Comments on: SOMEHOW PRISON IS WORSE THAN YOU THOUGHT

By: comrade x

comrade x — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 13:25:07 +0000

Very well said, ladiesbane.
Scary thing is, the prison industry is becoming the most profitable in the U.S. As it grows, it will need more and more inmates to provide ultra- cheap labor for manufacturing and service jobs. Hence, the motive for rehabilitation is shrinking rapidly.

By: jon

jon — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 13:23:41 +0000

Prisons are not rife with anal rape, stabbings, and the rest. I work in a prison (as a librarian), and it's not anything close to what movies and television suggests. There is rape, stabbing, drug-use, theft, beatings, neglect, and all the rest, but the day-to-day workings can best be summed up in one word: boring.

Really, the most dangerous part of my day is the commute to and from the prison. That's where I'm taking my life in my hands.

And there are two types of doctors working at the prison: ones that care and ones that can't be employed elsewhere. The same can be said of the dentists, nurses, psychiatrists, and other medical professionals I work with. Some try to get the care to the inmates, do a good job, but get stifled by the drudgery of the system, the (financial) bankruptcy of the system, and the inmates themselves. I really don't want to hate them, but some days there isn't a more appropriate emotional response.

The other type of professionals working in the prison system are those who can't get employed elsewhere. Some have medical licenses that are under probation, can't get licensed or insured unless through an employer like the state, and have backgrounds that can be best described as "colorful".

Prison is a lot like most state jobs. It won't attract the best and brightest, though some become that while there. It isn't the first choice of many people. It's not fun. It's not that hard to work there. The pay isn't great. The benefits are pretty good. Retirement system is very good. And state workers are very good at putting their employer down. We bitch, but we know we have it good. Probably 10% less good if the latest budget proposals hit, but still above average.

By: ladiesbane

ladiesbane — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 18:22:35 +0000

@Sir: "correction" also means "punishment used to train"; I don't know that the word is intended to imply rehabilitation at all. Prison isn't the solution to anything, but the rehabilitation programs I've seen haven't done much for recidivism either. Neither address the causes of most criminal behavior.

But even the folks who support inhumane treatment of prisoners have to realize that it's not the deterrent they think. Just as with health, prevention is the cure.

By: You can call me, 'Sir'

You can call me, 'Sir' — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 13:49:55 +0000

The name 'Department of Corrections' is oxymoronic to the extreme, as there's nothing now nor has there ever been anything remotely rehabilitative about prison. It should surprise no one that recidivism is on the rise and that a country frightened by its own shadow thinks that locking people up for awhile will solve this problem.

By: Misterben

Misterben — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 12:14:16 +0000

I know quite a few people involved in government contracting on the local, state, and federal level, and from personal experience I can tell you that not one of them does what they do because they love doing it. They do it because some government agency with orders to outsource was waving around a big blank check, and they wanted a piece of it. Every single one of them operates on exactly the principle you describe: they are handed a lump sum, so the less of it they spend doing the job, the more they get to keep. Further, most of them say that they are subject to minimal oversight, and it is usually very difficult for an agency to stop doing business with them, for any reason.

"True believer" free-market types love to go on about how the private sector does everything better – competition in the market means that the best firms will succeed while others will fail, etc. But this example – government contracting, specifically prison medicine – is a great demonstration of how spurious that argument is. If you're asking who will turn a greater profit, the free market is the place to be. But if you're actually interested in making sure a certain good or service is provided competently, the profit motive gets in the way.

By: Michael

Michael — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 11:28:21 +0000

Combine that with the aging prison population and you have an even bigger mess.

@Peggy – Um, I will never complain about my job again.

By: Peggy

Peggy — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 10:58:49 +0000

One of my students who provides me with lots of wagonhalt-type stories once told me that his brother "shot a crackhead trying to break into his house the other day" and was arrested, but "it's cool, 'cause he's diabetic, and they never give him his insulin, so he goes into a diabetic coma and they have to send him to a hospital and drop the charges."

WHAT.

That was only the first two wagonhalts of that particular situation, but there were quite a few more when the kid and his other brother tried to get the wife and kids out of the house before the crackhead's friends came for revenge. MY JOB IS AWESOME.