I get it- people with severe dementia are quite liable to wander off in confusion, which to a prison guard would be seen as an escape attempt (because they probably are no longer even aware why they are in jail in the first place. Dementia fucking sucks.) I see it happen a lot at my sister's group home.
Maybe the answer is not to put people with severe dementia in prison.... but that's right, we closed all the mental hospitals. That said, per my sister with schizophrenia who spent about a decade inside one of them before they were closed, they were about the same as a prison. Group homes are a better solution when they're adequately staffed and funded (which is almost never.)
I worked lockup for 10 years. Does our system need a complete overhaul? 100%. The War on Drugs/Brown people, 3 strikes, militarization of cops, Private prisons, trash them all.
But there are predators who need to be removed from Society. Abolish prisons is like Defunding the Police, an unrealistic pipe dream and a club for the Right Wing to bash us with.
The Scandinavian model is a great idea but I don’t see it here with the racism and wealth inequality
In my personal prison reform, only those incapable of being reformed in some way would go to prison. So, people like Donald Trump, Steve Bannon, Stephen Miller, Peter Navarro . . .
Most people who are convicted of crimes will not be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. So they will eventually be released and become our neighbors, co-workers, etc.
The question then becomes, what should happen to those people to ensure the best outcome for not only those released from prison but those of us who will be their neighbors, co-workers, etc?
I would argue harsh sentences and dehumanising conditions are not the recipe for an optimal outcome for any of us. Nor is making it nearly impossible for the convicted to find housing or gainful employment.
Do I have that recipe? I do not. But I know what we’re doing now ain’t it.
In college, I had a "Psychology and Law" class, professor Craig Haney. Best class I ever had in anything. Turned me adamantly against the death penalty.
We took a field trip to Soledad State Prison here in lovely California. I would politely describe it as "hell on earth"; it was like nothing I could have imagined. But that being said, I also got to meet a few of the inmates on that trip, and I would NEVER sign on to the idea of "prison abolition". Are you fucking kidding me?
Of course, the USA still doesn't have a passable system for taking care of non-prisoner people with mental illness, and still allows the police to taze and kill them when they become difficult to 'control'
My dad had a reputation as one of the toughest sumbitches in the Idaho Department of Corrections. He was a lieutenant, which in the Idaho system was roughly the equivalent -- from the perspective of an inmate -- of a god on earth. He wasn't tough because he abused inmates or humiliated them. He was tough because he met with every inmate who arrived on his compound and told them, point blank, what his expectations of them were. If they met his expectations (and those imposed by the courts) they could expect, in turn, a positive evaluation to the custody review committee, Board of Pardons and Parole, or sentencing judge. If they didn't, they could expect to stay in prison. His word carried that much weight.
What is the best way to maintain security and order in a prison? Treat inmates like human beings.
I remember after Richard Pryor made "Stir Crazy," which was filmed partly in the (at that time the only) state prison in Florence, he joked that Arizona had no blacks because they were all in the state pen. That's true to a certain extent in most states. Arizona doesn't have as high a percentage of blacks living there as a lot of other states, but the percentage of black prisoners is much higher.
Unlike many here on the 'kette, I do support at least a theoretical version of the death penalty*, but I am 100% against torture - and that's what solitary confinement, and confinement in truly inhumane conditions, amount to. Torture - outside of ticking-time-bomb scenarios that basically do not exist in the real world - is unjustifiable.
*happy to explain at greater length, but I won't bore anyone about that unless asked.
Ta, Robyn. A small improvement is better than none.
Bureau Of Prisons Seeking To Criminalize Social Media Access By Inmates | Techdirt
https://www.techdirt.com/2024/04/09/bureau-of-prisons-seeking-to-criminalize-social-media-access-by-inmates/
I get it- people with severe dementia are quite liable to wander off in confusion, which to a prison guard would be seen as an escape attempt (because they probably are no longer even aware why they are in jail in the first place. Dementia fucking sucks.) I see it happen a lot at my sister's group home.
Maybe the answer is not to put people with severe dementia in prison.... but that's right, we closed all the mental hospitals. That said, per my sister with schizophrenia who spent about a decade inside one of them before they were closed, they were about the same as a prison. Group homes are a better solution when they're adequately staffed and funded (which is almost never.)
