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Since so much of our prison system has been "privatized", incarceration has become profitable (on the backs of taxpayers) for corporate interests. And in the USA, corporate profits are always top priority and take precedence over the public interest at practically every turn.
You're right, and private enterprise even has their fingers in the public prison system. GTL and a few other companies provide outrageously priced inmate phone services. In many institutions Aramark sells pre-cooked slop to prisons so they don't have to run their own kitchens. All these privateers have lobbyists, as do prison contractors who push legislatures to pass tougher laws so that they will have the opportunity to build more prisons. The list goes on, but I think you get the idea.
That's what every person that's locked up want you to believe. If it were true they would not be in the slammer and they'd be out bettering themselves like everyone else.
I got a son who is a prison guard in a supermax. Trust me, for he most part, they all belong. The stories are frightening. Their crimes even more so. As it relates to lower security level prisons, you might have some valid points but, for the federal pens, state higher level pens, they are a very necessary and vital component of our judicial system and they get it right way, way, waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more than they ever get it wrong. The discovery channel can make anyone cry over a few mistakes BUT,
Make no mistake, most belong there for a very, very, veeeeeeery long time.
My son says you have to see them to believe it. From shoving paper towel rolls up their rears for sexual release to stabbing other inmates with sharpened plastics, fence hardware, broom hardware, and needles made from god knows dipped in fecal matter (he says they are incredibly clever at weapons making) to jabbing another inmates eye out with two stiff fingers...for fun, ......you are all wrong. You have to watch them like a hawk.
As he puts it, "it's adult daycare except these adults can and might possibly kill you. No Shiite".
if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, it's USUALLY a.....duck. Don't feel sorry for them. The murderers are usually in there because they lost it at a family picnic or some other such nonsense (wife caught with another man, husband caught with another man, etc).....until one digs deeper. Then, you find out the signs of societal rage became apparent much earlier. They were just never identified when they were younger. Until one guy killed four relatives.....with his bare hands.......cuts everyone's hair now as a prison barber, is a nice guy but always so quiet no one is quite sure that he won't explode again.
At 2:30 in the morning he saw one just staring. Watched him all night making the rounds. He never made a sound. He sat for 8 hours watching the guards. Never moved. Just stared. He was as comfortable as a man in a lazy boy watching TV. Except, no TV, radio, magazine, nothing.
They are real. They do exist. They are deadly, They know it, and in quite a few cases are comfortable with the decisions they made in life. They simply do not care and they care even less, if possible, that anyone knows it. Some are so cold and lifeless they spook you (guy staring all night). Others are so whacked they hit on anyone and anything with a pulse. They would literally have sex with a broom or mop handle for hours if you let them and then beat somewone with it if given half a chance minutes later.
Some are simply terrifying to watch. Scary, scary types you do NOT want to meet on a street. It's not a shock that there are always openings for guards.
Prison has its place. We need it. It keeps people like this away from all of us. You don't want the majority of these folks on the street again. Ever.
I thought the guys in the Super Maxx's were all in single cells and under 23-hour lockdown. And when they got their one-hour out it was alone and in a walled-off little courtyard. I know this is the cases at Florence and Pelican Bay Super Max's--so I am wondering what S-max your son is at where they have a g-pop? (general population" where they can do this violence to one another?
Famous Florence guests: Ted Kaazcinsky and Robert Hansen! LOL
Also...yeah, no doubt about the fact the guys in the Super Maxx's belong there. But that's not the Op topic. It's general state and federal prisons. You're talking about the elite criminals--if that's the right word, LOL--the bottom (top?) 5%. Not really on topic with what the OP was asking about if non-violent and drug offending types really need prison with those violent and repeat offenders. You sort of straw manned the argument. I think we ALL agree that anybody who earns a guest pass to Pelican Bay has earned it and we don't want them free in our society.
Admit the war on drugs is lost
realize that Freedom = being able to choose to be a user or not (just like ethanol people! and nicotine and caffeine, all powerfully addictive causing MILLIONS of deaths pa, but the profit goes to The Man!)
Identify and treat addicts, offer free rehab/safely prescribed drug of dependance
institute education in the schools>>risks of drug use
Release ALL drug only offenders immediately>>at least 60% of prison population goes home
That's what every person that's locked up want you to believe. If it were true they would not be in the slammer and they'd be out bettering themselves like everyone else.
