How Effective is Our Prison System?
How Effective is Our Prison System?
America only has 4% of the total global population but over 25% of the world's prisoner population. This means, if my maths is correct, that if the U.S. had 20% of the world's population, then it'll have over 120% of the world's entire prison population, including its own.
I hope they give out tetanus shots
Currently, almost 1% of the nation's population is incarcerated. To put that into perspective: if you walk into a room of a hundred people, it'd be very likely that one of them is in prison, statistically speaking, especially if that room is located in a prison. Of these prisoners, 93% are male, which therefore implies that only 7% of prisons have shower floors that are not littered with used soap due to people being too afraid to pick them up.
With such high imprisonment rates, one would be inclined to ask what is the purpose of putting someone behind bars and how beneficial is it to society as a whole?
Justifications for Incarceration
There are three common reasons why criminals are sent to prison for which I could come up with a joke, and one other one:
We just have to climb over the barbed wire fence and then another barbed wire fence and then one more barbed wire fence and voila, we've broken into prison...shit! Wrong way!
- Rehabilitation - Perhaps the loftiest of these goals is the hope that sending someone to prison will reform them as a person. This murderer + time in prison = noble laureate idea has proven to be a little too optimistic in practice.
- Incapacitation - Imprisoning those who have a track record of endangering others prevents them from harming anyone further. Other than inmates, of course, but we don't give a shit about them. And maybe the guards, but they knew what they were signing up for. And the rest of the population, when they're released. But other than that no one can possibly be harmed.
- Retribution - Ah, good old fashioned punishment for the sake of punishment. The mere knowledge that someone who's wronged us or someone we love or someone we don't love, is rotting away in a cell somewhere, just fills our hearts with joy and warmth.
- Deterrence - The threat of imprisonment for certain criminal acts should, in theory, deter people from committing those acts. In practice, with the highest prison population in the world, it's hard to argue that incarceration is an effective deterrent. Feel free to come up with your own punchline here if you want.
Cost and Effectiveness
Maintaining the number one spot for putting people behind bars certainly doesn't come cheap and the U.S. spends over $100,000 per inmate, per year to outdo the competition. This comes to a cool $75 billion dollars annually. For the price of attending Harvard per inmate, you'd expect luxury accommodation and 5 star services right?
Well if you consider working a menial job for $1-$5 a day in an overcrowded facility 5 star luxury, then yes. You may also be upgraded to the presidential suite where you get your own private quarters with no access to sunlight for 23 hours a day, at the whim of the guards. Solitary confinement is widely regarded internationally as a form of torture but 80,000 american prisoners are kept in these cells at the sole discretion of their correctional officers. Many privately ran prisons have government contracts that guarantee occupancy levels of over 90%. It's like if your local doctor had a quota for pancreatic cancer diagnoses that they must meet just so surgeons can earn more money.
Some luxury cells come with extra high ceilings, probably to make it harder for you to hang yourself; the warden hates paperwork
After being forced to perform slave labor in a tumultuous and often tortuous environment, one would expect there to be measures in place for them to assimilate back into mainstream society when they're released right? Yeah you've probably caught on to my sarcastic leading questions by now, but in case you haven't, the answer is no. Quite the opposite: a criminal conviction on your record makes it almost impossible for you to procure employment. On top of social ostracization, ex-convicts are usually ineligible for welfare, food stamps, student loans or public housing, so it's small wonder over 70% of them turn to crime again. Well at least there are only a little over a million of them released a year, phew.
Conclusion
I am not denying the horrors of some crimes, but forcing over 2 million people into a perpetual cycle of being in and out of the prison system is not an effective solution.
There is a temptation to think that the best way to reduce crime is to punish the criminals harshly, but this is like saying the best way to clean your ass is to eat foods that cause constipation. In real life, the Batman approach to being tough on crime comes at a really high cost to society. Like a smoke alarm that goes off after the entire neighborhood has been reduced to ashes, lawmakers are finally starting to become aware of this, but there's a lot of work ahead of us yet.
