I see your point though I don't think we'll see significant changes in sentencing. Too politically hot, especially on the heels of the Wall Street bailout.

I see your point though I don't think we'll see significant changes in sentencing. Too politically hot, especially on the heels of the Wall Street bailout.

Bottom line: Alternatives to sentencing for federal prisoners charged with non-violent crimes could potentially have more more impact in freeing up capacity in the system, than in any state system in the country, where there is a much higher proportion of violent criminals and criminals with very long rap sheets.

Mandatory minimums and harsh sentencing guidelines have devoted lots of federal prison resources to marginal criminals who aren't a great threat to the public.

“The fact that a convicted felon , who is currently incarcerated has access the the internet just sounds wrong.”

Ok, so just erase all distinctions with respect to prisoner rehabilitation and social merit. No more incentives, no more goal-setting. No more “Program” to “Get With”. No more rules but the Law of the Brutes.

And now “GOOD” for YOU? But now guard and prisoner alike – exactly everybody On The Inside for whatever reason on BOTH sides of the bars – is Just As Bad as Everybody ELSE!

Is THAT what YOU want?

Go ahead. Just scrap all that remains of the Correctional Model and slam down on every swinging' d**k in the joint. And abuse the womenfolk behind your pson barws like they do in Stark County Ohio, too. (WKYC + “Hope Steffey” is the other half of THAT Google.) Pass out all manner of free daily ham-fisted lockdown-based gratuitous indiscriminate punishment and free daily beat-down baton action for every prisoner of the State until somehow through some kind of unheard-of and utterly irrational Faithy-Based “Jeezus Miracle from Hell” the morale and safety of the entire massive Federal prison/industrial complex (and State system to) just *IMPROVES*?

Now tell me… /another/ one. Maybe I shall believe /that/ one… And stop squirming. You evil-minded, thuglike a$$hole!

Lookit, Mister: You just might force every inmate in all the Remarkably Extensive US Prison System into a state of Fully Sequestered Incarceration. No door, no window, no daylight, no food. No place to shit except the floor. Like with Cheney's “Swift Luck Greens” terror-camp inna' mineshaft. That sure will teach them hardened criminals to Respect Decent Society, now shall it not just?

From the prisoner's own prior account: it's a MINIMUM security gig he's doing, with MINIMUM-risk inmates. But lots of predator-grade inhuman a$$hole$ from the bottom all the way up to the tippy-top of the Mysterious Pyramid engraved on the reverse of the US Dollar Bill now make their fine living and collect their fine pensions because of the non-forgiving, non-redemptive, life-savaging ways of your normal average Privatized Incarceration Facility.

“So what the prison system has produced sounds to me like is an educated sociopath.”

Um, it also attracts dedicated, ought-be-medicated sado pervsw by the score and the thousands. (You resemble that remark, truth be spoken exactly once.)

So: You ever check out the Cleckley/Hare Psychopathy Checklist (aka “PCL-R”) before shooting off your UGLY mouth on psych diagnostics and categorization, Buddy? I think you have missed the entire ball game, yes I certainly do.

On deeper looksee in your own general direction, in fact, I do tend to think you are aught but a fee-paid shill for the Privatized US Prison Industry, knuckledraggingguard. Ever hear of the (justly infamous) “Rat on Three, Go Free” rule as State policy in your nice-acting and PR-laden Colorado, BTW? It is what keeps your prisons full of easy-handling pot-smokers and -sellers while the armed and violence-prone meth-cooks and sellers who ratted 'em out Streetside continue to poison the entire vulnerable Colorado populace with their own Highly Profitable Although Corrosive But Tolerated Crystalline Molecules.

Now just LOOK at how you would treat the most vulnerable ones in your very midst! Once they're tagged as “Useless Eaters” on tghe AM drivetinme radio shows, that's al she wrote, ain't it just?

No more of this ill-founded and Mammon-infected State-Sponsored Hellhole mentality, Sirrah! Go back to your own sick little hole in Hell, where I think you likely rightfully belong.

Come out and see me again in the light of day, once you have developed a *genuine* respect (Yes, *R-E-S-P-E-C-T*) for ALL humankind. (Even Indians too, whether State prisoner or no.)

The humanity you manage to salvage before you die your own death just might prove to have been your own.

It is what it is. Calling things what they are not, for Glory, Mammon, Power and cash Prizes is all the rage in certain quarters these forced-savage days. So is your own definition of “what “is” is” variable, Guy? (Mine ain't.)

My words have been harsh on your person(a), as have been yours against sooo many of your captive neighbors. I am Walking Turtle; I have spoken. Good day!

