"The American Justice system cares more about prisoners than citizens."

[white_wolf]

I've heard a line like this a lot when talking to "tough on crime" types. It always shocks me saying as how our prison systems are some of the worst in the industrialized world. If you ask me we need a a complete overhaul of our prison system. First of all we need to end the drug wars and release non-violent drug related prisoners. We should focus on treating addiction to drugs not throwing them in prisons. We should also reform our prison system to focus on rehabilitation of prisoners and not strictly on punishment. Another thing we need to do is combat the violence in our prisons.
A lot of times people come out of prison worse than when they came in because half the time to survive in there you have to join some gang for protection which ends up making them worse than they were before they got in. So what do you all think about this issue?

[Drale]

1. Right now we do seem to care more about prisoners than the rest of us

They get free health care, they get three square meals a day and they get a roof over their head. Those are three things that many Americans don't have these days.

[ohnoyoudidnt]

5. I recall reading a couple articles about the homless intentionally committing crimes

just to go to prison for those reasons. Of course, anyone who has a low-wage job and any kind of roof over their head is not likely willing to trade places.

[Taverner]

2. One should let them know that (1) Prisoners are citizens and

(2) Prison life is no Club Med

[ohnoyoudidnt]

3. I've heard serving a month in solitary confinement is worse than a year in jail.

Maybe this should be looked at more closely. Prisoners won't be in the position to 'socialize'. They will have nothing but time for some soul searching. I'm not suggesting putting people in confinement for years, there should be reforms for serious long term offenders, but for some crimes that would usually result in a year or two of prison, just a couple months in solitary might be better.

[ohnoyoudidnt]

4. There's also the problem of privatization.

Prisoners are now assets to private interests. Those interests want them working there for 10 cents an hour for as long as possible while they charge the state 30k or so a year to enslave them.

[CrispyQ]

6. And throw kickbacks to politicians to keep draconian drug laws in place.

The very first step needs to be to dismantle the for-profit factor.

[ohnoyoudidnt]

7. Then there's the judges who have been caught taking bribes for sentencing.

The corruption in our system is sickening.

[chrisa]

8. The GOP response to this is,

"Oh. We should care less about the prisoners then to make it equal." :banghead:

[Zorra]

9. My last partner was/is an administrator in a prison. She's

a really great compassionate person, a genuine bleeding heart liberal in what is mostly a sea of RW wackos.

Almost every night she would come home, angry, frustrated, and exhausted, and tell me about her insane day struggling with obnoxious RW bureaucracy, trying to get something constructive accomplished for the inmates.

Trust me on this: Prison is an industry. They do not want to rehabilitate inmates. The system is geared toward promoting recidivism. The system needs to be completely overhauled. It is a huge profit-making warehouse of damaged goods that it claims it wants to fix but almost always damages them worse.

The American Justice system only gives a shit about prisoners in the sense that it cares about the money it makes off of them