This may be too radial for some of you but so was the idea of a world without slaves. The existence of prisons in our country points to a lack of concern for those groups of our population that are trapped within them: brown, black and poor people. We’ve seen through many examples over this first week of the strike how prisons have become violent producing environments, offering no real solutions to the inmates that reside there
- We’ve seen how funding towards rehabilitation steadily decreased
- We’ve seen classes and programming cut dramatically in prisons.
- We’ve seen how certain prisoners are labeled with statuses like ‘violent’, restricting them from having access to rehabilitation.
- We’ve seen how prisoners are routinely abused and oppressed in these environments: sexually, physiologically and physically.
- We’ve seen inmates access to resources and communication with family members be dangerously restricted.
- We’ve seen how inmates human rights are routinely violated.
- We’ve seen how arbitrary labels, like gang member, are placed on inmates that give them higher sentences.
- We’ve blatantly seen just this past week how staff officials have denied prisoners actions towards reform.
We’ve seen all of this overtime and we’ve seen it exasperate during the national prison strike as prisoners risk their lives to shine a light on these issues. As we continue to support prisoners who are striking during this time, many people are envisioning a world without prisons. I spoke to a prisoner B whose incarcerated in the federal system about these issues and foreseeable solutions based on his experience. I had the privilege to pick his brain about what he has seen during his time incarcerated and his suggestions on this issue. The wisdom accumulated through his experiences provide a great foundation as we look towards answering some of these complex questions: How do we solve mass incarceration? What is a world without prisons? The good news is that most of these solutions already exist within our society, but it is up to us to find a way to make these available to the those who currently suffer from mass incarceration. Below I’ve listed the main factors that contribute to the incarceration of black, brown and poor people in the United States based on historical evidence.
“The most effective alternatives that will impact people cater towards human development.” -B
Drug Addiction and Financial Instability
When drugs are introduced to a person and become a source of their comfort or recreation in a stressful environment, which is the case for many of those from impoverished communities, than the substances can quickly turn into a debilitating addiction. Additions skew any person suffering from their ability to comprehend the consequences of their actions. As a result people perform illegal behaviors in order to support these types of addictions. The way that we can address this issue is by simply a by redirecting those that suffer from drug addiction into the drug treatment programs rather than prisons. These types of drug treatment programs that address the root of one’s drug use already exist in our society. Drug courts are federal expanded programs that offer offenders an alternative to incarceration by providing substance abuse treatment within a court setting. They were created in response to the increased number of criminal cases that were tied to drug us, because his is a problem that persists the number of drug courts should far outweigh criminal courts in our reformed world.
Drug addition in many cases contribute to one’s financial instability. Those growing up in poverty are never being taught the skills required to be financially stable and a lack of financial stability creates more instability. The way that we can directly address these issues in people who are suffering from these problems are is by introducing them to prioritizing and budgeting techniques in order to help develop the skill sets necessary to be financially stable by teaching them how to manage their funds and resources appropriately and these types of classes already exist.
Relational Instability: Insufficient Parenting & Familial Bonds
Relational instability stems from one’s lack of strong familial bonds. When someone is raised in a stable two-parent household they learn how to create and maintain long-lasting relationships that can serve them in all seasons of their life. When people are from single-parent households, circumstances from which many incarcerated folks were raised, then those relationship building skills suffer. In many cases there is no way to witness what maintaining a long-term relationship healthy looks like. Many people who suffer from unstable household family situations fall into other social groups that may encourage the unacceptable behaviors that lead to incarceration.
One way that we can address these types of issues is by placing these individuals who’ve performed unacceptable behaviors into communities where they can form long-term relationships that encourage healthy behavior. We’ve seen this with all types of support groups. We could also contribute to the resolving this issue by pairing incarcerated or formally individuals with mentors that can aid in their development as they transition into healthy lifestyles. In both instances the individuals who suffer from relational instability will learn how to build those skills through the relationships that are formed as a result of their entering treatment.
Emotional and Psychological Wellness, Mental Health
Prisoners have identified that many of those who are incarcerated suffer from mental health issues that were not addressed and may have never been addressed. It’s important that we re-open portals towards receiving mental health care prior to someone’s incarceration so that they do not end up in the system due to this lack. B, from the Washington D.C. area, mentioned how during the Regan area many of the mental health programs were cut due to a cut in government funding. The facilities that served the populations which depended on these programs were abandoned. Many of the clients were pushed out into the streets without any access to treatment or medication which evidently resulted in the illegal activity that led them into the criminal justice system.
B noted that its critical that we are, “Making mental health available by in large, we all have mental factors that need to be addressed in different ways”. While every individual may not be suffering from a mental illness requiring regular medication everyone, especially those who’ve performed illegal behaviors, have suffered from traumas that need to be addressed in order to correct those behaviors. This can be addressed by redirecting individuals to Mental Health Courts. According to the National Institute of Justice, “Mental Health Courts are specialized, treatment-oriented, problem-solving courts that divert mentally ill offenders away from the criminal justice system and into court-mandated, community-based treatment programs.” MHCs were developed in response to the growing number of inmates with mental illnesses, “The goal of MHCs is to reduce recidivism and decrease the amount of contact that mentally ill individuals have with the criminal justice system by linking them to treatment and services to improve their social functioning.” There should be many more MHCs functioning in our criminal justice system. In addition t this we cannot forget that emotional and psychological wellness are critical aspects towards achieving well-rounded rehabilitation. All of those who are incarcerated should be under the care of a mental health professional that they can develop a relationship with who is not overwhelmed by their caseload and has the ability to cater to their patients needs and concerns effectively. Along with that, those being tried for crimes should be assessed by a psychologist to analyze the traumas each individual has suffered that contribute to their behavior. This would assist in designing an effective treatment program that would address those traumas to eliminate the behaviors that stem as a result of them being unaddressed.
