Coming from someone who has been to prison twice and several different county correctional centers, it is more driven by profits. The government profits by having trumped up charges on first time offenders and forcing them to take a plea deal. Private companies overcharge for commissary by large percentages. Also the living conditions are usually very poor and inhumane. The entire prison system has too many moving parts for a radical change to ever be felt. One thing is for sure slavery is alive and well!!!!! So is prison really effective?? Well that depends on what outcome you are looking for. If you are looking for someone to be scared into ever committing crime again than prison can work in some cases but NOT all!!! Rehabilitation is basically impossible with our gang infested prisons. Rehabilitation only works for those who have been incarcerated for a long time and even then most of then revert to their old ways once released. I believe that a good support system and guidance is all anyone will ever need to rehabilitate themselves. And prison is the worst support system there is!!!!!
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Its good that people with inside knowledge such as yourself can back up some of these facts
I 100% agree with this!
I am happy that someone who I assume never been to prison takes the time to discuss this topic. Most people don't care. I can tell you are a good person!!!! Steem On!!!!!
thank you very much
I think it's an important topic that deserves to be on people's minds
Maybe we can do an interview. Give the readers an inside view.
I don't really know how to conduct one
but if you write a short piece giving an insider view on what prison is like, i'll give it a full vote up (before the bots start auto flagging me down)
just send me a comment to one of my posts when you've submitted it
https://steemit.com/life/@mrviquez/prison-life-and-a-non-effective-prison-system
Ok sounds good......I can do that.
Cool would be very interested in a inside view!
Thanks for the idea it seems to be doing well!!!!!
Submitted my piece on prison life.
You should link it here, like jone below
Hi all from australia. i have spent time in a west australian womens prison just 3 weeks to begin with and then about 4 months down the track a longer 6 month 'stint' for the same or similar crimes. i was 24 at the time and it was for drug related offences.. jail did not offer any form of assistance when it came to succeeding in life after conviction 4 years down the track reffered to the court system again as drugs continue to play a major role in helping me destroy myself have requested a court diversion which is aimed at helping the young offender tackle their drug issues however the system has a lot o flaws and faults.. and the war on drugs in australia , western australia especialy, is beyond a joke... ppl are recieving life sentences for aything over an ounce of meth i believe(i'll dbl check that) i feel that the the legal system is failing us. pls keep an eye out, im yet to post but i intend to share my journey as a nearly 30yo female with a meth addiction goesthrough rehab and counselling and is at the mercy of the court system and surounded by drugs and all i know is hustle tries to become someone who can help to educate kids before they even face the temptation and try and prevent our children making the mistakes i did by learning from mine
@ mrviquez I agree big time...c.r.e.a.m. Industrial prisons who are on the stock market? Private police stations who can take your car for drug possession. I even heard the make big money with telephone calls from the prisoners.
So of course they don;t want to change the drugs laws. Most of them are there because of drugs. It's a money making system.
Dont forget the race element, it's no secret that "black drugs" carry harsher sentences than "white drugs" for no discernible reason, that black folk statistically get longer sentences and are statistically more likely to be targeted for search. Prison industrial complex targets poor and vulnerable groups>kids from those groups grow up missing fathers and in constant economic instability>those kids grow up to commit more crime>they go to prison leaving their kids fatherless.
Lather, rinse, repeat, profit.
@jimithyashford I agree it's crazy, But still I also get ha raced by the cops. Even though Im white. Its a race and class thing.
I agree completely with you @markush! Foreigners get less harsher sentences here (Kenya) especially if they happen to be loaded. This is to avoid having their lawyers flood our prisons because their rights need to be 'critically' observed to avoid chaos with their state ambassadors.
I'd like to add that I agree with you that the prison system is a huge success if the intended goal is to disguise slavery as a public service and extort those who do not have the benefit of society looking out for them, since most believe that only criminals (defined as bad people or bad people who do bad things) go to prison, but that's not the case. Many in prison are there because they committed an act not sanctioned by the state, but harmed no one. I'd also like to add that it's not just commissary that is over-priced (if you're talking simply about snacks and hygiene needs), but communication to loved ones in prison is incredibly expensive. I only spent a couple of weeks in a county jail and my family spent (if memory serves) $30 for a 10 minute talk time phone card. That was in 2011, so my recollection may be incorrect, but I do remember the cost was ludicrous.
I'd also like to highlight the inhumane conditions. The food was sub par and the amounts were too small. Most days for lunch we were given a peanut butter sandwich and a single piece of fruit, and the staff, were often openly hostile despite being a "model prisoner". I was there for growing my own cannabis, and it was a particularly bitter pill to swallow, to be governed by guards that were obviously using steroids, and always itching for a reason to become violent. A few stand out as potentially being decent people (aside from working in human trafficking) but most were more deserving of being on the other side of the bars more than many of the inmates.
Thanks for the in depth comment. I agree and you are right the price of phone calls is astronomical!!!
I tried to edit my previous reply but the app kept freezing so I'll add it here. Regarding the other inhumane conditions, our facility was set up with a pod structure, meaning Pod A would have an area that contained approximately 16-20 cells with a 4 person capacity. The cell I was in had no less than 6 inmates at any given time with 2 or more residents sleeping on the concrete floor. I don't know how many pods the facility contained (I wasn't privy to a tour of my new domicile) but I suspect each of them consisted of the same conditions. I have a very clear memory of an inmate being injected into the pod I was in only to be relocated because there were no cells with enough space available for him to throw a mat on the floor to sleep.
And this next violation of human/civil rights struck a chord so deep in me that it still resonates nearly a decade later.
One Sunday, we were locked in our cells while a local minister stood in the dining area and proceded to give an unsolicited sermon. I complained, loudly, that I wasn't interested in being force fed a religious message to which the response was, in summary, "you can sit quietly while I (the minister) preach my message, or you can spend the next hour in isolation". Isolation, mind you, was a holding cell about 7 ft. long, & 4 ft. wide with a concrete slab extending from the wall that ran the length of the cell. As you can imagine it was a cold room and I would not have been allowed to take the mat or pillow I had been issued for my duration in the facility.
Being more rebellious than intelligent, I suffered through the backwoods sermon and immediately began requesting alternative religious literature. The specific book I requested was the Satanic Bible (which as a side note isn't what most people would think it is). My requests were never addressed, thus I never received a copy of my "preferred" religious text.
I agree with you. jesus came to set the prisoners free so that they can be healed. Rehab is possible under the right conditions.
For deterrence I would say prison or any other punishment will only work if the person you're trying to deter has more to lose than to gain by their activities. This depends on the circumstances and a person living relatively comfortable probably wouldn't want to risk going to prison, but the less comfortable a person is living the less they have to lose and more risk they have to take to change their condition. In some environments, young people are getting killed, or are homeless, etc, and in those environments going to prison isn't worse than the alternatives from a rational perspective. Most will think it's better to be alive in prison than to be dead, and a lot of people will think being in prison is less of a punishment than being homeless with no where to go.
Very good! Thanks for this info!
i agree, the prison system is americas best tax dollars at work, more and more are becoming private
I spent time locked up too. Once you are in, the rest of society basically forgets about you. It is an interesting experience and many people can take it as some sort of a lesson learned but mostly that doesn't happen.
Followed for your thought out response. I like to see that people put effort and time into their posts rather than cmnd p
good point.I am glad that we can get insight from someone like you.