Every gorram day...

[daddio914]

I already knew this, but here's an article that gives the actual statistics.

(alternate titles I considered for this entry)

And people wonder why I'm such a pessimist about our government...

Yes! We have more people in prison than China does!  We win!

The United States is still showing the Soviet Union how it's done!

Hey, Martha, you're not alone!

I

Comments

[daddio914]

"I don't have a useful idea on how to humanely (relatively speaking) deal with the maximum security inmates. I'm not sure they should be reintroduced into society, ever."

Here again, we can divide the people involved into some useful groups.

First off, let's take the people who are in maximum security for crimes they are not likely to repeat. I think that more often now, people like this are being given house arrest and other alternative punishments. This should be made the uniform practice. If the accused isn't likely to re-offend, then we don't need to lock them away.

In my second group would be the people who have committed crimes because they didn't really have anything better to do. This can be due to many factors such as poverty, lack of education, etc. Many other governments have already shown that these people can be 'rehabilitated'. Given an opportunity to turn around their lives (learning a trade, getting a college degree or high school diploma, etc) while they are serving their time coupled with counseling to help them fit into society as a whole in a more constructive manner will let them rejoin society as useful individuals. Canada's recidivism rate is less than half that of the US for common crime and their time served is generally within the same parameters. However, the Canadian justice system focuses on rehabilitation over punishment.

Now, with these two layers in place, you could say that anyone left would have to be crazy to do what they did. I'd tend to agree with you, and I think that the remainder of those incarcerated should be dealt with in a mental health type setting, rather than a prison. Sure, you don't want to mix in the really dangerous ones with anyone else, but at the same time, they will be at least getting humane treatment and, for those that aren't too far gone to want it, mental health treatment that could eventually lead to their return to society.

Of course, a specific subset of this group should probably remain locked up permanently. Really, though, it's our responsibility to remember that these are people who can not be helped. We don't have the drugs or the therapy or any other technological way to leave them as whole people and still have it be safe for our friends and family to have them living in their neighborhoods.

Note also that at the mental health level, no treatments are forced on the prisoners. Ever. If they choose to undergo treatment, and it is successful, then they may earn the right to re-enter society. Without treatment this option isn't present.