Either Reform Prisons Or Watch Society Decay
by Jack Lee
I’m not saying prison is a cushy place to hang out, but things like weight training, law libraries, ethnic meals, observance of Wicken holidays, love letters to serial killers, prison marriages, smoke breaks, prisoners filing their own writs, tattoo artists, prisoner advocate groups gaining access to prisons for more prisoner rights, etc., they have just gone too far.
Poorly run prisons contributes to high recidivism. higher budget costs, higher risk for officers and ultimately it has to contribute to an overall loss of control and a further burden on society.
Over the past decades convicts have slowly created their own culture with their own rules and laws and that adds to crime inside and outside prison and makes rehab all but impossible. Imitating certain aspects of prison culture, like tattooing, gang association, slang, even body language, is considered very hip by inner city youth to kids in the burbs.
A prison’s first priority is to isolate an offender in order to protect society. It’s also a place of punishment where all Constitutional rights are surrendered, save for the right to humane treatment. Prison’s next objective is rehabilitation through improved job skills and education. Anything that conflicts or restricts these basic objectives doesn’t belong in prison…period. Yet, here we have all sorts of "prisoner rights" and "prisoner privileges" that do just that! For example, we have weight lifting benches in all the prison yards. The weights and other gym items buff up these cons until they look like hulking monsters. A prison guard or police officer is going to get seriously hurt taking on one of these beefed up cons and it happens all the time, I know, I’ve been there and seen it. A strength training program for cons doesn’t belong in prison anymore than lessons on knife fighting or karate training. Weights were a stupid idea from the start – better the cons come out looking like wimps than weightlifters.
A strength training program doesn’t belong in prison anymore than lessons in knife fighting.
The court system is flooded with these legal writs from cons (aka jail house lawyers). In another example there have been hundreds of writs authored by just one con. I happened to read about him recently. He is doing life and he apparently has nothing better to do, so he trained himself with the prison law library to produce writ upon writs. This guy writes up a writ over mashed potato’s not served hot enough, writs for paint color not to his liking! It could be anything and everything and it’s just to annoy the courts and pass the time at our expense. And according to law, each writ has to be addressed in Superior Court and that takes time, money and resources. It’s bull too! If that’s what the law says, then the law needs to be changed. This is absurd and too many prisoners are abusing this legal loophole !
What possible good purpose for society does a prison law library serve and at what cost?
Here’s another suggestion worth considering. I think the prison blue clothing and those black watch caps are too macho and anything macho sends the wrong message. The watch cap is almost a prison trademark or prison cultural statement. It helps hide an inmates identity should a problem breakout like a stabbing or fight and you have seen them being worn on the outside by just like cons do on the inside and for the same reasons.
From now on we should issue khaki clothing for low risk inmates and pink clothing for high risk or problem inmates and do away with all forms of head covers. They want to be bad, then let them wear pink! Continuing along this line of rational thinking are the prison tattoos. Believe it or not tattoos are dangerous. They are often used as gang identification or badges to show they have killed or knifed someone in prison – who needs that kind of advertisement, where does it lead? You know full where it leads and it’s counterproductive to good conduct and ultimately returning to society as a productive member. Its branding cons as losers, it labels them just as they see themselves, as violent, dangerous people. Prison tattoos should be forbidden and all joint type tats should be forcibly removed. If they get new tats after that, then it should be extra time added to their sentence.
California has an average 51% return to prison within one to two years and that is just unacceptable. We can’t afford it as taxpayers, it is swelling our prison population to levels we can’t afford and in terms of public safety, it is raising our risk! A 51% recidivism rate clearly and plainly says, "Our system is not working, we need to do something different".
Prison is not a playground, it’s is a place where discipline must be learned. No more catered ethnic meals and special treatment to facilitate some oddball religious practice or wacko holiday. There is only one historically recognized religion in prison and its Christian based. It’s been that way ever since our first prisons were built on American soil and if that CHRISTIAN based religion isn’t good enough, then they can do without.
We shouldn’t be so stupid as to allow the recruiting of future terrorists from our own prisons. A prison is not where you go to learn to be an Islamic Jihadist. We don’t need Caribbean Voodoo or Wiccan Witchcraft, but if prisoners want to read the Bible or attend a Christian based church that advocates peace, love and redemption, then I’m all for it. We have seen that Christian ministry helps lower the violence, improve moral and it can really help with the rehab part too because it is character building. Many a bad guy was saved through Christ. This is very beneficial to him and society, but anything else that obstructs this effort is not wanted.
"Our nation has set a new record: The highest rate of incarceration in the world. According to the Department of Justice, the U.S. prison and jail population grew by 2.7 percent last year, placing a record number of Americans (2,193,798) behind bars. An unprecedented 7 million people—one in every 32 Americans—were either "behind bars, on probation, or on parole by the end of last year."