Increase the Peace.
Reverse the Curse.
Reject ALL Terror.
(You KNOW you WANT to.)
“John 8:32 is Just All Right by ME!”

And that is all!

Since 2003, I have been confined in minimum-security prison camps. I share living space with many offenders who serve time for white collar crimes. In this environment, most of the prisoners behave well. They are educated and focus on preparing for the lives they want to lead upon release. In higher security prisons, where I served time between 1987 and 2003, the atmosphere was much more hostile.

In higher security prisons, I always felt a tension in the air. Prisoners were locked inside two-man cells. At 6:00 each morning, guards walked around to unlock the steel doors of the prisoner rooms. Those who had experience of living in such environments were already awake, with shoes laced up and alert attitudes. Every man understood that violence, organized or otherwise, could erupt without prior notice. No one wanted to feel caught off guard.

High-security prisons did not focus on the lives they wanted to lead following release. Many did not expect that release would ever come; prisons were the last stop for them. Such men consider their prison reputations to be of the utmost importance. No one wanted to be perceived as weak, as weak men were vulnerable to prison predators. Accordingly, prisoners in the penitentiary cheered for the killers in movies. They walked by indifferently while others were being stabbed or beaten. When officers asked for any type of assistance, the prisoners showed zero interest in helping. They considered themselves oppressed by a system of injustice, and they were not inclined to work toward redemption.

I’ve written extensively about prison life in my books and for publication on criminal-indictment.com. Those writings detail the complexities of living in confinement. My observations over the past 21 years persuade me that prison administrators have very little interest in creating environments that prepare or encourage offenders to think about the challenges they will face upon release. All resources focus on preserving security within the institution.

That myopic approach to management, however, leads to environments that seethe with hostility and create vicious mentalities. High recidivism rates, I believe, make the failure of “corrections” quite clear, yet prisons succeed brilliantly at warehousing humanity and perpetuating the cycle of failure.

To improve prisons, to make them safer for both staff and inmates, prison administrators and government legislators ought to implement programs that would encourage inmates to work toward leading contributory lives. The negativity that pervades every high security prison, from my perspective, breeds failure and inhumanity.

Besides hope, prisoners need clearly defined paths to reconcile for their past convictions.

http://www.criminal-indictment.com/wp/
Prisons Fail to Prepare Offenders for Law-Abiding Lives
October 25th, 2008

Many social scientists have observed that bureaucracies, in time, take on a life of their own. Prisons follow this pattern. Where they were originally designed to confine offenders into small cells until the men became penitent, they have since morphed into complex, total institutions that place little interest in whether offenders become penitent or whether they prepare for law-abiding lives upon release.

When I was studying toward a graduate degree at Hofstra University, I read extensively about the Puritan experiment in developing the penitentiary system. Penitentiaries began in Pennsylvania. Prisoners who were sentenced to serve time, as I recall reading, were led to their cells with a mask over their heads. They were locked in solitary confinement and had absolutely zero contact with the outside world. They had access to a Bible, but nothing more. Total silence permeated the penitentiary. Those locked inside were supposed to contemplate their misdeeds, and emerge reformed at the conclusion of their terms.

In the beginning, a sentence of three years would have been considered long-term imprisonment. Yet prisons advanced as the years turned into decades, and the decades turned into centuries. They went through stages where new motivations were introduced. Some systems required prisoners to work. Some systems encouraged rehabil­itation programs.

The current system that has existed for the past few decades has focused on warehousing. Thoughts about rehabilitation, or concerns about how the individual emerges from confinement no longer factor into the goals of confinement. Besides that, prisoners now serve sentences that are much, much longer.

These institutions have become part of a large, industrial complex. There are many lobbyists who represent multi-billion dollar businesses to support the prison system. Those businesses sell the concrete and steel that builds these prisons, the fences and barbed wire that enclose them, the food and services that sustain them. None of those businesses wants to see the prison boom slow.

Prison institutions have become profit centers, employing tens of thousands of Americans. The interest is in seeing them continue to grow, and high recidivism rates provide excellent job security.

As a long-term prisoner, I have never felt encouraged by the prison system to prepare for a law-abiding life upon release. Rather, my efforts to educate myself, to contribute to the literature, and to build an extensive network of support has exposed me to significant problems from prison administrators. These institutions are designed to meet the challenges of responding to gang violence and contraband. They do not function well in encouraging offenders who strive to beat the cycles of failure.

Executive staff members have specifically told me that I should stop writing, and that I should stop striving to build a presence beyond prison boundaries. One staff member told me that she only cared about preserving the security of the institution, and had no interest in efforts I was making to prepare for a law-abiding life upon release. That has been my reality of living in prison.