Insufficient Education
We can see clearly that many of those who end up in prison lack the education required to obtain meaningful careers that provide them financial stability because they did not complete high school or have no continuing education credentials. When people commit crimes it is because they usually feel as though they have no other option. In order to open up their options we need to be able to provide these individuals with a means for obtaining the credentials required for them to do work that they value and support them and their family. This could be resolved by simply providing the next step in their education with classes, certifications and degrees offered in a multitude of fields. B shared with me that prior to the rescinding of Pell grants from inmates, every prison had college classes and many had partnerships with colleges that offered multiple vocational trainings. Sadly B shared, “Now the focus has gotten so far away from rehabilitation that they don’t even know how to even offer it anymore”. Its time that we place value back on education in order to properly equip inmates for a successful return to society.
The Alternatives Already Exist
All of these are alternatives should be provided in our society prior to someone’s incarceration, however when someone does perform behaviors that contribute to their incarceration it is the perfect opportunity to introduce alternatives into their lives and they should still be offered these types of programs to help with their development and lower their chance of recidivism. In a world without prisons it’s not that we are looking for another type of way to cage or restrict people. In a world without prisons we are trying to find alternatives to caging and restricting people by providing them with the resources needed to contribute to their development. Our prisons should look more like college campuses. Incarcerated people should have full access to being with their families: they should be able to parent their children and love their spouses in unmonitored environments. These un-prison like places would be rehabilitative environments in every sense: bright ,colorful, serving nutritious food, supportive staff, and giving inmates in transition a multitude of opportunities to gain skills in management, prioritizing, parenting, budgeting and relationship building. Prisoners would be responsible for managing different aspect of their lives so that they can be confident that they will be able to do this on their own when they’re not incarcerated.
We must realize that the existence of prisons as they function today: to cage and exploit humans, can always be manipulated into violent and abusive environments because that is innately what prisons are as an evolved form of slavery. This type of system must be completely eradicated. The main obstacle is that these types of alternatives require catered and individualized treatment for every person. What prisons are, are human landfills, dumping grounds for people that we don’t care or know how to give individual treatment to. Every single person in our society is worth caring for and giving catered attention to, every single person in prison has been affected by some sort of trauma that needs to be addressed so that they do have the opportunity to heal and grow. When those traumas are unaddressed then individuals become frustrated and act out of that frustration. B described a time to me when he had to talk an guy down from harming himself, “he was so frustrated, he didn’t know where to get started and in desperation he felt like he needed to lash out as a way to address his issues. He had gotten out, didn’t know how to get an ID and there were no resources available for him”. No person seeking help should ever feel this way especially those in our most vulnerable segments of our population.
What About the [insert worst type of criminal here]?
I want to make sure to address the fact that there are anomalies to every problem, there are people who suffer from severe psychological impairments. There are also people who are sick and due to their illness have a desire to cause pain. This could be due to the trauma that they’ve suffered in their lives that they feel can only deal with by inflicting pain. Some people choose to cause harm because of an insufficiency that they feel within themselves. However, this is definitely not the case for the vast majority of those who are incarcerated. Just because this anomaly exists does not mean that we should run our entire criminal justice system as if every person is this way.
I argue that those that are currently responsible for maintaining a criminal justice system that destroys millions of lives every single day are serial killers. The people who prey on the lives of inmates also suffer from that some severe psychological impairment that would cause them to completely disregard the lives of others. Companies who exploit entire people groups are also motivated by a sickness, greed that fuels their desire to maintain a violence atmosphere and inflict pain. Until these high-profile ‘criminals’ are under lock and key, I don’t think that anyone needs to be. B mentioned the result of the major shift in corrections departments’ focus from rehabilitation to punishment illustrated by policies like the mandatory minimum sentences. This type of legislation are motivated by greed and do nothing to restore the communities that these individuals are from, our communities, “We don’t make opportunities truthfully available to a person so that they can be successful…we’re sending them back out empty-handed and when they can’t provide for themselves the way that they need to and they get desperate the people in our communities are the victims”.
“Treat the human as a human by investing in the person’s humanity and that’s what’s not being done, so much so that at this point we’re invested in actually destroying people.”
We should not be intimidated by the size or the complexity of this issue. Rather, we should be enthused and excited for an opportunity to revolutionize the way that our society functions in order to service more segments of our population in a more effective way. We have already seen how over 300 groups across the world have come together in order to raise awareness about this issue and support prisoners leading in this movement for just two and a half weeks. Imagine what we could accomplish if we commit towards collaborating on the soon-coming end of mass incarceration. It is up to us, the masses to work together in not only changing public opinion about this issue but also in providing a solution and breaking down the policies that fuel mass incarceration while also supporting those that have suffered from it to help them reach a state of self sustainability and self-reliance.
“These things effect the masses, so it takes the masses to address these issues, not just individuals”. -B
