Whats Wrong With Prisons

The problem with prisons is that they are ineffective. People are more concerned with punishing offenders that they don’t see the big picture. If we don’t help them, we’re not helping ourselves either. The number of repeat offenders is astronomical and is a drain on the tax payers of America. I think that the families of those incarcerated are put through more than the actual inmate. Their is no rehabilitation. No one is teaching these inmates how to be better, productive, functioning members of society. Their most definitely needs to be a reform. I think that the idea of prison, parol, then free, is incorrect. I also believe that lengthening sentences isn’t going to help anyone either. It just becomes an even bigger drain on the American people. If I’m going to pay taxes on the prison system, I had better be getting something out of it. I want to see rehabilitated criminals that I feel safe working alongside, sending my kids to school with, and living around. As it stands now criminals are more threatening when they get out then before they went in. We have, basically, created a club house for criminals. It’s become a breeding ground. Criminals are abused, only furthering their reluctance to conform and reinforcing their hatred for the law and authority. They are abandoned at time of release. We take everything from them and then send them on their way with no life skills and no lesson learned. I think that the sentence served for first time offenders of small crimes should spend ten days in prison as a scare tactic. This would be enough time to disrupt their lives, make an impact, scare them, but not enough time for them to fully adapt to the lifestyle and realize that they can find a way to function. I think even after this, their should be mandatory counseling or rehab regardless of the infraction. We should try to nip it in the but from the very beginning. If we make it alot of work from the get go, people will be turned off by how inconvenient it is as well as scared. For second offenses and larger crimes I believe that their should be a sentencing period where the first 2/3 of your time in prison should be pure incarceration with counseling and AA/NA/AM meetings. It should be the bare minimum and the prisoners should be broken in a military style structure. Bootcamp as it were. I think we should break their spirit, but not with abuse, and only with the intention of mentally exhausting them and breaking down the walls they have built up so that they learn structure, how to follow direction, and how to work together. They may even develop some self confidence and a sense of pride. The last 1/3 should be dedicated to rehabilitation with a minimum of 2 years. So no matter what, after your first offense, the process will take no less than 3 years (1 in prison, 2 in rehab). The rehab is designed to be less than the incarceration as a sort of uplifting, more than half way point. This starts the rehab process with positivity. Each step should be earned. I think that while they are in this phase they should be attending some type of schooling that insures all inmates are at least reading and writing at a graduating high school level. Their should be job training and workshops that are mandatory, inmates should learn skills for at least three different job fields and be able to demonstrate a thorough understanding of those skills before release. Part of the rehab should be parent training. Whether or not they have kids. If they aren’t parents yet, they most likely will reproduce and should be made to understand the full impact they have or will have on their children. For those who’s children have been taken from them or those who have lost custody, this should play a positive role in allowing for them to regain some rights to their children. The violent, abusive, and unprofessional prison guards are a problem. They all need to be retrained. Like marines coming back from deployment have to go through “welcome back” training to reinforce civilizations values and norms, so should prison guards. It is a hard job to be able to separate personal feelings from professionalism of the job, but if this is the job you choose, you should make it a point to be able to do it. What if you went to a racist doctor? Would it be ok for a doctor who hates blacks to murder one during an operation because of their personal feelings? No. Of corse not. So it should not be acceptable for guards to verbally or physically abuse inmates. You signed up for a hard job that takes alot of understanding, patience, and self control. No excuses. The reason I think rehab should wait until after the first 2/3rds of the sentence is because I want the first part of imprisonment should be miserable and hard. Doing this allows for the new experience of rehab to be appreciated. Even welcomed. After a few years of boot camp style living with no freedoms or extra curricular activities, taking classes will seem like a reward. It will absolutely have to be earned. At the end of the first 2/3rds of incarceration, if the inmate has not earned the privilege to move on to rehab, it will extend the sentence of incarceration until the inmate shows he/she deserves the reward of rehabilitation. The incarceration can be extended up till the last 2 years of a sentence, which will always be reserved for rehab as it is the minimum. Rehab is not the same as parol. Rehab takes place within the prison, however, rewards such as a supervised trip home for the day can be considered as rewards and also reminders