

Prison Born - chesterfield
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/07/prison-born/395297/?single_page=true

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littletimmy
Let's solve the problem instead of the symptom.

End the culture of punishment that festers in the traditional American Puritan
psyche. That people ought to "pay for what they did." Focus on rehabilitation,
and make prisons conducive to that end.

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zyxley
In relation to the moms, I am reminded of Nordic prisons: enforce something
approaching a normal life, including basic luxuries and general
responsibilities (actual things-to-think-about-and-manage responsibilities,
not just "do X repetitive task for six hours"), and recidivism rates go down.

The Bastoy prison island in Norway is the quintessential example: it's
basically structured like a small town, with jobs, houses with roommates,
bicycles and other personal items the prisoners can own, and even a small
supermarket. And with all that, the recidivism rate is 16%, the lowest in
Europe.

[http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/feb/25/norwegian-
pri...](http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/feb/25/norwegian-prison-
inmates-treated-like-people)

~~~
alextgordon
Interesting author:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erwin_James](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erwin_James)

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jakeogh
End the 'war on' drugs. Completely. Either we own ourselves or we don't.

~~~
watmough
End private prisons that can incentivize arrest and imprisonment for minor
offenders. No cite but commonly acknowledged that creating private prisons
also creates a demand for prisoners.

The US puts a larger percentage of its population behind bars than any other
country.

~~~
rayiner
> No cite but commonly acknowledged that creating private prisons also creates
> a demand for prisoners.

Commonly acknowledged, but wrongly. Look at the inflection points in the U.S.
incarceration rate:
[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/48/U.S._inc...](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/48/U.S._incarceration_rates_1925_onwards.png)

Growth started in 1972-73. The growth rate kneed around 2000. Compare with the
prison prison population:
[http://static.prisonpolicy.org/prisonindex/graphs/privatepri...](http://static.prisonpolicy.org/prisonindex/graphs/privateprisoners.jpg).
They were pretty much insignificant until the 1990's. By then, the growth
trend in incarceration rates was firmly established, and indeed, was closer to
the knee in 2000 than to the initial upswing in the 1970's.

What happened in the 1980's and 1990's? Privatization of many other government
services: [http://www.kevingunn.org/wp-
content/uploads/2012/08/TotalFed...](http://www.kevingunn.org/wp-
content/uploads/2012/08/TotalFedEmplPerCapita.png).

The most reasonable conclusion from the data is that private prisons are not
_creating_ the demand for prisoners, but rather _reacting_ to the demand for
privatizing government services generally. I fully agree that private prisons
should be illegal, but they didn't create the problem.

We created the problem, with three strikes laws and cracking down on
probation. E.g.
[http://www.dc.state.fl.us/secretary/press/2001/timeserved.ht...](http://www.dc.state.fl.us/secretary/press/2001/timeserved.html).
In 1991, Florida prisoners served about 35% of their sentences. Due to a state
law, by 2001 it was 83%.

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imroot
As a country, we are imprisoning too many people. The laws are pretty clear
and won't change the prison pipeline.

We really need to figure out who is truly dangerous and needs to be kept off
of the streets versus who we're mad at as a society (and funnel those people
to probation, treatment, and community-based correctional programs).

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smokey_the_bear
I have a one year old and a two year old, and I would consider going on
vacation to a place similar to that - A dedicated and safe play space, lots of
built in support from other moms, and food provided.

Not to say that it sounds like vacation, but it seems like the best solution
to a bad situation, and a gives women a good chance to get a new start.

The thought that my baby could be removed from me for falling asleep with her
on my chest is terrifying though.

