What Kind of Neighbor Do We Want?
By: Savannah Story
Tags: Prison Reform, Mwc Reentry, Prison

Photo by cottonbro from Pexels

Picture this, a small woman in a big town driving ride share as a part-time gig. It was a glorious morning, having my coffee, doing yoga poses and off to work. The birds are singing, the sky is yellow and the weather is a perfect 70 degrees. I picked up my first ride, the nice gentleman greets me politely and I do the same. We began small talk and landed on the passenger admitting to being just released from prison. Ah nice, wait wha?! I remained calm, and politely asked, “if you don’t mind my asking, what was the crime?” He replied, “Murder”. Oh great, freaking wonderful way to start the work morning. I’m not judging, but there’s a murderer in my car behind me, oh shit! Keeping the mood light, we continued conversation in detail about what he was facing after being released. The world for him had changed drastically after being incarcerated for nearly 20 years. He was faced with being a single, unemployed, man starting over. Luckily, he had family and a place to live.

Side note:

The victims are not the purpose of this writing but are not forgotten. There are no victimless crimes, “restorative justice is concerned with addressing and repairing the harm to victims, relationships, and the community that is caused by crime”. In violent offenses, victims are notified regarding the release of the offenders. https://www.justice.gov/usao/resources/crime-victims-rights-ombudsman/victims-rights-act

At some date, the prisoners will be released and reentered into a community. What’s explored here is the purpose of prison, its inequities and reentry data, and a possible solution for the newly released. The gentleman mentioned earlier, let’s call him Robert for humanization purpose. Robert’s reentry seemed bleak, due to difficulties finding a path toward redemption. His expectation of “normalcy” was circumvented by his past with background checks for employment and finding a home. He remained upbeat during our conversation, but there was nothing but doubt in his tone.

The purpose of prison

The purpose of Roberts sentencing was to “quench society’s thirst for vengeance”. Not everyone is a Christian, but in a mostly “Christian” society, the call for blood is loud and political leaders must answer.

The old motto if “you do the crime, you must serve the time”! The objective of prison is taking away the offenders name and time; solely to treat the person as poorly as possible with the hopes that they will not re-offend. “Another layer is the concept that prisoners do not “deserve” anything more than that experienced by those in the lowest social class in the free society.” And “If the prison does not underbid the slum in human misery, the slum will empty and the prison will fill”. The last sentence speaks of the actual purpose of prison. The slum (free society) will empty and the prison will fill, ideally with “slum”. There’s no way to vindicate a “Robert” if you are already considered slum. At best Ex-offenders are characterized as poor, illiterate, socially inadequate to societal norms.

Photo by Dhyamis Kleber from Pexels

To create an American utopia, criminals would have to be eradicated, peace amongst our society has devoted attention to “lock em up”. A mentality that will lock up all but the moderately and extremely wealthy; making reentry impossible. The conflicts are moral views, social welfare and what divides society as a whole; for example, “status, class and wealth’. Each person / or group type will arrive at their separate views about the treatment of prisoners. Unless or until the prison issue presents its self as a personal or professional matter.

An article suggests there’s new evidence proving prisons are ineffective; moreover the recidivism data proves that the current prison method / system isn’t working. “What’s more, “the movement toward broad, punitive crime control and prison policies wasn’t based on any scientific rationale, it was largely the product of policy decisions made for largely political reasons”.

Another article argues, that welfare prisons are not an answer to recidivism. Asking the following: “Is the food tasty? Are the prison officers decent and professional? Do you feel safe here”? But this method would preserve “the prison system as a human warehouse” with socially distant and distrustful prisoners”. Not a promising neighbor this will make, and that’s what we’re building folks. The prisoner is expected to fully recover and blend into society. There are government offered resources for individuals upon release from prison. Yet this may not be helpful while trying to obtain employment and living arrangements.

Meanwhile, in Norway they built a prison in 2010 that explores the reintegration of prisoners. Providing a life that looks as normal as life in a community. In comparison of the US guards and Norway, the US provides weeks of training defensively with the standard offender/deterrence model. Compared to Norway’s two year education program of protection, self defense, psychology, and human rights training.

The two are night and day justice, one served up as inhumane treatment and the other too passive not serving enough justice for the victim(s).