Education is key
Community-based education facilities should be opened which focus on training people that are simply not yet viable job candidates in the current, creatively destructive, technological environment. Community-based facilities that are founded by tech-minded leaders could be extremely effective and dynamic in approaching meaningful education. Something that our aged educational facilities, which have been subjected to tradition, bureaucracy, and backwardness, have not been. People who either have or lack formal educations can both be taught cutting edge technologies, such as the Cloud, and thus be made into productive members of society foregoing the need for social services and crime altogether.
Accountability
Under usual circumstances, America’s prisons are a lot less violent than would be expected in such conditions. Though hard for the public to imagine, inmates have had startling access to things such as makeshift lighting devices, gasoline, stabbing weapons, distilled (flammable) moonshine, fertilizer, sprinkler timers, antifreeze and other things to potentially hurt people with*. And generally, you would think that when 2 criminal strangers are trapped together for years in a tiny muggy box, tempers would rage. The reason things like the murder rate in prison is so low** is due largely to accountability; no matter how hurt or frustrated one becomes, it is quite apparent that acting on your feelings could lead to years more of even more oppressive conditions. The more violent you act, the more that is taken away from you until you end up freezing and starving in the “Hole”.
Most inmates that act like perfect civilized human beings under these horrible conditions do not need to be in such inefficient and barbaric circumstances. Why not save money, human potential, and resources by using technology to bring the accountability dynamic to the free world? Simply create a similar level of accountability within their environment as fellow members of our society.
One economically favorable solution could be a GPS “ tracker watch” that uses deep algorithms to monitor the parolee 24-hours a day. His/her words, verbal stress inflection, ambient loud bangs or any other suspicious sounds, jolting movements, actions, blood-alcohol level, stress hormone level, heart rate, etc. Except within the parolee's home or other places where a warrant has been issued, no human monitoring or recording necessary, simply data processing by machines that then sends alerts to local authorities. With GPS, this could all be automated. The GPS could also be utilized by integrating monitoring systems into patrol cars to give police the real-time locations of select criminals participating in the program.
Unfortunately a lot of what is used to justify America's treatment of prisoners acts to distort the public's perceptions as to the dangerousness of these people. We are presented with a narrative that implies what we are doing is the only fair and safe thing to do. This is a lie.
Generally, our system continually moves away from allowing the victim, wrongdoer or judge a say in the matter of punishment. The emphasis is on retribution, restitution continues to be an afterthought. Usually, no other alternative to paper currency is given for the restitution. And generally it is only for the incredibly wealthy that restitution is ever considered as a replacement for retribution/incarceration. But most criminals are poor and often jobless. And, upon release from prison jobless. Once a job is found, their finances are docked only up to the point that they are taken off parole. No further benefit to society or the victim is sought. It is economic nonsense.
The sheer diversity of ways in which effective and beneficial (to us all) restitution could be delivered to the victim(s) is limited only to the imagination. Many prisoners know trades and are skilled laborers who are capable of many things most of us are not. From landscape fields, Masonry, folk art, construction, welding, automotive repair, all skills should be taken into account upon coming to an agreement for helping the victim and saving us money.
Though most crimes in which people are sent to prison for are economic, in reality the effects of any crime can be eased by sufficient restitution. As well, avoiding the court system, with its exorbitant costs, helps everyone--except those that make a living by keeping it relevant.
Dispute and mediation centers should be available as an alternative to the court system. These community-based facilities could organize and mediate reimbursement agreements, This could, in most cases, eliminate the need for the courts expensive and unproductive involvement. These facilities would inevitably minimize, instead of spread, societal debt, suffering and hostility.
First, the people who were wronged are able to be effectively repaid in the most efficient and logical (for us all) manner.
Second, the communities cost incurred by the court and jail system are avoided while the offender is allowed to stay and contribute to their community, instead of being punished for years only to return worse off as an ex-felon and ex-prisoner with no stake in the community outside of one's own self-preservation.
Third, the peace and stability of the offenders loves ones is spared the loss of their contributor (emotional and financial) and also spared the parasitic paradigm that is America's prison system. Children and parents alike can grow up or grow old without knowing the disheartening sadness of such loss. This not only intuitively but actually helps us all. People's moods have been proven able to domino through to unrelated strangers. Nowadays we need more hope and happiness not more negativity and misery.