Sources
Punishing Fails, Rehabilitation Works
Mass Incarceration in the US
Can Felons Get Welfare?
Shocking Facts About The US Prison System
That was a little dark, hopefully I get to write something a little more light-hearted next time. If you enjoyed this post please Upvote, Resteem and Follow me @trafalgar for more funny articles
Coming from someone who has been to prison twice and several different county correctional centers, it is more driven by profits. The government profits by having trumped up charges on first time offenders and forcing them to take a plea deal. Private companies overcharge for commissary by large percentages. Also the living conditions are usually very poor and inhumane. The entire prison system has too many moving parts for a radical change to ever be felt. One thing is for sure slavery is alive and well!!!!! So is prison really effective?? Well that depends on what outcome you are looking for. If you are looking for someone to be scared into ever committing crime again than prison can work in some cases but NOT all!!! Rehabilitation is basically impossible with our gang infested prisons. Rehabilitation only works for those who have been incarcerated for a long time and even then most of then revert to their old ways once released. I believe that a good support system and guidance is all anyone will ever need to rehabilitate themselves. And prison is the worst support system there is!!!!!
Its good that people with inside knowledge such as yourself can back up some of these facts
I 100% agree with this!
I am happy that someone who I assume never been to prison takes the time to discuss this topic. Most people don't care. I can tell you are a good person!!!! Steem On!!!!!
thank you very much
I think it's an important topic that deserves to be on people's minds
Maybe we can do an interview. Give the readers an inside view.
I don't really know how to conduct one
but if you write a short piece giving an insider view on what prison is like, i'll give it a full vote up (before the bots start auto flagging me down)
just send me a comment to one of my posts when you've submitted it
https://steemit.com/life/@mrviquez/prison-life-and-a-non-effective-prison-system
Ok sounds good......I can do that.
Cool would be very interested in a inside view!
Thanks for the idea it seems to be doing well!!!!!
Submitted my piece on prison life.
You should link it here, like jone below
Hello, please read my POST please.
Hello, please read my POST please.
Hi all from australia. i have spent time in a west australian womens prison just 3 weeks to begin with and then about 4 months down the track a longer 6 month 'stint' for the same or similar crimes. i was 24 at the time and it was for drug related offences.. jail did not offer any form of assistance when it came to succeeding in life after conviction 4 years down the track reffered to the court system again as drugs continue to play a major role in helping me destroy myself have requested a court diversion which is aimed at helping the young offender tackle their drug issues however the system has a lot o flaws and faults.. and the war on drugs in australia , western australia especialy, is beyond a joke... ppl are recieving life sentences for aything over an ounce of meth i believe(i'll dbl check that) i feel that the the legal system is failing us. pls keep an eye out, im yet to post but i intend to share my journey as a nearly 30yo female with a meth addiction goesthrough rehab and counselling and is at the mercy of the court system and surounded by drugs and all i know is hustle tries to become someone who can help to educate kids before they even face the temptation and try and prevent our children making the mistakes i did by learning from mine
@ mrviquez I agree big time...c.r.e.a.m. Industrial prisons who are on the stock market? Private police stations who can take your car for drug possession. I even heard the make big money with telephone calls from the prisoners.
So of course they don;t want to change the drugs laws. Most of them are there because of drugs. It's a money making system.
Dont forget the race element, it's no secret that "black drugs" carry harsher sentences than "white drugs" for no discernible reason, that black folk statistically get longer sentences and are statistically more likely to be targeted for search. Prison industrial complex targets poor and vulnerable groups>kids from those groups grow up missing fathers and in constant economic instability>those kids grow up to commit more crime>they go to prison leaving their kids fatherless.
Lather, rinse, repeat, profit.
@jimithyashford I agree it's crazy, But still I also get ha raced by the cops. Even though Im white. Its a race and class thing.
I agree completely with you @markush! Foreigners get less harsher sentences here (Kenya) especially if they happen to be loaded. This is to avoid having their lawyers flood our prisons because their rights need to be 'critically' observed to avoid chaos with their state ambassadors.
