Why don't we have a decent prison system in the US?

[Via]

I watched a part of a show dealing with this not too long ago. I understand why poor countries don't have decent prisons, but this is the wealthiest country in history.

Why are the insides of so many prisons such lawless hellholes?

Why are gangs allowed to run the the inside of penal institutions? If it were up to me ANYONE engaging in ANY gang-related activity would immediately be confined to solitary for a year, second offense for the rest of their term. I mean, seriously - we allow racist gangs to congregate openly, fight turf wars, and intimidate other inmates? WTF? Why in the hell is this just accepted as normal prison behavior? Documentaries dealing with prisons talk about these gangs in almost reverential terms.

Why are prisoners allowed to work out with weights? So they can become super-criminals once they're released? Why do they get to watch TV or play any type of game or sport? The only things they should get are self-help books and chess sets.

How can rapes and murders occur in prisons? How is it even possible nowadays for inmates to be alone with each other long enough for these types of things to occur? Why haven't adjustments been made?

With all of the tech we have at our disposal now how can anyone escape ever?

Prison (for violent and habitual offenders) should be an extremely unpleasant place to be where you are offered help to turn your life around, and you should be "encouraged" to accept it by not wanting to come the fuck back.

These types of problems don't seem that difficult to solve, and I don't think it would require human rights violations. Since so much of prison industry is privatized now do they want repeat inmates?

 

[KLin]

Thank you, armchair warden

 

[ABC10]

Ha! See those prisons in Peru, Mexico, Africa, South America. China, Arab Penisula and the Balkans for a real look at what other countries have to offer. Here they get 3 hots, a cot, little TV, health care and clean clothes. Worked Medical Detentions for five years. Once they find out they can survive their first incarceration, the next ones get easier. There are a few who want to change their lives around and get their GED and other life helping courses. Most of them are there because they are dumb. Like robbing a store and then go to their mother's house.

 

[Via]

Thank you, armchair warden

Damn right I'm the armchair warden.

I take it you're ok with how US prisons are run?

 

[lxskllr]

Because the system is largely a sham, run by for-profit corporations. The system from the bottom to the top is used to generate money for the established interests excepting the people unfortunate enough to get trapped in the system. No one gives a shit about them.

 

[Brigandier]

I have limited experience with the penal system.

A lot of it is making do with the tax funds. Shitty food, donated books, etc. Jail and prison are puffed up, chicken hawk chests.

 

[Ruptga]

A ton of it is because we don't even know what we want out of the system. Some want it to punish the bad people, some want it to rehabilitate, some want it to remove bad people from the general population, and most want some combination of those three things.

It is also a silent problem, most people don't have a clue and/or don't really give a damn since they don't see it impact their daily life.

 

[sdifox]

Capitalism

 

[Doppel]

Thank you, armchair warden

Terrible response.

---

Agree with OP, it is shameful. The US sends far too many people to prison though and lacking enough money for each one corners are cut, so this kind of thing happens. I believe anybody sent to prison should at least feel secure, no matter the crime, that they will be protected from abuse from guards and fellow inmates. It is essentially barbaric to forcibly send somebody into an environment that is rife with victimization.

The US would have to spend more per person. If the budgets are kept where they are, that means less prisoners. More drug-related prisoners should be let out. I am for that, but coming down even harder than happens now for violent crime, of which I have no tolerance whatsoever, including and in fact particularly when perpetuated by teenagers. Far too many future murderers cut their teeth during teen years and get slapped on the wrist. Then they hit 18 and they've already had run-ins with the law, but they're still on the outside, and they are incapable of acting decently among decent people.

 

[Via]

Terrible response.

---

Agree with OP, it is shameful. The US sends far too many people to prison though and lacking enough money for each one corners are cut, so this kind of thing happens. I believe anybody sent to prison should at least feel secure, no matter the crime, that they will be protected from abuse from guards and fellow inmates. It is essentially barbaric to forcibly send somebody into an environment that is rife with victimization.

The US would have to spend more per person. If the budgets are kept where they are, that means less prisoners. More drug-related prisoners should be let out. I am for that, but coming down even harder than happens now for violent crime, of which I have no tolerance whatsoever, including and in fact particularly when perpetuated by teenagers. Far too many future murderers cut their teeth during teen years and get slapped on the wrist. Then they hit 18 and they've already had run-ins with the law, but they're still on the outside, and they are incapable of acting decently among decent people.

Agree.

When a young man 18-20 years old goes to jail and is forced to join a gang how does that help him turn his life around? It's the opposite - he's trained to become a career criminal.

I'm ranting, but it struck me all of a sudden how insane this whole system is.

Oh, and - Nerf chess sets. They should get nerf chess sets.

 

[Printer Bandit]

norway prison cell

 

[AViking]

Our system is punitive and not rehabilitative. There is no motivation to fix it. They changed the system in the 1970's and for some reason Americans don't realize this.

We went "tough on crime" and now have mandatory sentencing guidelines that are rigid, an insane war on drugs, and one of the largest prison populations in the world. Our incarceration rate per capita is #1. An embarrassing statistic.

 

[Zodiark1593]

norway prison cell

That is actually larger than my bedroom.

