Excellent post! Major criminal justice reform is needed in the United States, including ending (or at least meeting UN standards) the practice of solitary confinement. It's not good for people's mental health in general, and for those who already have a mental illness, it only exacerbates it. The statistics around self-harm and solitary are horrific, and that America has 144,000 people in solitary confinement is shameful. We must do better.
An excellent book with insight into the life of a prison guard in American Prison by Shane Bauer. He took a job at a private prison in order to write an expose for Mother Jones. Half the book is about his four months there, the other half is a history of the growth of the prison industrial complex. (Spoiler: there was a lot of racism involved.)
Hey Brian! Thanks for reading and for the suggested book. I've put it on my list.
I met a fellow who was in one of those private prisons for a white collar crime. He shared a manuscript in which he describes how the private prison system is designed to keep people incarcerated. Of course they do. They are for-profit entities that benefit on a per prisoner basis so they do little to help prisoners better themselves and succeed when they are released so recidivism is high which is good for the bottom line. At the very least, private prisons should be abolished or the pay structure needs to be changed.
Excellent post! Major criminal justice reform is needed in the United States, including ending (or at least meeting UN standards) the practice of solitary confinement. It's not good for people's mental health in general, and for those who already have a mental illness, it only exacerbates it. The statistics around self-harm and solitary are horrific, and that America has 144,000 people in solitary confinement is shameful. We must do better.
An excellent book with insight into the life of a prison guard in American Prison by Shane Bauer. He took a job at a private prison in order to write an expose for Mother Jones. Half the book is about his four months there, the other half is a history of the growth of the prison industrial complex. (Spoiler: there was a lot of racism involved.)
Hey Brian! Thanks for reading and for the suggested book. I've put it on my list.
I met a fellow who was in one of those private prisons for a white collar crime. He shared a manuscript in which he describes how the private prison system is designed to keep people incarcerated. Of course they do. They are for-profit entities that benefit on a per prisoner basis so they do little to help prisoners better themselves and succeed when they are released so recidivism is high which is good for the bottom line. At the very least, private prisons should be abolished or the pay structure needs to be changed.
Anyway, appreicate the comments.