Whenever possible, a prison should have ample acreage to raise vegetables and fruit to significantly offset the cost of prisoner feeding. It’s healthy for the prisoners to work on a farm and it would save taxpayers a ton of money. Same goes for prison clothing; they can make their own clothes and again save taxpayers money.
If you think I am being mean for the sake of mere punishment, better think again.
Look around the world and see what works and what doesn’t, don’t rely on some Ivory Tower study done by academics basing it all on theory! Look at what works and what doesn’t, let’s learn from those examples! I can tell you from personal experience, the shorter, harsher sentences lower recidivism. And that’s where we need to focus because this will reverse a trend and it will eventually lead to less overall crime in society. We must break the cycle of crime, prison and back to crime that is creating generations of crime families, gangs and predators.
If we can get prisoner compliance through discipline it makes their rehabilitation more likely. Shorter, tougher sentences is the answer and we should be willing to at least try it!
The bottom line here is, we need to run a no nonsense prison system like a boot camp, where people are taught the discipline they lacked their whole lives and that led them to make bad choices.
Prisons must be seen as a place where you don’t want to go, we call this deterrence, but by allowing them to become too soft, we are creating a nightmare for society. Some federal prisons are run more like a resort than prison. No, I’m not exaggerating. Do you not know that a federal prison in California has tennis courts? Look, if that was working for us, I would be the first to say lets start building tennis courts in every prison, but it’s not working, it’s ridiculous. Recidivism is far too high and all the associated crime that goes with recycling criminals and their crime it is getting unmanageable! Like I said in the beginning, one of the main priorities of a prison is for meeting out punishment that acts as a deterrence for future crime. Hold on to that thought and remember it …punishment is for DETERRENCE!
"WASHINGTON — The number of inmates in U.S. prisons likely will rise nearly 13% during the next five years, costing states up to $27.5 billion in new operating and construction expenses, according to a new analysis by the Pew Charitable Trusts."
A prison is not a place to kick back or learn how to be a better criminal. Nor is it a place to practice hip-hop prison culture where cons swagger around acting like rappers and 
bad asses just like they did on the outside. Prison is not a place to get reunited with their old gang pals or become new gang members as they continue their old bad habits in the joint. No, all that should end! And it will end if and when we decide to regain control of our prisons.
Prisoner identity or affiliation is tied closely to race and gangs and that has contributed to violence inside and outside the prison system. Did you know that California is considered to be the birthplace of many of the country’s most powerful gangs, such as Nuestra Familia, Black Guerrilla Family(the BGF’s), Vickiestown, FOB’s, the Aryan Brotherhood (AB’s) and Mexican Mafia? How could we let this get so far out of control? And now we are really paying for it, aren’t we?
This proposed reform is just a start in the right direction as far as I am concerned. It barely begins to do what is needed, but you can bet that prisoners and the ACLU won’t like it and we’ll have a fight on our hands to take back control. So I say… tough, let em, we can handle it. We have to or we can watch this situation spiral out of control -and time is not on our side here folks! We’re already 200% overcrowded in prisons and outside prison we have a cultural movement fostered by the hip-hop, rap, gang banger wannabees who think the joint is kinda cool. It’s not the deterrence it should be because it’s not that bad on the inside, you got your homies, your gangs, drugs, sex and whatever else their perverted heart desires.
However, before I close please remember this one thing, nothing in this article is advocating any unreasonably harsh or cruel treatment. This is about being strict for sure, but not about being inhumane. Quite the opposite. I’m only suggesting a level of discipline that will insure safety for both the inmates and those that supervise them. That’s called order. It is the kind of order that is known to every American that has served in our military. If it was good enough for them, it ought to be good enough for our convicts. What do you think?
This story, written by Jack Lee, was submitted by one of our readers and originally appeared HERE
Strength Training Belongs in Prison As Much As Knife Fight Training.
Either Reform Prisons Or Watch Society Decay
by Jack Lee
I’m not saying prison is a cushy place to hang out, but things like weight training, law libraries, ethnic meals, observance of Wicken holidays, love letters to serial killers, prison marriages, smoke breaks, prisoners filing their own writs, tattoo artists, prisoner advocate groups gaining access to prisons for more prisoner rights, etc., they have just gone too far.
Poorly run prisons contributes to high recidivism. higher budget costs, higher risk for officers and ultimately it has to contribute to an overall loss of control and a further burden on society.
Over the past decades convicts have slowly created their own culture with their own rules and laws and that adds to crime inside and outside prison and makes rehab all but impossible. Imitating certain aspects of prison culture, like tattooing, gang association, slang, even body language, is considered very hip by inner city youth to kids in the burbs.
A strength training program doesn’t belong in prison anymore than lessons in knife fighting.
