Corporatization Of Criminals
Today, more than “2.3 million” American citizens have been incarcerated and put into some sort of prison system in order to protect law-abiding citizens from them. Out of the 2.3 million, nearly every “161,000” released ends up right back in prison. Some may say that this is because they are repeat offenders (because that’s just who they are), however, this is wrong. As it stands, prisons today are much more focused on keeping criminals locked up and working rather than rehabilitating them, as the 13th amendment states that they can be used as free/cheap labor.
As previously stated, about 70% of criminals tend to end up right back in prison once released. This is expounded upon extensively in the book “Prison Race” by Renford Reese where Reese talks about the injustices of the prison system and the “capitalization” of prison labor forces. The system in the present day focuses on using the prisoners as free or cheap labor to fill the pockets of the guards, owners, and corporations that hire them. For example, prisoners are only allowed to make “fourteen cents” on the dollar when they work while the remainder of the money goes towards the government, prison staff, and guards who watch over said prisoners. This injustice is found in most every state run prison, along with most “corporate sponsored” prisons. The link between these two is undeniable and seems to be found not only in prisons, but it is also backed by the constitution. In order to right this wrong, America must take a deep look into the justice system that the courts and prison systems stand for. As of now, Corporate and Federal run prisons are used to make a buck rather than reform prisoners and provide them education to get back into the working world. As it stands, the 13th amendment is abused and used as a loophole that allows prison staff to use prisoners for free labor. Though it is said that it is a necessity for changes to be made, it needs more of a reform to the current system that shows that even though people who commit crimes may be criminals, they are still people first.
In the novel “Prison Race”, Reese alludes to lawmakers who embrace counter-productive criminal justice policies. These policies allow citizens to be sent to jail on the most trivial charges which contributes to a criminal record that follows them for the rest of their lives. Once in prison, these people’s mental health is simply neglected, and once they are released, nothing is likely to change in their actions. A leaflet written in 1887 describes how “reforming is not a word used in our prisons”. The writer discusses many of the problems in 1887 with the prison system, only 12 years after the passing of the 13th amendment. One might find irony in how these problems have been around for 200 years without a sight to stop in the near future, but we can help to fix the system by focusing on reform vs punishment, and while I do believe that it is necessary to punish those who do wrong, the priority in prisons needs to be in making sure we don’t release repeat offenders. Some types of punishment can tend to lead people to act rebelliously or immorally. A person who does not know right from wrong will most usually choose the latter. Though many agree with the notion that prisons should just be a punishment facility, those mentioned tend to not look beyond the scope of punishment itself. In the case that it was someone they knew personally whose life was ruined by this corrupt system, I believe they would come to agree with the idea of reform due to the idea that “They were a good kid”. They would see how these peoples actions do not always reflect their real morals, and they would see that there really is hope for most. Furthermore, the idea of reform still needs to be introduced into the justice system. While Punishment still is necessary, it is not productive for a prisoner to have the entirety of their life ruined due to their lack of job experience, no education, or criminal record because of trivial offenses. In order to change the current direction the justice system is headed, prisons must become more rehab-centric. While criminals still should be punished, they should also have the opportunity to pursue the same liberties as the rest of “American Citizens.”
Looking at prisons and incarceration systems of different cultures can also help us to build a better system. Kaiser Günther sheds light on this in his article “Prison systems and correctional laws : Europe, the United States, and Japan : a comparative analysis”. Gunther provides insight on the justice systems and incarceration processes of foreign nations. Like America, Europe has similar problems with their prison systems. Though it seems Europe has less criminals, this can be explained by the fact that America is larger than most European countries. In Europe, there are 111 prisoners per 100,000 europeans while America has 698 per 100,000 Americans, an insurmountable number. The difference in prison systems shows here: while Europe punishes its prisoners, these prisons focus more on the reform and reintroduction of criminals into daily life. They are able to work for a “livable wage and earn degrees or certificates” while in prison. This gets even better in Japan, where there are 39 prisoners per 100,000 people, the lowest number in the world (and it’s all thanks to their surefire justice system). In japan, they make sure all the proper steps are taken before bringing anyone to court, however, they make sure that they can either prove that the person is guilty or innocent and this has led to the best justice system to date. This being the case, America must also continue to protect the idea of innocence unless proven guilty, so while most of the time people are held and waiting for sentences, this can be much much longer for those in japan. While some people might assume incarcerations may come from racial bias in America, this is discredited due to the fact that “white Americans have been sent to prison than any persons of color”. We can quickly see it’s not based on a racial bias, but is based on what each country considers a crime, and this is where we see a racial bias. While many petty crimes can send people to jail there are more people of color being incarcerated for crimes such as drug possession, aggravated assaults, or being under the influence of substances, so the idea comes to how we stop this. Seeing how most people will say that since they are criminals, we should just toss them aside, no one considers how small certain crimes can be to get people in prison. This is where the major injustice comes in, we have to come together and decide what fully constitutes a crime and what doesn’t, we need to do long and hard research when it comes to sending people to prison like the central park 5 case where little to no research or investigation was done.
everything above, its clear to see the Justice system and Prison system need to be reformed and updated in America. We have a terrible prisoner per person stat, we keep the wrong ideas about only punishment instead of rehabilitation. We arrest and inspersion people on little to no evidence, or based on the need for there to be a bad guy, and we don’t help criminals that have served their punishment and get release from prison. All these things added up breed a culture where criminals stay criminals and never seem to recover from their first incident. We need to reform our ideas on incrimination in order to move forward into a healthier America.