I'd like to add that I agree with you that the prison system is a huge success if the intended goal is to disguise slavery as a public service and extort those who do not have the benefit of society looking out for them, since most believe that only criminals (defined as bad people or bad people who do bad things) go to prison, but that's not the case. Many in prison are there because they committed an act not sanctioned by the state, but harmed no one. I'd also like to add that it's not just commissary that is over-priced (if you're talking simply about snacks and hygiene needs), but communication to loved ones in prison is incredibly expensive. I only spent a couple of weeks in a county jail and my family spent (if memory serves) $30 for a 10 minute talk time phone card. That was in 2011, so my recollection may be incorrect, but I do remember the cost was ludicrous.
I'd also like to highlight the inhumane conditions. The food was sub par and the amounts were too small. Most days for lunch we were given a peanut butter sandwich and a single piece of fruit, and the staff, were often openly hostile despite being a "model prisoner". I was there for growing my own cannabis, and it was a particularly bitter pill to swallow, to be governed by guards that were obviously using steroids, and always itching for a reason to become violent. A few stand out as potentially being decent people (aside from working in human trafficking) but most were more deserving of being on the other side of the bars more than many of the inmates.
Thanks for the in depth comment. I agree and you are right the price of phone calls is astronomical!!!
I tried to edit my previous reply but the app kept freezing so I'll add it here. Regarding the other inhumane conditions, our facility was set up with a pod structure, meaning Pod A would have an area that contained approximately 16-20 cells with a 4 person capacity. The cell I was in had no less than 6 inmates at any given time with 2 or more residents sleeping on the concrete floor. I don't know how many pods the facility contained (I wasn't privy to a tour of my new domicile) but I suspect each of them consisted of the same conditions. I have a very clear memory of an inmate being injected into the pod I was in only to be relocated because there were no cells with enough space available for him to throw a mat on the floor to sleep.
And this next violation of human/civil rights struck a chord so deep in me that it still resonates nearly a decade later.
One Sunday, we were locked in our cells while a local minister stood in the dining area and proceded to give an unsolicited sermon. I complained, loudly, that I wasn't interested in being force fed a religious message to which the response was, in summary, "you can sit quietly while I (the minister) preach my message, or you can spend the next hour in isolation". Isolation, mind you, was a holding cell about 7 ft. long, & 4 ft. wide with a concrete slab extending from the wall that ran the length of the cell. As you can imagine it was a cold room and I would not have been allowed to take the mat or pillow I had been issued for my duration in the facility.
Being more rebellious than intelligent, I suffered through the backwoods sermon and immediately began requesting alternative religious literature. The specific book I requested was the Satanic Bible (which as a side note isn't what most people would think it is). My requests were never addressed, thus I never received a copy of my "preferred" religious text.
I agree with you. jesus came to set the prisoners free so that they can be healed. Rehab is possible under the right conditions.
For deterrence I would say prison or any other punishment will only work if the person you're trying to deter has more to lose than to gain by their activities. This depends on the circumstances and a person living relatively comfortable probably wouldn't want to risk going to prison, but the less comfortable a person is living the less they have to lose and more risk they have to take to change their condition. In some environments, young people are getting killed, or are homeless, etc, and in those environments going to prison isn't worse than the alternatives from a rational perspective. Most will think it's better to be alive in prison than to be dead, and a lot of people will think being in prison is less of a punishment than being homeless with no where to go.
Very good! Thanks for this info!
i agree, the prison system is americas best tax dollars at work, more and more are becoming private
I spent time locked up too. Once you are in, the rest of society basically forgets about you. It is an interesting experience and many people can take it as some sort of a lesson learned but mostly that doesn't happen.
Followed for your thought out response. I like to see that people put effort and time into their posts rather than cmnd p
good point.I am glad that we can get insight from someone like you.
Thanks. Really good article.
