Is the Solution Part of the PROBLEM?

The Social Cost

The prison crisis reaches right into your wallet. It is estimated that in the United States, for example, each prisoner costs taxpayers $21,000  annually.  Inmates over the age of 60 can cost three times that amount. In many countries public confidence in the penal system is waning for additional reasons. There are concerns about prematurely released criminals as well as offenders who manage to avoid prison sentences altogether because of some legal technicality discovered  by an astute lawyer. Usually, victims do not feel sufficiently protected against further violation, an they may have little voice in the legal process.  

Public Concern Grows

Public confidence in the prison system is not helped by inhumane conditions to which prisoners are exposed.  Prisoners who have suffered unjust treatment while serving their sentences are hardly candidates for rehabilitation.   Then, too, a number of human rights groups are concerned about the disproportionate number of member of minority groups who are found in prisons. The question whether this is a coincidence or the result of racial discrimination. 

Note:  They are not in prison because they stole a candy bar, most of them are in prison because they something either seriously bad or they murdered someone/people. They knew what they were doing was wrong to begin with, and were only sorry that they got caught. The prisons from what I have seen in the United States, are more or less country clubs and are a little too easy for the criminals. They have TV and weight rooms. I visit an uncle and someone else several years ago. Yes, their food might not be as good, but prisons are for punishment not to have fun,they are put in to learn a lesson, and to keep them off the streets so they don't do the crime again. If you don't want to do the time, don't do the crime. They are lucky that they have not been put in some of the prisons in other countries or like they had  back 200 or 300  years ago. They were much, much worse, than what they are today. 

A 1998 Associated Press report drew attention to the plight of ex-prisoners of the Holmesburg Prison, in Pennsylvania U.S.A., who sought compensation for having allegedly been used as human guinea pigs in chemical experiments wile imprisoned. And what the reintroduction of chain gangs in the United States?  Amnesty International reports:  "Work on the chain gang lasts for 10-12 hours often in hot sun, with very brief breaks for water, and an hour for lunch. . . .The only toilet facility available to chain gang inmates is  portable chamber put behind a makeshift screen. Inmates remain chained together while using it.  When the chamber pot is inaccessible, inmates are force to squat down on the ground in public."  Of course, not all prisons operate that way.  Nevertheless, inhumane treatment dehumanizes both the prisoners and those who mete it out. 

Note: For those who raped and killed women or just raped them, how do you think they felt? Or a mother whose child was raped and/ or killed, how do you think they felt.  Not all of them did serious crimes, but like the military, they cannot be treated differently from the others. They are there in prison for a good reason. Those groups are trying to make the public sorry for them.  If they learn their lesson, that's good, but if not, and usually they don't; and I know this because one of the  I visited had previously gone back at least twice, and it was not a serious crime like murder or rape, even though it wasn't a candy bar that was stolen either.  They knew what to expect when they committed the crime. 

Next time:  Is the Solution Part of the PROBLEM?/Are Community Interests Served?

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