Fourth, it reduces stereotyping and community branding, by allowing the victim and offender to come together to best fix the wrong while excluding the costly court system.
Unfortunately, the fix for our system needs to reach even its core. The people who write our laws are lawyers. A lawyer's starting pay is one of the highest in any field in the country. The laws lawyers write and the verbiage (legalese) they chose to use when writing laws, helps to keep lawyers services needed and thus marketable--but, it is not the way.
If we haven’t ourselves, we all keep company of people who have broke hearts, destroyed dreams, deceived and hurt someone due to selfishness. These are human, not criminal, traits. Together, we must work towards a world that continually helps minimize suffering. We must work towards a world which does not allow human greed to influence policies and laws. Human ignorance and greed in unfortunate. Even more unfortunate though, is when these things are allowed to be lawfully directed at suppressing fringe groups. “criminals” whose greed and ignorance is not any more relevant or evil than those set out against them.
Take California’s for an examle. Take its population (36,961,664) as of 2010, then remove the children (25.5%) and even without including the temporarily and chronically unemployed, those imprisoned, or on disability(no longer helping pay taxes) and the (9,970,008,758.00) annual prison cost is $359.65 per person. This means, even if the costs no longer rose (not likely) a california resident will give up $3,600 every 10 years.
There are better methods for control than prisons. Because of California’s correctional institutions they have had nearly $10,000,000,000.00 less, each year, than what they could have had while prisons used only 4% of that 10 billion on poorly managed rehabilitation and education programs--combined.
As a remedy we could immediately demand our legislators to hold a special election to outlaw the CCPOA (along with the police and teachers unions: Arnold may have been on to something). So we stop being forced to pay the CDCR,
*http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2013/06/murder_rate_in_prison_is_it_safer_to_be_jailed_than_free.html
**Many prisons have or have had automotive programs as well as landscaping, or similar, programs which has included access to gas-powered tools and supplies, as well as ammonium nitrate-containing fertilizer and sprinkler timers. Things that can be used for bomb making. While the inmates in these programs are subject to search, there are often many ways around this--ask and I will give you several.
Though there is still much I need to add to this, a friend of mine suggested that our country create long term permanent "restricted communities" on old military bases. The idea is that these would especially be aimed at helping addicts and people who can't reasonably plan to reassimilate. The living quarters would be redesigned as to make for a pleasant stay. The residents could be hired as laborers for the project. As for the living quarters within the barracks, everyone would get a private accommodation. Education, job training and JOBS wuld be offered. Silicon valley, would be invited to employ, e.g. call centers etc. Give the inmates shares in the private corp that contracts with the tech companies.This is so when/if they finally are ready to leave, they have skills, a history of employment success, and a nest egg to start them off.
People would be able to apply for re-assimilation sooner if they think they can succeed.. He has first-hand experience of x-prisoners and we both agree that this would work for about 50% of current inmates. we both also agree that about 25% of current inmates could quickly be assimilated back into society, but the final 25% consists of people that likely just aren't going to make it in alternative circumstances and for now should stay in more traditional prison environments (but still with education pushed hard and more enlightened terms of incarceration where they experience respect and can get deprogrammed via proven systems like moral reconnation training (MRT), there is hope for everyone.
Though there is still much I need to add to this, a friend of mine suggested that our country create long term permanent "restricted communities" on old military bases. The idea is that these would especially be aimed at helping addicts and people who can't reasonably plan to reassimilate. The living quarters would be redesigned as to make for a pleasant stay. The residents could be hired as laborers for the project. As for the living quarters within the barracks, everyone would get a private accommodation. Education, job training and JOBS wuld be offered. Silicon valley, would be invited to employ, e.g. call centers etc. Give the inmates shares in the private corp that contracts with the tech companies.This is so when/if they finally are ready to leave, they have skills, a history of employment success, and a nest egg to start them off.
People would be able to apply for re-assimilation sooner if they think they can succeed.. He has first-hand experience of x-prisoners and we both agree that this would work for about 50% of current inmates. we both also agree that about 25% of current inmates could quickly be assimilated back into society, but the final 25% consists of people that likely just aren't going to make it in alternative circumstances and for now should stay in more traditional prison environments (but still with education pushed hard and more enlightened terms of incarceration where they experience respect and can get deprogrammed via proven systems like moral reconnation training (MRT), there is hope for everyone.
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