 

[Ruptga]

norway prison cell

Meanwhile in America

Btw, I'm still waiting for some hick to burst into this thread and tell us all we're a bunch of liberal pussies, and that soft people like us are why repeat offenders get chances to repeat.

 

[Richard N]

Lawyers, prisoner rights, cruel and unusual punishment. Also, no one cares about prisoners getting raped except the participants

 

[qtnguyen87]

i watched a part of a show dealing with this not too long ago. I understand why poor countries don't have decent prisons, but this is the wealthiest country in history.

Why are the insides of so many prisons such lawless hellholes?

Why are gangs allowed to run the the inside of penal institutions? If it were up to me anyone engaging in any gang-related activity would immediately be confined to solitary for a year, second offense for the rest of their term. I mean, seriously - we allow racist gangs to congregate openly, fight turf wars, and intimidate other inmates? Wtf? Why in the hell is this just accepted as normal prison behavior? Documentaries dealing with prisons talk about these gangs in almost reverential terms.

Why are prisoners allowed to work out with weights? So they can become super-criminals once they're released? Why do they get to watch tv or play any type of game or sport? The only things they should get are self-help books and chess sets.

How can rapes and murders occur in prisons? How is it even possible nowadays for inmates to be alone with each other long enough for these types of things to occur? Why haven't adjustments been made?

With all of the tech we have at our disposal now how can anyone escape ever?

Prison (for violent and habitual offenders) should be an extremely unpleasant place to be where you are offered help to turn your life around, and you should be "encouraged" to accept it by not wanting to come the fuck back.

These types of problems don't seem that difficult to solve, and i don't think it would require human rights violations. Since so much of prison industry is privatized now do they want repeat inmates?

excuse me????

 

[Ruptga]

excuse me????

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal)

 

[Via]

Lawyers, prisoner rights, cruel and unusual punishment. Also, no one cares about prisoners getting raped except the participants

Well..... I care.

I don't want some poor little kid getting ass raped because he's the fresh meat.

 

[zerocool84]

And here in Cali, we release tons of prisoners because of overcrowding.

 

[Richard N]

Well..... I care.

I don't want some poor little kid getting ass raped because he's the fresh meat.

Perhaps you could design some sort of anal trap complete with sharp steel teeth. Objects go one direction no problem but if they go the other direction then SNAP. Other than that everyone would spend there sentence in solitary. And what of the prisoners trading anal sex for protection. Should they be denied too?

 

[Meghan54]

Our system is punitive and not rehabilitative. There is no motivation to fix it. They changed the system in the 1970's and for some reason Americans don't realize this.

We went "tough on crime" and now have mandatory sentencing guidelines that are rigid, an insane war on drugs, and one of the largest prison populations in the world. Our incarceration rate per capita is #1. An embarrassing statistic.

The real crime is that when Americans are asked for more prisons, the majority agree without a second's hesitation, despite the fact that money spent on prisons is just lost money...shows no return at all....but ask Americans about providing health care and the response turns ugly.

We seem quite willing to incarcerate more and more of our population with its cost of roughly $45k per year per inmate, yet won't ensure a healthy population, which would actually pay back a bit with increased productivity, fewer bankruptcies, etc. Sad, really.

 

[HeXen]

And they should only get water and bread.

 

[Geosurface]

Prisons in the US are an interesting thing... in some ways they're really good facilities, in other ways they're a complete hell.

I recently was hearing some horror stories about prison in Italy.

I think the biggest problem in the US is who is in the prisons. If the criminals on the outside of prison are an awful bunch of violent animals in gangs, they'll be the same way inside only worse, and nothing you can do will make that prison anything but a hell hole.

There's a reason that a guy in a prison documentary I was just watching a few days ago, accepted transfer to a prison in Iowa, from Florida, as a compensation for having been raped repeatedly.

There are some prisons in the US you'd actually have a pretty easy time at, and find the facilities and even the fellow prisoners to be reasonably tolerable by the standards of being in a prison... there are other parts of the US where you'd wish you were dead.

I'd wager it would be pretty easy to figure out where the better and worse prisons are going to be by looking at facts about the state and area of the state they were located in.

 

[KeithP]

Because the system is largely a sham, run by unions.

FTFY

-KeithP

 

[Skel]

The main reason the prison system is so jacked up is because people want it both ways. You want to have 'criminals' locked away from you but don't want to spend too much to keep them there. You want to make sure the prisoners are kept humanely but then again don't want to pay for a system that may help that. Prisons don't make much money (contrary to some people's beliefs) so the don't have the proper staff nor tech to run the place. In all prisons the inmates outnumber the guards in insane ratios that if they inmates really wanted to take control it'd be theirs before anyone had a clue. They have weights (though many including AZ DOC where I worked do not) and exercise yards because people outside of the prisons felt it was inhumane to keep people in little rooms the rest of their lives.

Of course the idea that we shouldn't have prisons is worse as there are a lot of unsavory people that I wouldn't want walking the streets. I'm also against saying that some crimes deserve punishment and some don't as it's a crime.

Having said that, I do feel there are ways to improve them, but it's so far outside my sphere of control that I don't spend much time thinking about it. If you feel that strongly do something about it, and start talking to your state government as they're the only people that can really effect change, or do nothing but feel indignant and talk about it only when you're out drinking cause that always works well.