Owning a Prison is a brilliant way to hire contract labor, to build widgets, without the shipping costs of having your product made in Asia. Your contractors are amenable to whatever pittance they earn so they can upgrade their shivs and buy a pack of smokes.
There is a lot of turnover in your staff tho. Each contractor has their own contract length. Even with the turnover being so high, don't worry most of these employees tend to come back to you quite quickly, looking for more work.
yes it's a terribly corrupt system with misaligned incentives
Milking the system and people out of their money! US loves putting people in prisons no?
It's a real shame
having profit incentives aligned with maximising the number of people locked up is not something that society needs
That's true! It's unfathomable to think that so many people are locked up! But who known how many more in prison offshore.
Photo Credit: pixabay
Right now, no one can actually say how many laws are on the books in the United States and how many regulations, which have the same force of law are in effect.
Some estimate that 40,000 new law are passed each year at the state and federal level. It is estimated that the average person commits 3 felonies a day.
This is what the face of tyranny looks like and the prison population is starting to reflect this today.
22% of people in prison are there for drugs. When you declare a "War on Drugs" it really is the state declaring a "War on People", as it is the people who go to prison.
A total of 77% (including the 22% in for drugs) of people in prison are incarcerated for non-violent offenses against the state.
So out of a million prisoners 3/4 are regarded as non-violent. This number has doubled since 1977. It is not surprising, since no one person can know the law and therefore be expected to obey it.
In fairness, a lot, perhaps most of the non-violent offenders have committed crimes worthy of some punishment. Warehousing people in prisons with the rapists, murderers and other serious felons is not the way to get justice for society and can lead to the needless creation of career criminals.
There are better smarter ways to run a society. Unfortunately, criminals are every politicians "Whipping Boy" and no politicians are ever sanctioned for advocating "Getting Tough on Crime". The human cost to the prisoner and society at large is never considered in these kindergarten level arguments.
Unfortunately, real adults in leadership positions are rare in politics.
it's honestly a sham
I didn't mention the war on drugs but that's definitely part of the problem
but it deserves its own article
this is what happens when an entire industry emerges around maximising imprisonment rates while shaving costs
Please make note that the 13th Amendment specifically allows for involuntary servitude specifically as punishment for a crime. Also make note that throughout history, for racist reasons, the prison was used as a way to continue slavery and as a new kind of plantation. Slaves who were freed were then arrested for vagrancy and other poverty related crimes, sent to prison, and forced to work indefinitely. This is all documented in the history books for those who don't remember.
References
Documentary:
yup, they get paid like $1-$5 a day
would have been bad in the 60s
Still pretty average on STEEMIT though hahaha
whistles innocently
Present company excluded
I do feel that in the long run this platform will reward high quality content
it's taking a while to get there, but it is slowly improving
I definitely don't remember because I am in my early 30's but a picture says more than a thousand words. History is a messed up thing. That is why it's important now to look towards the future so we don't say "jeez what the hell were we thinking believing THAT was OK?"
I was at a bank conducting my my business. A women enters the bank and ask to withdrawal 100% of her money and close her account.
Her reason was that Bank of America, finances and profits from the private prison system. It was really fun to listen to the branch manager try to unsuccessfully talk her out of closing her account.
"The Journey Toward True Liberty Begins When One Person Shouts - NO!!!". - Clear Shado
I would Upvote the hell out of that woman!!
I think you said something interesting that is probably the entire root cause to this issue and that's simply "what is the role of a government in deciding appropriate punishment for morally subjective laws?" Like a guy goes to jail for more than 5 years for any quantity of marijuana is stupid and unnecessary. A prostitute sure does not need prison to get her 'back on track.' Drug addicts are hurting themselves and are already in a prison of life circumstance. The system is totally jacked up from the floor to the ceiling and I just think I made that saying up. But you know what I mean. I think there are such better ways to turn bad behaviors into a better society one-by-one and not having sentencing rules is a good start. Takes away context entirely and robs good people who broke the law an opportunity at a second chance.