The court system is flooded with these legal writs from cons (aka jail house lawyers). In another example there have been hundreds of writs authored by just one con. I happened to read about him recently. He is doing life and he apparently has nothing better to do, so he trained himself with the prison law library to produce writ upon writs. This guy writes up a writ over mashed potato’s not served hot enough, writs for paint color not to his liking! It could be anything and everything and it’s just to annoy the courts and pass the time at our expense. And according to law, each writ has to be addressed in Superior Court and that takes time, money and resources. It’s bull too! If that’s what the law says, then the law needs to be changed. This is absurd and too many prisoners are abusing this legal loophole !
What possible good purpose for society does a prison law library serve and at what cost?
Here’s another suggestion worth considering. I think the prison blue clothing and those black watch caps are too macho and anything macho sends the wrong message. The watch cap is almost a prison trademark or prison cultural statement. It helps hide an inmates identity should a problem breakout like a stabbing or fight and you have seen them being worn on the outside by just like cons do on the inside and for the same reasons.
California has an average 51% return to prison within one to two years and that is just unacceptable. We can’t afford it as taxpayers, it is swelling our prison population to levels we can’t afford and in terms of public safety, it is raising our risk! A 51% recidivism rate clearly and plainly says, "Our system is not working, we need to do something different".
We shouldn’t be so stupid as to allow the recruiting of future terrorists from our own prisons. A prison is not where you go to learn to be an Islamic Jihadist. We don’t need Caribbean Voodoo or Wiccan Witchcraft, but if prisoners want to read the Bible or attend a Christian based church that advocates peace, love and redemption, then I’m all for it. We have seen that Christian ministry helps lower the violence, improve moral and it can really help with the rehab part too because it is character building. Many a bad guy was saved through Christ. This is very beneficial to him and society, but anything else that obstructs this effort is not wanted.
"Our nation has set a new record: The highest rate of incarceration in the world. According to the Department of Justice, the U.S. prison and jail population grew by 2.7 percent last year, placing a record number of Americans (2,193,798) behind bars. An unprecedented 7 million people—one in every 32 Americans—were either "behind bars, on probation, or on parole by the end of last year."
Whenever possible, a prison should have ample acreage to raise vegetables and fruit to significantly offset the cost of prisoner feeding. It’s healthy for the prisoners to work on a farm and it would save taxpayers a ton of money. Same goes for prison clothing; they can make their own clothes and again save taxpayers money.
If you think I am being mean for the sake of mere punishment, better think again.
Look around the world and see what works and what doesn’t, don’t rely on some Ivory Tower study done by academics basing it all on theory! Look at what works and what doesn’t, let’s learn from those examples! I can tell you from personal experience, the shorter, harsher sentences lower recidivism. And that’s where we need to focus because this will reverse a trend and it will eventually lead to less overall crime in society. We must break the cycle of crime, prison and back to crime that is creating generations of crime families, gangs and predators.
The bottom line here is, we need to run a no nonsense prison system like a boot camp, where people are taught the discipline they lacked their whole lives and that led them to make bad choices.
A prison is not a place to kick back or learn how to be a better criminal. Nor is it a place to practice hip-hop prison culture where cons swagger around acting like rappers and
bad asses just like they did on the outside. Prison is not a place to get reunited with their old gang pals or become new gang members as they continue their old bad habits in the joint. No, all that should end! And it will end if and when we decide to regain control of our prisons.
Prisoner identity or affiliation is tied closely to race and gangs and that has contributed to violence inside and outside the prison system. Did you know that California is considered to be the birthplace of many of the country’s most powerful gangs, such as Nuestra Familia, Black Guerrilla Family(the BGF’s), Vickiestown, FOB’s, the Aryan Brotherhood (AB’s) and Mexican Mafia? How could we let this get so far out of control? And now we are really paying for it, aren’t we?
This proposed reform is just a start in the right direction as far as I am concerned. It barely begins to do what is needed, but you can bet that prisoners and the ACLU won’t like it and we’ll have a fight on our hands to take back control. So I say… tough, let em, we can handle it. We have to or we can watch this situation spiral out of control -and time is not on our side here folks! We’re already 200% overcrowded in prisons and outside prison we have a cultural movement fostered by the hip-hop, rap, gang banger wannabees who think the joint is kinda cool. It’s not the deterrence it should be because it’s not that bad on the inside, you got your homies, your gangs, drugs, sex and whatever else their perverted heart desires.
However, before I close please remember this one thing, nothing in this article is advocating any unreasonably harsh or cruel treatment. This is about being strict for sure, but not about being inhumane. Quite the opposite. I’m only suggesting a level of discipline that will insure safety for both the inmates and those that supervise them. That’s called order. It is the kind of order that is known to every American that has served in our military. If it was good enough for them, it ought to be good enough for our convicts. What do you think?
This story, written by Jack Lee, was submitted by one of our readers and originally appeared HERE