PRISON

[JOEBIALEK]

"Most people who are in the prison system will get out, they will be somebody’s neighbor and they will have gained nothing from their time in prison except the knowledge that “it’s you or me” because that’s the way it is in our prisons. They have removed most of the educational programs from our prisons because the tax payers don’t want to throw away good money on worthless criminals. They have no counseling, nothing to help them change whatever it was that got them where they are in the first place. Is this what we really want?" "Misconceptions About Prison Life" By Jeanette Doil

The Eighth Amendment of The Bill of Rights for the Constitution of the United States: "Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted." The very way prisons are operated today is a clear violation of this amendment.

Prison life today is the complete forfeiture of freedom for a certain period of time; sometimes the remaining days of one's life. Both violent and non-violent people are mixed together in the prison population which violates the Eighth Amendment because the potentiality for violence against non-violent offenders strongly exists. Furthermore, given the present conditions, those given life sentences without the possibility of parol would be better off if given the option of execution by the method of their choosing. But what about those with the chance of eventually leaving prison and returning to society?

One of the things strongly lacking in prison today is personal discipline; self imposed discipline. This is the discipline that makes you try harder and work more intensely then you ever thought you could. Sadly, prisoners lack both the incentive and ability to develop this themselves. Consequently, discipline needs to come from outside themselves. The best source of external discipline comes from United States Marine Corps boot-camp seargants. Prisoners need to be treated the same as new recruits when they step off the bus into the prison yard for the first time. It needs to be made clear that until they are released, the "system" will not allow them to continue in their present state of disorder. Once the prisoner accepts their new found source of discipline, they may "graduate" to learning a trade or completing an education. Various forms of counselling must also be provided in order to keep them focused on their path to rehabilitation. The right of the prisoners to peaceably assemble must be forfeited in order to prevent the formation of groups detrimental to the process. This would also prevent the smuggling of drugs into the prison as the corrupt corrections officer would no longer have a "market". The problem with prisons today is that they only serve to foster a continuation of the human condition that leads to incarceration. With all this discussion and funding of homeland security, it would seem logical to start with America's prisons as a means of improving the safety and security of every United States citizen.

[Andy P]

Pffffffttttttttt....I've heard the argument before and it is lame and pathetic. People like to try to use the constitution against law. What are we supposed to try to reform murderers and not give the ones that deserve it, death but parole them in 25 yrs hoping that they have reformed. Yes crime is out of control but the people arguing for this, have no decent answer to the problem. What we supposed to hope we can reform Richard Ramirez?, Hope we can reform the green river killer?, what you want these people in society. If you commit a crime, do the time, I'm sick and tired of people telling me, we should not punish but reform.

[raynbo]

I do think we need to reform, but society as a whole, and not just prisons. But, since this is the prison thread, how about putting actual criminals in prison instead of letting them serve 2 months for something like rape?

[davehart]

The system needs to be more sensible. If someone if bad nothing is going to change that so it is best to have them locked away from everyone else to avoid any harm

[technics]

the system is fuked.. i'm currently facing a case of assualt with a weapon over some guy who asked me to come out when while i was holding the so called weapon.. never been in any trouble with the law, didn't hit him or damage a thing, there was consent (if you're going to be a thug, don't go halfway and deal with the ramifications of your actions), he threatened me, now i have to waste my time going to court, paying for a lawyer, and taxpayers are paying for such a b.s. case.. the system is fuked.. in the meantime, guys like the one putting the assault charge on me, waste their time and others just to get back at someone and the system actually allows it... pure b.s. I believe that there should be reform, in fact, I think they should make the law a little more lenient, that way maybe there would be less people that act a certain way but don't follow through on their actions e.g. ppl on road rage... when it comes down to it, i don't think ppl should depend on anything to save their asses (such as the law) when they go looking and acting in ways that can create trouble.. in relations to the initial posting... i feel that it is such a useless debate, you can't reform ppl when their mindsets are based on intrinsically conditioned responses coming from their experiences in life. the majority always rules and if their actions and their ability to get away from their actions puts them in jail for a long time, it's not that they are criminals, it's just that they're too stupid to get away with being themselves and lack the ability to properly create the perception of adaptation... u look at the definition of intelligence anywhere, and it will tell you that it's related to self adaptive learning... and w/o others to create a criteria for comparison, there would be no universality or incentive to adapt to the law to begin with. some ppl just don't see the incentives of being discrete and the power of perception- they have a closed mind. if anything there should be reform in the prisons to ppl who actually want it..

if you ask me, i think the real criminals in scoiety are those *beep* police officers who not only enforce the law, but think that they're the law... pure lowlifes...

[QbIx]

I think that prison or reform is a catch 22 situation by putting people in prison they learn how to be a better criminal but at the same time how do you reform a paedophile or mass murderer. Either way you're not going to be able to please everybody and no system is going to be perfect.