What Should Prison—Doing Time—Accomplish?

An ex-convict will say: “I did my time.  I paid my debt to society.  Now give me a break.  Let me start over, with a clean slate.”

But it seldom happens that way.  After all, an “ex-convict” is exactly that, an ex-CONVICT!  So, they pay the price over and over and over again.  They become unemployable—who wants to hire an ex-convict?  How can they be trusted?

What do we expect of our prisons?

You probably have given this little thought.  What about our prisons and our prison system?  What do we expect should happen to prison inmates, while they do time in our state and federal prisons?

Here are some thoughts about the purpose of prisons: Prison is punishment.  Prison is retribution.  Prison is protection, taking the bad guy out of mainstream society for its safety.  Prison is a reformatory, reforming the criminal.  Prison is a correctional institution, straightening-out the crooked.  Prison is a penitentiary—where the guilty becomes penitent and does penance for wrong doing.  Prison is a training-ground for crime, a school for scandal, hardening already hardened criminals.  Prison is for bad people, really, really bad people, evil types, reserved for the scum of the earth, low-level sub-human types that are worse than animals and should be treated as such.

So, what do you think?  What should a prison system accomplish?  How should inmates be treated, and to what extent and at what cost?

Perhaps you think that only hard-hearted and cold-blooded murderous types are in our prison system, like rapists and child-molesters and murderers.  And perhaps you think that they are getting exactly what they deserve.  And perhaps you also assume that “they will never change.”  And so, it is only right that they should lose ALL rights-and-privileges that society has to offer.

It’s more complicated than that.  Not everyone in our prison system is evil in the worst sense of the word. 

Is there no redemption?  Are there no second chances?  Do people never change?  Is the law always fair and just?  Are all criminals nothing more than throw-away human trash, worthless and useless?  Are all victims pure and innocent?  Is all law-enforcement equal, just, fair and equitable?  Is there no such thing as salvation, spiritual transformation, and the renewal of the soul?

Our prison system needs serious attention.  We are housing more “criminals” than ever before in our history.  Would that justice were a simple black and white matter; would that it were only a matter of identifying evil people, and sending them off to prison for life.

It’s not that simple.  And it’s not that easy.  There are more common people in our prisons than we’d like to admit.  I say common to mean people like you and me, people whose character-profile fit the general population of any society—neither viciously evil nor angelically innocent; most of us fall somewhere in-between.  We are neither angels nor devils.  We are human.  We all have our weaknesses, common human flaws and failures and short-comings.  Only a small percentage of any population is guilty of heinous death-deserving crimes.  And no one in any society is worthy of claiming absolute purity and innocence.

Why do we need to change our prison system and our prison policies?

First there is the racial/minority aspect.  Blacks and other minorities (like Hispanics) far outnumber the prison population in contradistinction to their percentage as represented in the general population.  So, for example, many studies have shown that for the same crime committed, the same illegal action, the same broken law, more often than not, whites are given a break and/or are given a much lighter sentencing than are blacks.

Then there is the cost aspect.  In the name of getting tough on crime (like the famous “three strikes and you’re out,” approach to crime), we are throwing more lives into prison than ever before.  Yet, what have we gained from this?  We have higher prison maintenance and building costs, more disrupted families, and less of a sense of safety and security in our neighborhoods.  Not to mention more deeper and longer lasting hatred and animosity between whites and blacks.  Our present prison policy/justice system is not working for us.

I must ask again.  Do we believe in redemption?  Criminals!  Does “locking them up and throwing away the key” really solve our society’s crime problem?  Does it get at the root cause of crime?  A man does wrong, commits a crime.  Is he now human trash to be thrown-away for good?  Is he totally beyond help, completely irredeemable?  To redeem something is to buy back; it is to repair and restore, to put value back into something that was thought worthless and useless.  How would you react if you were treated as totally worthless trash for a wrong you’ve committed?  Wouldn’t you like a second chance, a chance for redemption?

You know, it is far cheaper to redeem and restore a person than it is to keep a person locked up.  Why pay for their clothing, housing, food; why maintain a person in prison at tax-payer’s expense, if they are in fact redeemable.  For example, people get upset if they hear about special educational programs for inmates in prison (let’s say, crafts, skilled labor training, or even music and art) that might provide an inmate new skills or a new appreciation for a better way of life.  Why?  They believe that a criminal deserves nothing, no help, no support, no chance for redemption and renewal.  They prefer that a criminal pays dearly for what he/she’s done, and should not receive any help or aid or beneficial support at all.  Period!  Yet such an attitude and approach is counter productive and actually leads to more recidivism and more criminality.  It all comes from refusing to believe-in, accept, or appreciate the value of redemption.

So what do we really want to accomplish by filling our prison with so many non-hardcore men and women who commit non-violent crimes?  Is it not more constructive to treat their addictions and to give them better opportunities so that they can “make it” in life—giving them a chance to redeem themselves?