Do you think that the US prison system needs to be changed?

Do you think that prisons:


1) Give too much to inmates (i.e. meals, exercise plans, education options, surgeries, free dental and medical, etc.)?


2) Are a huge cost to the American taxpayer?





Also, do you think that the government should:


1) Be more lenient on convicted NON-VIOLENT drug users and reduce their sentences as to make more room in prisons for more serious offenders?


2) Revamp the entire prison system as to be harder on violent offenders, serious threats to the American people, murderers, etc. and to be more lenient on those who did not do something that is of serious threat to other Americans (i.e. drug use (as I said before), theft (not armed robbery, just theft), etc.


3) revoke the "Three Strikes" rule for repeat drug offenders?

Do you think that the US prison system needs to be changed?
When you were a child and you did something wrong, didn't your parents punish you? You lost privileges and rights for a while in order to learn that there were consequences. At the same time, did your parents withhold any kind of medical treatment or food from you?


I do believe that the prison system has to be revamped, but this has to start with the judiciary system first. There has to be a much clearer rule on what time to spend for what crime. I do not believe that a judge should have discretion of handing out extended or reduced times for the same crime committed.


For example, if armed robbery at the first offense is a x-dollar and 5 years imprisonment, then that's what ALL criminals should get. I find that too often the judge can hand out a lesser sentence or a harsher sentence. You do the crime, you do the time as is written in the statutes of a state.


Secondly, I believe that even though he/she is incarcerated for a crime, depending on the time they have to serve should an attempt be made to rehabilitate--because that's what prison is about. I see no sense if a state has inmated that spend 23 hours in their cells when these inmates spend only 5 or 10 years. These inmates need to learn skills so that they can support themselves when they get out--otherwise they end up in the vicious cycle of crime and time. Inmates who get released get literally put out into the streets and most of them have nowhere to go. The little money they made in prison is not enough to sustain them a few days and they see no other choice then to return to a crime in order to survive. I think that these inmates have paid their price for the crime they committed by being imprisoned, so why do they have to be penalized by not having the opportunity to get to a save place where they can start out a clean life instead of a life of crime?


Next, I want to adress the non-violent crimes. It is a non-violent crime to write fraudulent checks, rip seniors out of their lifesavings, or to steal the 401k of a company that's filed bankruptcy. A lot of people get hurt seriously. Can you imagine having 30.000 dollars in the bank and some crook gets a hold of it somehow and your lifesavings are wiped out, you are an elderly woman who has only a small fixed income and so forth? Or just imagine you saved a long time for a house, and a crook who stole your identity wipes out all your savings and you end up not having the money for the house plus you have to spend thousands to clean up your credit? Even though, these are nonviolent crimes, they seriously affect those whom they were committed against and really, in particular with identity theft, they can affect the rest of your life. So why should a government be more lenient on those? They rip people out of their livelihood and shall get away with it too? If any, I would say that the law should be a lot harder on those who commit those types of crimes.





Yes, the prison system should change, because it really does not work. But withhold food,medical necessities? I do not think so. When a person goes to prison, the state becomes the guardian, and as such has the duty of ensuring that this person has what he/she needs to survive.





It would be better to make the laws clearer and to create rehabilitation centers for drug offenders, because most of those who end up in prison for drug offenses are addicted. DuI's should be sent to alcohol rehabilitation centers instead of going to prison--a lot of them get away scott free, so why not try to rehabilitate.


Murderers are a different thing here. I see no sense in preserving a killer's health only to be able to give him a lethal injection/electric chair, or hanging. If he/she is given the death penalty then I would say let's not waste our money on their health because they are going to be dead sooner or later. If mother nature kills them before their execution, so be it. I've heard of a case where a convicted murderer was given a new liver---only to have him put to death by lethal injection. That kind of thing really should be eliminated.


As far as exercise goes:\


It has been found that aggression in the prisons runs a lot lower if inmates are given the opportunity to work out hard. It is in the long run cheaper to buy a gym and have them work out then to restore order in riots and fights.
Reply:Absolutely! Yes, they get WAY too much. I pay far too much in taxes anyway, and it pisses me off when Inmates have a better life in jail than I do, out of jail!
Reply:I agree it should be changed.





In the following manner;





1) No interaction between inmates. Therefore no reason to want to be in prison with your friends or fellow gang members.





2) Must attend anger, drug, or mentoring classes to prep them for release. If they are lifers, no contact, PERIOD.





3) Build a maximum security prison in the desert where everyone from every state goes. No visitors, No computers, No phones, only mailed letters.





Let's make prison what it should be, a place no one wants to go. A place of punishment for bad behavior.
Reply:yes the system needs to be changed. the inmates should go back to working. farming their own food, raising their own meat and poultry. having a dairy farm. the meat would have to be slaughtered elsewhere, but they could do the rest. the supreme court thought that it was cruel and unusual punishment for the inmates to work. but it's not cruel and unusual for the honest man to work. they could also be used to pick the crops for farmers. they could also be used on highway work. stop babying them. this way they may not have enough time or energy to participate in gang garbage, etc. maybe they won't ever want to come back to prison. it would be better to have a job outside than go back and pay for their crimes with hard work. to them it's just easier to steal and deal than to actually do an honest days labor. nobody cries for the honest people that work hard. if they hadn't done the crime then they wouldn't be in prison to begin with. and yes that would save the taxpayers a lot of money and the prisons would be close to self-sufficient. etc.
Reply:You guys have no idea what goes on in prisons,and yes people make mistakes and trust me,you pay for it the rest of your life. You can't get a good job, because of a background, even if your crime was 10yrs. ago. So your pretty much struggling for the rest of your life....So to think prisoners 'have it easy' or whatever They don't period....no one but people in prison or that have been to prison really know...what goes on in there,or 'how made we have it'.....Ha! yeah right.
Reply:Yes, Our prison system needs reform. But our Taxpayers know that these men/women need to be taken care of while confined. Why should they be treated in-humanely ? If you read the History on how terrible the prisoners had it years ago, hopefully you would have some compassion on the prisoners now-days. We are to pray for prisoners. Some made terrible choices while drunk or on drugs. Now they suffer from terrible guilt and have been given life sentences. The drug dealers , should be given a life sentence, because they have caused many men/women to commit crimes and land in prison. A drug dealer is worse than a killer, because they cause people to kill. A thief is a thief, no matter how simple the crime, appears to be. Three strike and the drug dealer is out. No it should be the first offense, that sends them to prison. They are the cause of so much anguish. The drug dealer , no matter how little they peddle, is right from hell. So yes, we need to have reform. Get all the drug dealers off the streets and put them away and in time things will get clean.