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

[Mr. Pedantic]

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.

^

You can't have the kind of environment described by the OP if the primary goal is rehabilitation - but it seems the United States doesn't really know what it wants. Some want it to be primarily for rehabilitation, and I think most people want some aspect of incarceration to be about rehabilitation, but for many the primary idea of prison is punitive - people are there to serve their time, and it should be as unpleasant as possible for those people.

Of course, then human rights organisations get in the way and this combination of compromises (like all political compromises) ends up creating a situation wherein only the disadvantages of the respective dichotomies are inherited, and all the benefits are discarded concessions.

This means that it's doomed to failure and then each side ends up blaming the other side, without really seeing the fact that they both contributed equally to the failure.

And all this completely ignores the fact that since nobody thinks about prison while they're planning or committing a crime, the idea of prison as a deterrent is just silly.

 

[Via]

And they should only get water and bread.

Ok, I might be getting a little extreme here, but I'm not entirely against the idea of low protein diets for the worst kinds of inmates.

They can be healthy, but I don't want them building muscle while they're in jail. Feed them rice or something.

 

[HeXen]

Ok, I might be getting a little extreme here, but I'm not entirely against the idea of low protein diets for the worst kinds of inmates.

They can be healthy, but I don't want them building muscle while they're in jail. Feed them rice or something.

Actually I think there is a prison in Texas where the warden swears by just giving them bread and water.

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

Ok, I might be getting a little extreme here, but I'm not entirely against the idea of low protein diets for the worst kinds of inmates.

They can be healthy, but I don't want them building muscle while they're in jail. Feed them rice or something.

Because you have to have muscles to kill people?

What is this, discrimination against nerds?

 

[tboo]

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.

We werent "tough" on crime before the 70s?

 

[who?]

The movie "Brubaker" was based on the book "Accomplices to the Crime" by Thomas O. Murton which was about his experience as the warden hired to reform the Arkansas prison system. Things inside are nowhere near that rough these days.

 

[Jeff7]

Because you have to have muscles to kill people?

What is this, discrimination against nerds?

If only we had some sort of device that permitted deadly force to be exacted upon someone else, using only a simple point-and-click sort of action.


:sneaky:

 

[OutHouse]

These types of problems don't seem that difficult to solve

lol, so says the guy outside the system looking in.

 

[Zodiark1593]

And they should only get water and bread.

Heck, the prisoners should be thankful we even let them live and not throw them in a gladiator ring to fight each other to the bloody death for our amusement.

 

[nageov3t]

to what extent are your concerns over rape and gang warfare based on statistics versus tv/movies?

 

[ABC10]

We have prisons is to keep the animals locked away and off the streets.

 

[StrangerGuy]

That is actually larger than my bedroom.

While I don't agree in pampering inmates with luxuries, they do have a much better social welfare and culture to deter crime in the first place.

 

[who?]

The television show lockup shows corrections officers searching for drugs, weapons and gang communications a lot.

 

[John Connor]

norway prison cell

Cool! Now I can murder those douche bags that run the Nobel peace prize and have this to look forward to? HAHAHAHA!

 

[IGBT]

we do!! the inside is now the outside.

 

[IGBT]

we do!! the inside is now the outside.

..that's why there's so many goobers walking around with their pants falling off.

 

[John Connor]

Ok, I might be getting a little extreme here, but I'm not entirely against the idea of low protein diets for the worst kinds of inmates.

They can be healthy, but I don't want them building muscle while they're in jail. Feed them rice or something.

That's what the Sheriff Joe something or other in Arizona is doing now. This guy makes you wear pink underwear and watch nothing but the Disney channel all you get now is rice and beans.

 

[John Connor]

I think prisons should offer more rehabilitation services. Many go in and come out with no means of a job so they go right back to crime. Lets not forget that our prisons are mock mental health facilities. We need to identify the disturbed before they commit a crime. Look at the Aurora shooter and several others in the media just recently.

 

[HeXen]

Heck, the prisoners should be thankful we even let them live and not throw them in a gladiator ring to fight each other to the bloody death for our amusement.

I would so agree to that. Unfortunately we don't have that Roman like culture anymore. If we did, I bet most everyone in the world would watch.

I think prisons should offer more rehabilitation services. Many go in and come out with no means of a job so they go right back to crime. Lets not forget that our prisons are mock mental health facilities. We need to identify the disturbed before they commit a crime. Look at the Aurora shooter and several others in the media just recently.

It's called being poor without care for others or society. If they were wealthy, crime rates would drop tremendously. Amazing what money alone will do.

 

[Sonikku]

"Decent" is relative. Decent by what criteria? America has the most lucrative and profitable prison system in the world. I don't see corporations making mad bank in Norway like they do in the gold old US of A. People we arrest we can put to good use as cheap labor that will work for practically nothing, thus helping to keep America competitive with the rest of the world. It's win-win all around.

 

[Jeff7]

I think prisons should offer more rehabilitation services. Many go in and come out with no means of a job so they go right back to crime. Lets not forget that our prisons are mock mental health facilities. We need to identify the disturbed before they commit a crime. Look at the Aurora shooter and several others in the media just recently.

Just mind Minority Report's slippery slope that eagerly awaits nearby.
And it'll get more tempting as datamining continues to grow.

"Hey look, 96.5% of all people convicted of petty theft owned Teddy Ruxpin toys as children."
Then the politicians get hold of that data, and it's off to the campaign trail to "make difficult decisions" and "keep your children safe."

...
It's called being poor without care for others or society. If they were wealthy, crime rates would drop tremendously. Amazing what money alone will do.

It would also help because the more wealth you've got, the less chance there is of you going to prison in the first place, assuming you're even convicted.

 

[HumblePie]

To the OP, every answer to any question like this is the same. Follow the money.

 

[BurnItDwn]

In order to eliminate any hope of reform, we ensure the prisons exist only as a place of misery and punishment.

The only way a prisoner can ever get any pleasure or happiness in the place, is to break the rules some more.

We teach them how to break the rules more and more so that they are better criminals when they get out.

More criminals who are better at crime = more police, more power for police, more government, more power for government, and more deals for politicans who can pocket more money as well as get their friends more power who in turn get them more power.

 

[poofyhairguy]

All I know is when I was a kid every adult I knew bitched about how soft prisons were (I have always lived in red states) . People bitched about how they got to watch TV, got fed, read books. Every single person who pontificated on the situation pined for the days when they "were forced to break rocks." They complained again and again about how "bleeding hearts" made the prisons too soft.

Then Oz (and movies like Office Space, American History X, etc.) happened and everyone assumes that if you go to prison you will get raped. And the complaining went away (except for really old family members that didn't get the message). In fact many now brag about the fact that when a really bad guy gets arrested (like a child rapist) that "they will get theirs in prison when someone makes them their bitch."

So it seems to me modern prisons are a compromise. They get many comforts like OP complains about because some "bleeding hearts" have overall sympathy to the obvious living standards of the prisoners and things like TV and weights are easy to see and fix.

But they aren't protected from rape and gang violence because that is more difficult to root out and by not devoting resources to those causes the "hard asses" are happy by the side effect of a worse direct prison experience for many prisoners.

So, I think the fair answer is the current prison system is a compromise.

 

[poofyhairguy]

the idea of prison as a deterrent is just silly.