The Purpose of Prisons!

I think that the emphasis of American correctional systems is to separate problem members from society at large.

They are not there to be rehabilitated, but rather to keep them off the streets and limit the damage they can do.

Although there are people that have an honest change of heart in prison and want to better themselves, there is also a good portion with absolutely no intent to change.

The problem lies in that survival in prison generally brings out the worst attributes in people, and that few opportunities exist for ex-offenders once they are released. Despite the fact that job training and education are sometimes available in prison, many employers will not hire someone with a criminal background.

If there were real opportunities on the outside for ex-offenders, I think the American public would be more likely to invest in rehabilitation for prisoners.

You are right, the true purposes of prisons are not what they say they are. It is also suspicious why most of the people incarcerated are black.

I guess there are several approaches to this question. One approach you could take is answering the question from the perspective of what should be the purpose of prisons. Another approach could be analyzing the prison situation from the perspective of what it has evolved to, given the influence of capitalism and the management of prisons by private industry. Privatization of Prisons, although initially seemingly well intentioned to improve prison management and reduce cost through market forces, can spark some evil behavior that contradicts the philosophy of rehabilitation. More prisoners equal more revenue. I encourage everyone interested in this topic to do some research on this.

As always, I like to provide resources in blogs that help us think about solutions rather than feed into a continuous “redefining” of the problem. I like prescriptive vs. descriptive approaches. And in that light, here are a few resources you may want to take a look at dealing with incarceration and employment strategies for people with criminal records. The first document has plenty of information to help you understand the evolution of the purpose of prisons. This first document is called “Incarceration and Higher Education: Interrelated Pipelines Dueling for Human and Financial Capital” It is a large file (4mb) but very interesting. Here is a quote from the document.

“In 1994, Congress passed the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act
(VCCLEA), which authorized funds for states that complied with: 1) longer sentences for certain violent crimes; and/or 2) truth-in-sentencing—requiring inmates to serve at least 85% of their sentence. States that met either of these two conditions received some level of funding to expand correctional capacity and the total amount received by states totaled more than 2.7 billion dollars between 1996 and 2001. The VCCLEA also prohibited the use of Pell Grants by prisoners to finance college courses.” This was Bill Clinton’s baby. And, although it provided for some good stuff, I really believe that it was used to incarcerate more black folks for longer periods of time.
http://www.sheeo.org/pubs/Incarceration%20...
This second link will take you to a document called “Going to Work With A Criminal Record: Lessons from the Fathers at Work Initiative”
http://www.ppv.org/ppv/labor_market/labor_...
For some more background on the VCCLEA bill, go to this link:
http://www.answers.com/topic/violent-crime...
Although action has to start with understanding, I hope more Black people will begin to shift their focus to solutions using the many tools out there for us to help our brothers and sisters improve their lives.
Thanks,
Raymond W. Lucas

Prison, to the uneducated or to the mentally insane or perhaps the poor. It all explains where most of our people are (LOCKED UP).