Manifesto Part II

As promised I am adding to my "Manifesto."

We need a total overhaul of the Prison System.

• We need to eliminate the punitive nature of incarceration. We punish children to make them see the error of their mistakes. We punish adults to exact revenge. Politicians use the motive of revenge to gain political power and to keep the population under control.

• We need to end the privatization of prisons. When a corporation’s bottom line is based on how many prisoners they have and how long they remain behind bars justice is not served, it is perverted. A prisoner’s time can be extended if he gets in trouble in prison. There have been accusations that guards encourage certain behavior that can lead to fights and indeed there is at least one case where racial animosity was exacerbated.

• We need to end the use of prisoners in all institutions for the purpose of generating a profit. Telemarketing, the making of clothing for a few dollars a day in no way encourages the elimination of prisons as a solution for our social ills. Who needs slaves? We have Neo Slaves and society is loath to support them.

• We need an entirely new approach to the concept of rehabilitation. Counseling, job training and mental health care are a must. The total elimination of sexual threat and abuse of all prisoners must be a top priority.

• Prolonged isolation must be eliminated. This does more to damage a person’s mental stability than even most severe acts of violence.
  Each prison should have a functioning grievance process accessible to all prisoners and conflict resolution professionals should be present in all prisons at least forty hours a week.
  
  This could and should be expanded on but my knowledge on this subject is somewhat limited. Please come up with more ideas with me.
  
  We have 2.2 million people in jail in this country who are being abused and deprived. Some are being tortured. This needs to end.