Submitted by James Folsom on Thu, 11/03/2011 - 06:42
Many politicians are elected or not elected these days based on their stance on crime and punishment. A politician who is viewed as being “tough on crime” or “soft on crime” can be labeled very easily and elections can be swayed based on this. People who see videos of inmates in a prison library, studying the law to find a loophole he can exploit in an appeal can lead people to believe these men are living a nice, cushy life behind bars while their victims and their families suffer from their crimes. There is a perception out in the world that these guys get three meals a day, lift weights, play basketball and then go to their cells at night. This angers citizens who have been or sympathize with victims of crimes. But is this “country club” perception actually the case? No.
Now do not think that I am at all upset by this. I do not believe that violent people who do violent things should be sent to Disneyland. Prison should be a place of punishment. You do the crime, do the time. But I also believe prisons should be run with discipline. Too many stories of inmates being raped, murdered, or forced to commit crimes to keep from being a victim themselves come from these prisons. The inmates should not be running the asylum.
These inmates are already violent or they would not be where they are. Now take that threat of going to prison away (they’re already there) and multiply that by having nothing but time on their hands, and there are bound to be violent acts committed behind bars. But why is it the norm? Why is this allowed to occur on a regular basis?
These guys can make weapons out of everything. A coffee cup lid, a toothbrush, the elastic out of their underwear, almost anything they get their hands on can be made into a deadly weapon. So stop giving them these things. If they make weapons out of coffee cups, then no more coffee. If they make them out of underwear, then make them go naked and freeze to death. If an inmate assaults someone, make an example out of him. If it means a public beating so the others get the message then so be it.
But while we have these men in prison, why don’t we try to make them better citizens? Make them attend schools so they can learn something besides being ignorant. The better they do in school, the more priviledges they earn. I understand some politician will use this as a “soft on crime” ad in the next election. But prison guards have to work with these people every day. Wouldn’t it be nice if there were some ways to make prison a safer place for them to work?
I like the idea of making all prison clothes pink. It’s very tough to be all rough and tough wearing a pink jump suit. Or better yet, make pink a punishment for violent offenders only. How about pumping soft music into the prison all day? Has this ever been tried?
It seems to me that punishment is one thing, but letting the place become a free for all is another. At no point should any inmate gain any stature or feel like is he in charge of anything. The guards should be in charge, and the inmates should all be equal. And the way you achieve that is through severe punishment for whoever gets out of line.
In many of today’s prisons, gangs have taken over the inmate population. Mostly gangs are formed along racial and ethnic lines. So if this is such a problem, then force these gangs to break up. Force inmates of different races to bunk together and work together. Punish them for not being able to get along and reward them if they do.
Perhaps give inmates a choice of prison yards: If they're willing to go to a "mixed population", and take part in programs, give them more freedoms. If they're unwilling, will send them to a prison that enforces a lot more rules, restrictions, and obedience.
It seems to me that prisons are doing little other than making these guys more mean, more violent, and more hardened. Then at some point they are being turned loose on society, many times more dangerous than before they went in. This is a recipe for trouble. If having separate facilities for violent offenders and non-violent offenders is the answer, then let’s separate them. The last thing we need is a training facility to learn violent behavior. Unless of course we can then turn these men loose on terrorists. Of course, I doubt they could be trusted to unleash their violence on the right people.
It seems like that if there were a non-violent person convicted of a crime and sent to prison, he should be able to do his time, keep to himself, not bother anyone, and serve his sentence without being raped, beaten, forced to join a gang, or intentionally get himself put in solitary confinement just for the protection. At some point, we the people need to be in charge, not some violent criminal.
Reward System
I have family members who have had friends in prison, and I was shocked by a few of the things that I witnessed. I was surprised by how much access the prisoners had to people who were not in prison, and I was surprised that the prisoner was harrassing people on the outside to give them money so that they could buy things in prison. One of the things they wanted to buy was more phone time to call more people from prison.
I do think prisoners should get to speak to loved ones from prison, but I feel that this should be treated as a priviledge. They were put in prison to be seperated from society and to reflect on the crimes they have commited. I agree that there should be some kind of reform and educational program bettering criminals while they are in prison. The prisoners who seem to be putting in the time to better themselves can be rewarded with phone calls. The said part is that most prisons are over run and can barely afford to house the prisoners they have, so there is a slim chance that they could ever implement anything like this.
Prison Life
I have to say that I agree with pretty much everything that you said. Most prisons are not as nice as we percieve them, however, some are. I agree that while in prison, prisoners should be made to do something to add to the betterment of society or themselves. What a complete waste of time to have them just sitting in there rotting and learning how to be a better criminal. There should be a system put in place where the prisoners are rewarded with things like extra free time or dessert or something like that for taking classes or doing extra "work" while in jail. This would establish a sense of motivation for the men/women which can be crucial to their overall wellbeing.
As far as what you said in regards to the prisoners running the system, I agree with that as well. I partially blame lazy guards and an overall lazy correctional system that would rather worry about just getting through their shift then actually making a difference and in the end making things better for everyone. I think there is a sense of acceptance that the system is broke but no one really wants to put in the time to fix it due to it involving criminals and hey, who really cares about criminals? Unfortunately, that is the wrong take on it as everyone should care because the majority are eventually released back into society and will either make it worse or better. I think the pink uniforms idea is great as well as making them work harder, more phsically laboring jobs when not educating themselves. Somewhere along the line everything seems to have gotten turned upside down where there are people so intensely concerned about making it as comfortable and "non-mean" as possible instead of recognizing that these people deserve the punishment handed to them and will not learn from their actions unless appropriately punished. It is a hard line on what to do and whether to take a more civilized approach towards them or some sort of futuristic "we control everything" sort of take. One thing is for sure though, I dont see the problem getting any better any time soon. With our new trophy generation growing up believing they deserve everything and they can do whatever they want because mommy and daddy can just threaten a law suit, we will see a whole new sort of soft and whiny inmate that will try to manipulate the system even more.
At some point the prisoners
At some point the prisoners need to be shown who's boss. You want to make a shank out of your toothbrush? Then you get to live in your cell 24-7 with no breaks and guess what? no toothbrush either. You guys want to form gangs along racial lines? Then how about this? No hanging out with people of your own race. There. How do you like that? I catch you with another guy of your race both of you get beaten and sent to the hole.
Then start pumping in classical music or better yet gospel music into the cells. You want to watch TV? You can watch "Leave it to Beaver" and I Love Lucy" reruns until you learn to behave yourselves. From there, you start earning priviledges back by doing and acting like your supposed to.