Anyone else notice anything disturbing about jails and prisons? I’m seeing several things that really bug the hell out of me, but nobody seems to really think it’s an important issue. I’m wondering if it’s just me, or if people in this nation are so conditioned to ignorance that they can’t fathom the issue.
Here it is. Prisoners eat fairly well. They aren’t gorging on steak and lobster, but they aren’t being fed gruel, either. They eat better than a lot of lower middle income families in this country do. They have cable television. Prisons have internet access and frequently offer classes which the prisoners don’t have to pay for. Your medical needs are taken care of. You don’t have to pay rent. You don’t have to pay electricity. You don’t have to pay for anything.
Somebody tell me why in the hell people who have violated the law to land themselves into prison get treated so well? Seriously. Our dear rulers (notice they are NOT leaders anymore) tell us how we need more money for this, more money for that, and more money for the next thing. They steal from the Social Security fund because they don’t have the ability to stop spending money left and right, leaving the retirements of millions of people who were told, forced even, to rely on Social Security, in jeopardy. Meanwhile, criminals are well taken care of. WTF?
I have an idea. It will save BILLIONS across the country every year. It will be implemented in a series of 3 steps.
1) No cable TV, internet, college education provided. Meals are bare minimum requirements for sustainable, nutritional living. I don’t give a flying fornication what it tastes like. Books will be provided by local libraries (if they desire to be a part of it) and donations. Any televisions or radios on site will be ones that were provided by guards, family, friends, and random donations.
2) No more incarcerations for BS crimes. If the crime didn’t hurt anyone other than the criminal in any way, and didn’t violate any rights of another person, they will not do time for it. There can be monetary penalties all you want, even supervised probation. No jail time. Get a job and feed yourself, pot heads and petty crooks!
3) Anyone convicted of Murder, Rape, or Child Molestation (what I refer to as the unholy trinity of criminal acts) gets the death penalty. No ifs, ands, or buts. No automatic appeal. 365 days from the guilty verdict being returned, you are brought up before the judge. If there is no new evidence in your case, a six person panel of judges will confer, determine if there are any extenuating circumstances, and if 4 of the 6 agree, you are taken immediately out back and hanged.
This is the way you run a prison system. As it is, you can rape, murder, and pillage. The worst you’ll likely get is the rest of your life not having to pay rent or any other bills, while enjoying AC, heat, electricity, internet, television, and radio. All provided by folks that obey the law. How can anyone be dumb enough to think this is even remotely sustainable?
Actually, there's a fairly good reason for #1: docility. The food doesn't taste good because the prisons care about the prisoners and put extra special care into it's preparation; it tastes good because of it's extremely high fat content. In the same way you zonk out after Thanksgiving dinner, the dense food fed to prisoners saps their energy, making them easier to control and reducing their propensity for violence.
ReplyDeleteAnd what better compliment to a food coma than some cable television? When the Egyptian government fucked with it's citizens, they burned shit to the ground. Americans? We have McDonalds and Dancing with the Stars. We'll get to it after a nap... maybe.
The same applies in prisons.
Reasonable HVAC runs along the same lines. Freezing or sweltering prisoners are angry prisoners; content prisoners are easier to control less violent.
Medical care is also a cost savings for prisons. Generally, a prison has a part time doctor that is shared with many others, and possibly a nurse there during the day to administer prescribed medications. Keeping them on staff is cheaper than paying two guards (with overtime and travel expenses) to go to a hospital to watch a prisoner be treated for minor conditions. Unless the proposal is just to let ill prisoners go without any treatment. But I don't think that's what you were trying to imply.
The bottom line is, volatile prisoners cost in employed guards. Docile prisoners cost in creature comforts. Cable TV, A/C, books, Internet, and decent food, combined, for all the prisoners, for a year, is cheaper than even one guard, much less the many you would need to manage the prison with volatile prisoners.
If your goal is simply to punish people, then you may be on to something with point #1. If your goal is cost savings, then your suggestions are counter-productive. You would either need to accept a dramatic rise in the already high rates of prison violence (which has it's own associated costs), or the costs associated with hiring more guards. Either way, you're spending money that you don't need to.
I'm all in with letting out the potheads though.
Extremely well written, and accurate. There are other options as well. For instance, leave them in their cells. You don't have to worry so much about controlling large groups of violent people when they are locked into 1, 2, or 3 person cells. Start out with them being allowed zero activity outside their cells, then you reward the ones that are following the rules and not acting like animals with trips to the gym, or out to the yard. Whatever. Smaller groups, 15 - 20 people maybe. Much easier to control. This idea of letting hundreds of prisoners roam about semi-freely within the confines of concrete walls is ridiculous. If we're going to do that, just dump them into a large walled area, man the towers to make sure nobody gets out, and let them grow their own food, raise their own animals, clean their own water,, generate their own electricity, etc. Otherwise, lock their sorry arses down, and don't let them out of their cages until they've shown they can play well with others.
DeleteOh, one other thing: More and more prisons are charging "rent" (called incarceration fees), and a shifting more and more of the cost burdens back to prisoners; for example, charging for basic hygiene supplies like soap, toothpaste, and toilet paper; charging for sheets, pillows, and bedding; even charging for clothes.
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