March 25, 2007
-
What should we do?
Socrates_Cafe posed the question “Jails are
over crowded… What alternative ways do we have to deal with
criminals?”I am sure there are
many ideas on what could be done. Criminals should be punished for their crimes,
not live in luxury until it’s time for parole, only to go out and commit
more crimes so they can come back in to live on tax payers money and enjoy things many taxpayers can’t afford to have for themselves.
I know that one
person came up with an Idea they are trying. That person is Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
His solution is called Tent City. It is in Arizona. Critics rail against harsh
conditions in the prison, where temperatures can top 100 degrees. Arpaio
believes that inmates should not be treated better than the average citizen. He
serves inmates surplus food and limits meals to twice daily and charges the inmates for them. He outlawed smoking in the jail. He also has chain gangs to use the inmates to do free work on county and city
projects and save taxpayer’s money.
America has problems. The United States has the
world’s highest incarceration rate, with one in 32 adults currently or
previously behind bars.We need to figure
out how to rehabilitate the people. Prisons are supposed to punish convicted criminals and
ultimately, rehabilitate them so that they are able to live peacefully with the
rest of society. Why is it that other countries seem so able to rehabilitate
their criminals but we here in the US don’t seem to be able to? Criminal
rehabilitation can help to solve the problem of overcrowding in most
prisons.One of the big problems
that we have are the fact that a parolee needs a job when he gets out of prison.
He usually has no skills, so all he can get is a minimum-wage job, if that. Many
places will not hire someone who has just gotten out of jail. This makes it hard
for the person to support themselves and makes it more likely that the person
will return to comitting crime to survive. No one can explained to me how we
keep the parolees from committing crimes if they can’t find decent
employment.Also a way to prevent some of the problems
in the jails would be to have nonviolent criminals on house arrest with
monitoring braclets. Something that would make it that they could work and be a
productive member of society, but they could only be at work and home.I
think we in the US should look at what other other places are doing and what is
working for them.What are your thoughts on the issue?
Comments (8)
I don’t have any real deep philosophical thoughts together yet this Monday morning so I’ll have to come back later with questions and such. But I think monitoring bracelets are a good idea… if they are monitored properly. Under our current system, that is usually not the case.
I would tend to agree with you. Aren’t prisoners already judged for their behavior, by being in prison? Putting them in the heat would be like treating them like animals-which they aren’t. Do we have the right to play God? Bracelets should work the best.
The U.S. has always considered itself a leader in criminal punishment. Back in the early 1800s we had the “penitentiary” movement where prisoners were supposed to be locked away and given the opportunity to think about their sins and view prison as a sort of penance. Later we got heavily into rehabilitation, but that was too expensive and we have so many prisoners that we’ve reverted to a weird kind of privately run lock-up system where the main idea seems to be just to keep them off the streets for a length of time.
Our prison sentences are generally longer than most other countries but the prison system isn’t as harsh.
One thing we haven’t considered is reforming the criminal justice code so as to limit the things that are considered jail-time crimes.
Any suggestions on how to do this?
The reason I think is because they have stricter laws and the punishment more severe. I mean I would not (if a criminal) want to steal if i was gonna loose a hand or get whipped. As a matter of fact a lot of illegals from mexico would rather go to prison here then in their own country.
Do you think the monitoring bracelets must be visible for all to see or hidden from the public’s eye? Please motivate your response.
I dont think everyone would have to see it. I think they could be hidden.
Sort of like Hester’s Scarlet Letter?
The monitoring bracelet is to keep track of where the convict is and what they are doing. They don’t work very well unless someone is actually keeping track – and prepared to act if the convict isn’t doing what they should. They are much cheaper than incarceration but the over-worked police or whoever have a tendency to let observation and control slide. People wearing one of these things have actually committed violent crimes. Of course they also commit violent crimes while they are in prison.
This is a great topic! I have several thoughts on the subject, which I think I’ll post on my blog.
By the way, I agree 100% with your comment about the joke.