I think most people would agree that staying out of prison is the best idea, but this is a bit like telling poor people they should have "tried harder" before they became poor...what do you do with people after they get out of prison, or in the case of the poor when they find themselves unable to support themselves? Wag your big finger at them? That sure hasn't worked well so far. Maybe it's time to look for other solutions, and in the case of non-violent offenders that should probably entail punishment that does not involve going to prison.
i would say 1 out of 5000 might be innocent the other deserve to be there, drug dealers should get life
Would you also recommend locking up your local publican, who pushes ethanol, and your local corner store which pushes nicotine?
Heck lets lock up the REAL villains - the politicians who peddle and tax these incredibly dangerous drugs, while denying you the FREEDOM to pull a weed out of your garden and smoke it!
For those who want to reduce the prison population and reduce repeat offenses, I have a simple solution. Make prison worse, and make most murders a death sentence. If someone ends another's life, they don't deserve another bite of food or a breath of air. Imagine how many cells we could open up if all the murders were gone. Give them two appeals and then they're gone. Second, make prison much worse. No TV, No sitting around for eight hours. More isolation of prisoners from one another, more work. Make it bad enough that most have no interest in ever going back.
For those who want to reduce the prison population and reduce repeat offenses, I have a simple solution. Make prison worse, and make most murders a death sentence. If someone ends another's life, they don't deserve another bite of food or a breath of air. Imagine how many cells we could open up if all the murders were gone. Give them two appeals and then they're gone. Second, make prison much worse. No TV, No sitting around for eight hours. More isolation of prisoners from one another, more work. Make it bad enough that most have no interest in ever going back.
Topically, this sounds like a great idea. Make prison awful and executions quick and snappy and problem solved. The problem with this approach is it simply doesn't work. Why? Because most criminals don't think they're going to get caught and those who suspect they might, don't care. That's why. You could have the most austere and harsh punishments in the world and people will still do the things they do because they don't think they're going to get caught.
There are documented records of medieval pickpockets actively engaging in their trade at public executions of pickpockets. Think about that for a second... There was no appeal process back then. It was "You're caught, you get executed tomorrow." And yet, there were still people IN THE CROWDS picking pockets.
The majority of criminals do not have a risk-reward value based judgment system. It's not that they're generally stupid, it's that they were never taught the faculties to think about what happens as a result of their consequences in the first place.
As it stands right now, prison is probably awful in its own right - even with TV's, cards, etc... Yet, we still find a way to churn out bigger, badder, better criminals from the prison than they were when they went in. That doesn't bode well for the preventative measures prison is supposed to provide and it doesn't bode well for what it says about our prison system in general. Besides, some of the worst prisons in the world are in South America and, consequently, they also have some of the highest murder rates in the world... Harshness of prisons or risk of death is not a deterrent.
The really, really, really bitter pill to swallow is that our prison systems rarely treat criminals with the right approach: That they are there because they are unproductive members of society and in order to be released from prison must learn the tools, faculties, and thinking associated with that. Some will never do that and they should be locked up forever (Colorado theater shooter comes to mind). But, if you look at places like Finland and Norway, they teach their prisoners farming, how to live in communities peacefully, and how to be productive members of society when they get out. They teach them trades and skills and the rate of recidivism is quite a bit lower.
Our prisoners, when they come out of jail, are marked for life as "felons." Every job application they ever put their name on, they either have to lie about being a felon and hope the company doesn't find out, or they put it on there and get instantly denied - except in the rarest of circumstances. Who could really blame them for going back to a criminal lifestyle at that point? I can't. Starve to death or sell a few ounces of pot on the side? I'll sell pot. I already learned how in prison!
There are a few prison programs that teach convicted felons how to trains dogs. The dogs, usually from high kill shelters, are brought to prisons where non-violent offenders feed, tend, and take care of them and train them 24/7. Eventually, the dogs are adopted to loving homes. The transformation in both dog and human is quite remarkable. It is those kinds of programs that will provide any sort of swing in the opposite direction. As tempting as it may be, harsh, brutal, and sinister prisons do virtually nothing to prevent crime or assist in the rates of recidivism. Sure, you can find an example here and there but, by and large, our prison system is just really good at making better criminals.
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