Financially...we spend enough on every inmate to send them to college! The cost of incarceration to our economy and our culture may well be incalculable.You're cool...LOL! I'm reminded of the scene where Richard Pryor tells Gene Wilder to "Act cool" in Stir Crazy..when Gene asks why.... Richard replies, "so they don't f'k you!"!So as you all know I speak from a bit of experience but I see what I consider crazy posts on the subject all the time.
For those that don't know I was sentenced to 5 to 15 at the age of 16. I was all about ME and as a result all the group homes and foster homes couldn't save me. So let's get to the point...
There seem to be two different mindsets to felons and imo BOTH are wrong. Some say "throw away the key's " while others say "no bail"
Well i can speak somewhat to the no bail position. My grandmother bailed me out time after time and all it achieved what to deepen my boldness because i considered myself untouchable. She wasn't a bad woman, she just blindly loved me. Basically she played the role of a bleeding heart liberal with their no bail bullshit.
The flipside to that is the people that think simply locking people up and forgetting about them solves the problem.
Recividisom is a major problem in the prison population. You lock a man up and hold him in a hole for years. Then suddenly he gets his freedom and just like before he went in he has no tools to cope with society. He's kicked into a halfway house for 30 days and then suddenly, after years of being treated like a dog in a kennel, is expected to function in society. No one will hire him except the people who want the tax credits available to them. Those same employers abuse the employees under the threat of "reporting them"
Imo every convict that isn't convicted of violent crimes should be offered basic educational classes and should be REQUIRED to finish a trade school vocation before being eligible for release.
When I was in prison vocational education was an option and not required. I took it to get the fuck out of my cell and that was the only reason. That vocation that i used for a sense of freedom is likely the only reason i am free today.
We have to "arm" convicts with the skills to succeed. Or we can simply lock them up and hope to God they dont become our or our children's neighbors when they get out.
/blog
My first attempt at a not troll debate in this forum.
I read that I'm supposed to make three rules but I have no idea what that means?
No insults
No partisan bs
Tell me I'm cool
Yeah, I like those three rules.....GO!
Crime and punishment. Tough subject. First, I think you need to separate the mentally ill from the issue. Our prisons serve as ad hoc warehouses for those that society chooses not to spend money on...as regards mental health services. It is no accident that prison populations went up when the funding for mental health went down..especially in those cases where an inpatient setting was required.
Then there is the punitive aspect..that society demands. Make a prison too comfortable..too safe--and it doesn't seem like all that much of a disincentive, now does it?
Is the goal to provide society with its 'pound of flesh'? Or...is the goal to prevent recidivism? Hard time hardens--and deepens the antipathy twixt individual and society. Add the extreme difficulty many ex-convicts deal with--and it would seem to me that the counter-intuitional approach is called for...to give people a sense of self-worth..one must treat them as though they are worth something, right? I would ask the heretical question..is punishment...as a goal---even a real part of the discussion? Broken people thrive on punishment...it reinforces their sense of victim-hood...and allows them to commit continued crimes--and bask in their self-justification.
Better to fix the person..if possible.
Often, it is not. Money..and our sense of outrage..stand in the way.
Then..there is the economic/racial component of the problem. The substance abuse issues. The very real fact that in many areas..prison is an industry..providing both jobs and a sense of superiority to folks who have limited skills of their own. Crime is big business...I have a friend who opened a substance abuse testing company...he is a millionaire from testing that parolee piss. California's largest and most influential union is the Correctional Officers Union..how do you think they would take a proposed massive down-turn in prison population?
I think...that in most prisons..the tools exist for someone to rise up...and reforge themselves. It's the culture that stands in the way. The prison culture..and our popular culture. I've often heard complaining about providing convicts with college...why should they get to make that step up..at our expense? The thought that it might prevent crime really does not register with those sort...they don't care.....they just want more time....and more punishment--not seeing that that's just a way to kick the can...and the thought that a crime might have been uncommitted..is too elusive for them to internalize.
The cost of ending incarceration may even be worse? What of justice?