even failed states a run for their money when it comes to the ratio of population incarcerated. Whereas an argument can be made that American criminal laws and systems are more advanced thus reducing the propensity of criminals to escape justice, the incarceration trends are clearly getting out of hand. Yet research has clearly shown that putting people behind bars does little to reduce the overall crime levels in the community (Phelps, 2013) . Indeed, levels of recidivism keep on rising. The high numbers of prisoners also pile a great economic burden on the society, thus making incarceration have adverse consequences for both the country and the criminals. It is, therefore, important for all parties involved for alternatives to incarceration be developed geared towards reducing costs to the community and also making better citizens out of convicts.
Incarceration not only pulls criminals away from the streets but also pulls parents away from their children and workers away from their labor stations. In many cases, the community has to incur the cost of taking care of the children through the system. Further, the incarcerated individual also becomes an expense for the community as their basic needs as well as security must be met (Phelps, 2013) . Yet at the very same time, the taxes payable by the prisoner will be lost through loss of labor and the services that may have been provided to the community will also be lost. An alternative to incarceration such as community service and/or probation will see the convict continue to cater for offspring, continue to work and pay taxes and also continue to serve the community.
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Secondly, a convict who ends up getting rehabilitated into a good member of the community is exponentially better than one who feels punished and has a grudge against the community. This is more so with regard to younger convicts, some of whom are as young as fourteen years of age (Balsamo & Poncin, 2016) . From a psychological perspective, an incarcerated person will feel as a social misfit who could not be trusted in any other community but those of other criminals. This creates psychological trauma that buoys recidivism. Yet, a convict who is given the benefit of doubt and allowed to serve a noncustodial sentence feel obliged to the community thus motivated to change. Further, the noncustodial sentencing provision such as community service and probation will add a rehabilitative effect that will encourage the criminal not to go back to their wayward ways (Balsamo & Poncin, 2016) .
Finally, the American state and federal governments are not making ends meet under the circumstances with important amenities such as health missing. Any cost cutting measures would, therefore, be a welcome relief to the process of budgeting. If noncustodial sentences are adopted for the more lenient crimes, the governments would save millions of dollars which would go a long way in covering budgetary deficits (Ferner 2016) . Further, as aforesaid, the individuals who are kept out of prison would, through taxes help in the catering for those who, based on their crimes must be incarcerated.
Finally, research has shown that noncustodial sentencing has a positive impact on community services as well as penal services. Having more individuals on community services is reducing the pressure on penal services. When not encumbered by overpopulation and cost constraints, penal services are able to focus more on rehabilitation (Balsamo & Poncin, 2016) . At the same time, community service and probation officers have a hard time dealing with convicts who have already served time and are seeking to readjust to the community. This released prisoners serve stigmatization at home and give community service officers a harder time. Yet, if they got sentences that do not involve incarceration, these individuals would be grateful, not bitter making their rehabilitation much easier.
References
Balsamo, D. N., & Poncin, Y. B. (2016). Community-based alternatives to incarceration and assessment and community-based planning for probation/community-based alternative. Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics , 25 (1), 123-128
Ferner, M. (2016, September 13). The full cost of incarceration in the U.S. is over $1 trillion, study finds. Retrieved August 23, 2017, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/mass-incarceration-cost_us_57d82d99e4b09d7a687fde21
Phelps, M. S. (2013). The paradox of probation: Community supervision in the age of mass incarceration. Law & Policy , 35 (1-2), 51-80