@trafalgar, youve mention war on drugs. Is ot particularly in philippines or globally? Cause if in here in philippines most of the suspects not getting into imprisonment nor prosecution but directly into their graves. That how our new adminiatration work on the problem. Criminals esp. Drug related cases having themselves killed. I mean criminal vs. Criminal .. And we dont blame the president for that cause we see the improvement of the society. I also want your opinion how you see philippines when it comes to war on drugs.
I'll probably write an article about the philippines one day when I've done more research
the world's a complicated place, I don't think there are easy answers but encouraging the killing of drug dealers is probably not the best way to progress. It's still all relative to the environment, the philippines is going through a difficult development phase
Looking forward to that article @trafalgar 😊.. Anyways i like all the article your writing.
If it's true that hate destroys love then it is also true that love destroys hate.
What if prisoners had to love their way to freedom. Make them care and help and hug and learn woudl def be constructive.
Drug addictz should be patients not criminals.
1 out of every 2 lawyers on earth is american
People relatively well off can afford to hire lawyers to give them advice on what rules not to break. The rest of us are on our own and have to learn trial and error. Depending on who were are, where we live, what we look like, we might get a slap on the wrist or the harsh treatment.
True but ai don't think no that's why rich people don't go to jail. I don't think they get advice on how not to break rules but more of don't do this or that because the punishment isn't harsh which leads them to not risk their lives for a certain reward. For the poor the do not have to He money to always color in the lines. If you are hungry even the Bible says it isn't not stealing if you are starving, it is our nature. We should not punish those who do 'crime' to merely survive.
Well said. Don't forget in Los Angeles the biggest gangsters are the cops and they purposefully inject drugs in the getthos.
nice one and quite interesting..especially the area
quote
On top of social ostracization, ex-convicts are usually ineligible for welfare, food stamps, student loans or public housing, so it's small wonder over 70% of them turn to crime again.
unquote
this reminds me why most of the former prison inmates prefer to turn back to crime to be sent back to prison, as such, they get to be taken care of by public funds. The US prison system is ovebloated and i wonder if the number will ever reduce since private capitalists are cashing in on humans tenants as such, they are indirectly as the maxists will say benefactors of the system...
on a lighter note, US prison system is a far cry as regards what is obtainable in developing worlds where prison cells are more like nazi era concentration camps where prisoners enter and turn into hardened criminals. the way forward, most crimes of which people are incarcerated can be removed like drug issues related to marijuana and the likes, depopulation of the prison will help save enough funds which shd be directed to other sectors.
thanks for this thought provoking article, am new here and following you already and hope you follow me too as i have quite a number of good contents to share...thanks
This is a real shame
a revolving door in the prison system that profits from the number of inmates at the expense of society at large
you can say it again! a shame and ironically the private owners have powerful lobbysts who ensures the status quo is maintained...
Interesting and funny at the same time!
Really looking forward to another story.
thanks for having a read sneakydevill
Up-voted and sorry I didn't get to this sooner - a little preoccupied with TEAM AUSTRALIA.
There is something wrong with the world atm - which is resulting in all these crimes being committed? If a land is abundant with opportunity my guess is the crime wouldn't exist.
However, in my mind and not a lot will change this - the purpose of prison is should not 'retribution' or 'rehabilitation;' but 'justice'. Justice must be seen to be done for the benefit of the victim and as an example to the community.
Great post again Trafalgar - SirKnight.
hi sirknight thanks for having a look
is team australia a tag or a chat?
Sorry Trafalgar - we have both the tag here 'teamaustralia' and a chat room at steem.chat if this is what you mean...? But most we are tag.
hello i found you on team australia and i am australian -- i am now following and i upvoted your story -- keep rockin -David
thanks for taking a look
I love that you wrote this. Thanks for bringing awareness to this atrocity. My housemate is really passionate about "smashing prisons," as she calls it. There is actually currently a hunger strike going on at Folsom Prison because they are asking for humane treatment!
Yes, I definitely think the system could do with some improvement
you just can't align profits with incarceration, it doesn't work
Its fucked up.