And yet the AZ system has 100’s of vials of pentobarbital for executions.
Now let's talk about extreme heat in Arizona prisons..
https://www.12news.com/article/news/investigations/i-team/extreme-heat-perryville-prison-hospitalizations-inmates-prison-staff/75-083db598-0b5c-43d5-9059-34b35c652b05
How do you keep people trapped in showers for hours on end?
I worked lockup for 10 years. Does our system need a complete overhaul? 100%. The War on Drugs/Brown people, 3 strikes, militarization of cops, Private prisons, trash them all.
But there are predators who need to be removed from Society. Abolish prisons is like Defunding the Police, an unrealistic pipe dream and a club for the Right Wing to bash us with.
The Scandinavian model is a great idea but I don’t see it here with the racism and wealth inequality
In my personal prison reform, only those incapable of being reformed in some way would go to prison. So, people like Donald Trump, Steve Bannon, Stephen Miller, Peter Navarro . . .
Most people who are convicted of crimes will not be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. So they will eventually be released and become our neighbors, co-workers, etc.
The question then becomes, what should happen to those people to ensure the best outcome for not only those released from prison but those of us who will be their neighbors, co-workers, etc?
I would argue harsh sentences and dehumanising conditions are not the recipe for an optimal outcome for any of us. Nor is making it nearly impossible for the convicted to find housing or gainful employment.
Do I have that recipe? I do not. But I know what we’re doing now ain’t it.
In college, I had a "Psychology and Law" class, professor Craig Haney. Best class I ever had in anything. Turned me adamantly against the death penalty.
We took a field trip to Soledad State Prison here in lovely California. I would politely describe it as "hell on earth"; it was like nothing I could have imagined. But that being said, I also got to meet a few of the inmates on that trip, and I would NEVER sign on to the idea of "prison abolition". Are you fucking kidding me?
𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐀𝐝𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐒𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐚𝐧𝐬 . . .
"Prison . . . come for the smell, stay for the noise"
"Prison is for lovers"
"Prison . . . Share The Wonder"
"Find Yourself Here . . . Prison"
"Discover Your Own Backyard: Prison"
"Prison, as big as you think"
"Prison: Come as You Are. Leave Different"
"Prison: The Way Life Should Be"
"If you're looking for a merry land, go to Prison!"
"Land of 10,000 Prisons"
"Prison: Feels Like Coming Home"
"Prison: You're Going to Love it Here"
"Everybody is somebody in Prison"
"You've Got a Friend in Prison"
"It's high noon in the lone star Prison"
"Prison: Stay Just a Little Bit Longer
Of course, the USA still doesn't have a passable system for taking care of non-prisoner people with mental illness, and still allows the police to taze and kill them when they become difficult to 'control'
My dad had a reputation as one of the toughest sumbitches in the Idaho Department of Corrections. He was a lieutenant, which in the Idaho system was roughly the equivalent -- from the perspective of an inmate -- of a god on earth. He wasn't tough because he abused inmates or humiliated them. He was tough because he met with every inmate who arrived on his compound and told them, point blank, what his expectations of them were. If they met his expectations (and those imposed by the courts) they could expect, in turn, a positive evaluation to the custody review committee, Board of Pardons and Parole, or sentencing judge. If they didn't, they could expect to stay in prison. His word carried that much weight.
What is the best way to maintain security and order in a prison? Treat inmates like human beings.
I remember after Richard Pryor made "Stir Crazy," which was filmed partly in the (at that time the only) state prison in Florence, he joked that Arizona had no blacks because they were all in the state pen. That's true to a certain extent in most states. Arizona doesn't have as high a percentage of blacks living there as a lot of other states, but the percentage of black prisoners is much higher.
Unlike many here on the 'kette, I do support at least a theoretical version of the death penalty*, but I am 100% against torture - and that's what solitary confinement, and confinement in truly inhumane conditions, amount to. Torture - outside of ticking-time-bomb scenarios that basically do not exist in the real world - is unjustifiable.
*happy to explain at greater length, but I won't bore anyone about that unless asked.
Because people with dementia can't wait to get into those cushy nursing homes. /s