I'm watching LockUp... for the last year, this has been my weekly visual addiction. Every Friday and Saturday night, all night, MSNBC runs a marathon of this show. LockUp is shot in prisons, they seem to mainly be in California and Indiana, but really they've shot them all over the world, and even some juvenile and boot camp facilities. It really seems that the system doesn't work.
I recently discussed the show with a friend of mine, who's response was 'why are we keeping these people alive?'. I'm not this drastic, but his point was simple: almost all offenders are repeat offenders, why are we wasting our money?
Our prisons aren't as horrific as some foreign prisons, but they are a mess. And, the problem isn't getting better. I'm writing this in June of 2011, and in recent news the state of California was ordered by the Supreme Court to release 30,000 prisoners because the prisons there are so overcrowded its considered inhumane.
The juvenile situations they've shown are oddly similar to the adult programs, inmates who think they know better than anyone else, most are repeat offenders. The judges want the parents to do something to control their kids, but it seemed many were from single working parent homes and had no respect for their parents anyway. Why these kids aren't being pushed into a military program is beyond me... if they want to be a badass, why not use this to our advantage? I get that their parents want many many more chances, maybe more than the kids do, but if we get to offense 3 haven't we proven this isn't working?
Adult prisons in most of the country are ancient. There was apparently a time when people had enough respect for each other to make these designs worthwhile... but now they're a mess, they should be converted into anything else.
The culture in these prisons is horrific, the worst people in the state are wedged in a confined space and expected to treat each other well - what? The inmates group in racially based gangs, the inmates are released on the 'yards' for exercise where hundreds of them group with their gangs, but have the ability to get to each other if they want. And, they do.
So, here is my plan.
We need to redesign our prisons, I believe its possible to design pods of cells that surround a single recreation area, shared by the cells that it connects to. Inmates will be allowed into that area once a day to exercise, then return to their cell. At all times, inmates will be alone.
Cells will include televisions and viewing screens that allow them to be entertained and feed them educational and therapeutic material.
I get it, solitary is considered inhumane by some. Well, there's the rub. In exchange for guaranteed safety and recreation and entertainment and so on - they're in solitary. This is a punishment, being locked up isn't as much of a punishment anymore because the inmates are just moving from one culture to another... what if we remove culture from them altogether, feeding them what they need. News, world information, show them more world than the 'hood or the inmates.
Still this is a lot - solitary is supposedly hell, even if you have entertainment. In my mind, this system is harsh in some ways, and in exchange for that, time spent in this world of near complete solitude will be worth 3 times as much.
So, the safety and return culture removed, punishment time reduced because the punishment impact is increased - thus clearing out space for future visitors.
I recently discussed the show with a friend of mine, who's response was 'why are we keeping these people alive?'. I'm not this drastic, but his point was simple: almost all offenders are repeat offenders, why are we wasting our money?
Our prisons aren't as horrific as some foreign prisons, but they are a mess. And, the problem isn't getting better. I'm writing this in June of 2011, and in recent news the state of California was ordered by the Supreme Court to release 30,000 prisoners because the prisons there are so overcrowded its considered inhumane.
The juvenile situations they've shown are oddly similar to the adult programs, inmates who think they know better than anyone else, most are repeat offenders. The judges want the parents to do something to control their kids, but it seemed many were from single working parent homes and had no respect for their parents anyway. Why these kids aren't being pushed into a military program is beyond me... if they want to be a badass, why not use this to our advantage? I get that their parents want many many more chances, maybe more than the kids do, but if we get to offense 3 haven't we proven this isn't working?
Adult prisons in most of the country are ancient. There was apparently a time when people had enough respect for each other to make these designs worthwhile... but now they're a mess, they should be converted into anything else.
The culture in these prisons is horrific, the worst people in the state are wedged in a confined space and expected to treat each other well - what? The inmates group in racially based gangs, the inmates are released on the 'yards' for exercise where hundreds of them group with their gangs, but have the ability to get to each other if they want. And, they do.
So, here is my plan.
We need to redesign our prisons, I believe its possible to design pods of cells that surround a single recreation area, shared by the cells that it connects to. Inmates will be allowed into that area once a day to exercise, then return to their cell. At all times, inmates will be alone.
Cells will include televisions and viewing screens that allow them to be entertained and feed them educational and therapeutic material.
I get it, solitary is considered inhumane by some. Well, there's the rub. In exchange for guaranteed safety and recreation and entertainment and so on - they're in solitary. This is a punishment, being locked up isn't as much of a punishment anymore because the inmates are just moving from one culture to another... what if we remove culture from them altogether, feeding them what they need. News, world information, show them more world than the 'hood or the inmates.
Still this is a lot - solitary is supposedly hell, even if you have entertainment. In my mind, this system is harsh in some ways, and in exchange for that, time spent in this world of near complete solitude will be worth 3 times as much.
So, the safety and return culture removed, punishment time reduced because the punishment impact is increased - thus clearing out space for future visitors.
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