Comments on: America: Incarceration Nation

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 12:00:40 +0000

Are the majority of the prisoners innocent of crimes? Where they falsely accused and/or had bad legal counsel? What are your solutions to prisons? Do you have proof that spending more on education, rehabilitation, etc. would solve the problem? I agree that spending on the housing of prisoners is very expensive and probably profit driven.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 17:24:16 +0000

Chuck Colson was a rich white guy who went to prison and has spent the rest of his life dedicated to helping people in prison and supporting their families. He understands it is a very bad place. We have supported him for years because (1) I spent one day in jail as a teenager and (2) I had the experience of speaking at a youth correctional facility in California and a Prison in Hawaii. Interesting note…other than me and the other speakers there was not a single white person in attendance. If we are sending eight times the average of the rest of the world we are doing something terribly wrong. We must figure out a way to stop sending so many people to prison.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 11:01:09 +0000

Making comparisons to the private prisons of centuries ago and today seems to be quite a stretch. Prisoners were often handed over to manufacturing or agricultural interests in order to provide cheap labor. Today these private facilities receive certification by the American Correctional Association. An organization that also certifies state prisons. Labor is highly regulated by both state and federal law, and most private prisons have on site government contract monitors.

To the point of profit motivated influence, you failed to mention the self- interest motivated influence being peddled by government bureaucrats and unions. In fact one of the most powerful government unions for correctional officers in California has directly lobbied for tough sentences and thrown their weight behind politicians friendly to their cause.

Since when have we assumed bureaucrats operate from a sense of altruistic behavior? Profits for one, fat pensions and benefits for the other. Everyone has a motivation.

Most importantly prisons, prison officials, and prison employees, public or private are not the cause of the United States prison population size. They are a symptom. The increasing level of criminogenic risk factors are the cause. The true solution is to provide more in the way of youth diversion programs, improve our ability to take kids out of bad situations, and in general prevent the development of these criminogenic risk factors. This is the solution to reducing prison population in a thoughtful a fixed manner.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 01:36:51 +0000

Wow, I don’t always understand people when they say those poor prisoners, really. I mean they are the same people in our society that rape our best friends, killed our families, stole for our houses, and sold drugs to our kids. Now that I have said that I don’t hate inmates or offenders or what ever you want to call them to feel better about yourself. I work with these very guys everyday and I make sure they get what they are supose to get; like food 3 times a day and hot and cold water as needed hygine items. We also provide law books at no charge cable or satelite tv at no charge and we also make each inmate preform some kind of job on a daily basis. This would include school where we have the highest offender graduation rate of any prison be it public or private in TN. By the way I work for a private prison. I would also like to say that I got paid more money at starting pay with this private company than I did with 9 years with the very same state facility. I would have to say that the training has been just as good if not better in some cases. The last thing i want to say is their is a lot of talk about programs and private prisons not doing them well that is just not the case. Just at my facility alone we have a larege number of programs that we offer to the offenders, most of which the state does not, so please do a little bit more research before you just say bad things about my job. I just do say bad things about yours, not for any reason. Please give us a break we are the last line of defense between the criminals and your families.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 16:37:38 +0000

Excellent article! What do you recommend to solve this problem? There are way too many people of all races in prison. This is scary stuff. It reminds me of the forced labor and imprisonment in MAO’s China and Stalin’s USSR. In those cases tens of millions died. To the guest who said “I doubt there are pot smokers in prison”…there are folks in prison because of pot residue found on a pipe.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 14:05:09 +0000

I doubt that there are pot smokers in prison. Pot sellers perhaps, but not smokers. Non violent, yes: Bernie Madoff and others on a much smaller scale. But, we have citizens doing those jobs you think we should give them. Take away their tv, leave the education – have them become doctors & lawyers & such, but leave the hard core locked away for the generations that follow to learn, if you can’t do the time – don’t do the crime.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 15:09:49 +0000

if we spent half as much money on programs for children, teenagers, and young adults, as we do on prisons, we wouldn’t need as many prisions.
In many parts of the USA there are no programs inspiring our children. Where are all the mentors?? I guarantee you, if we spent the money on the thngs that really mattered—-we’d need less and less prisons and we’d have a better society .

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 13:03:59 +0000

There are better solutions than private for profit prisons.
There are still pot smokers in prisons for no real reason other than some people are against all drugs. There are non violent prisoners that should be out doing community services to pay off their crimes. We should be fining the crap out of these types and keep them working on public areas until they do the required paybacks.
We would then have money to rehab the first time violators and the alcohol and drug addicts.
We would then have more room for the repeat offenders and violent criminals.
These hardcore criminals don’t deserve cable TV or other amenities. They have done things that require them to be incarcerated and while in the system should be put to work, first to benefit those they preyed upon and then for their own spaces.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 12:07:55 +0000

This is sad that in todays society that this is acceptable we all need to realize that eventually if the prisoners survive they get out of prison. When the prisoner is released back to the community you have bitter uneducated person who cannot get a job and often return back to prison. It seems to me that we are not in the business of rehabilitating people. Again this is sad and it seems that society is making war on the minorities and poor people.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 11:41:58 +0000

Good