Running Head: Failed Prison System

Failed Prison System

The effect of Modern Society

Marcus Lamb

Javier Campos

Eths 2410

4/10/17
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Abstract

This paper will take a look into our prison system and how it succeeded

in rehabilitating criminals and keeping the American people safe from

harm. The prison system had gotten worse every year and up until the

documentary movie 13th I believe that knowledge of the prison system

was not widely known, at least until the release of the documentary. So it

doesn't hurt to have another speaker on this problem thats been happening

in the shadows for so many years. The paper will speak about the use of

prisoners as labor and company business work going on inside the

facilities, how rehabilitation started to go from a good use of time for

prisoners to finally change themselves from the inside out. Into a huge

waste of time no longer in practice thanks to vain, lazy politicians, and

also the taxpayers. And most importantly talk about the worst kind of

torture that the prison system can offer. A method so cruel its caused the

mental shutdowns of so many people, and scaling the death toll in prisons

through the roof aside from the obvious violence and noise. It hasn't been

abolished or taken away even though it doesn't belong in our society.

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CCA

Many people think that prisons are solely made for locking up dangerous

people and decreasing the crime rate in the country. From what I

researched though that is an incredible lie. According to the chart on my

poster crime has not decreased one bit, In fact over the past 50 years the

population had increased to over two million around the country. Many of

you maybe wondering If that's the case then why are we still using the

prison system, why dont we create a new and better one. Then we can get

on with our lives.. While this is not true for all the prisons in the U.S,

many of them are just in this for making money. And what kind of

horrible people would use their resources to make money off of the

torture, and misery of prisoners you may ask? The corporation above

called Corrections Corporations of America. How did this all started

you may ask? According to the info given from the documentary 13th

there were many reasons why the prison population skyrocketed such as

the 13th amendment, and racial profiling but CCA came in around the

80s and smelt a huge business opportunity. Thanks to the start of the so

called War on Drugs so many people were getting arrested many were

falsely accused and thanks to this phenomenon the prison populations

were bursting at the seams. Collecting way more prisoners than usual,

Now obviously they needed help so thats when the CCA came along and
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offered to help them with finances and keeping the prisoners locked up. Of

course a company working on prisons seemed shady at first but the private

prisons didnt care. And thanks to them the prisons keep getting filled up

everyday because if they dont at least have 90% prisoner occupancy they

wont be able to make money. These guys dont even try to hide it.

They're basically proud of the fact theyre doing this in fact the

Co-founder named Tom Beasley of the corporation stated and I quote

word for word here. You just sell [prisons] like you were selling cars or

real estate or hamburgers. They rake in so much money that its been said

to be brought up to the millions. Now it can be said that its worth it for

the taxpayers seeing as how they pay less for the facilities but nope.

Private prisons cost as much as regular prisons do, see the problem here?

Solitary

Many people know about solitary, you see it in movies,tv, and a lot of the

times read it in books like The ShawShank Redemption . They think

that this sort of action is necessary for the prisoners so they can rethink

their lives and be better people. But it gets even worse than corporations

playing monopoly with the prisoners. This Discipline has a huge

infamous backstory going all the way back to the 1800s; Quakers thought

that prisoners would use their time in the cell to read the bible and reflect

on themselves. But Solitary confinement has huge detriments on a

prisoner's mental health, humans are social animals its how we survive
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and having spent so many hours in their can cause serious brain damage.

Inside, your kept in a cell the size of a king sized bed. You start to

hallucinate, fall into depression and unable to understand how much time

has passed. Even back in the 1800s they knew the practice was insane and

stopped using it, but about a couple decades ago solitary confinement was

brought back up and has been destroying minds ever since. Some who

were kept there and finally got out couldnt handle the outside world and

either wanted to go back inside the cage they called home; Or take the

darkest rouet yet, suicide. And they dont just use it for the worst of the

worst, it is used on a regular basis on prisoners that guards dont even

want to deal with. It is a cruel, barbaric, and very outdated form of

practice and doesn't belong in our society.

Rehabilitation

Back in the day the original idea of prisons were to change the prisoners

themselves through learning and being a model prisoner. But these days

thats not the case, many say what's the point of having prisoners outside

theyre just going to go back in anyway. There is a very good reason for

that. After you get out of prison you're left with no money and in a very

poor state in your life. Every Time you apply for a job they refuse you,

everytime you want to rent an apartment you're evicted, every time you try

to explain your situation to the probation officer they dont want to hear
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how lazy you are and just want to send you back inside. With how the

way this country treats its prisoners its no wonder why they just keep

coming back for shelter and at least some form of safety no matter how

warped or dark it is. One notable ex-prisoner is a lawyer named Daryl

Atkinson, he was brought to prison thanks to a first time, nonviolent drug

crime and served a sentence for 40 years. After he got out he received his

law degree and since then has been working on fighting for ex-cons who

deserve second chances in real life.

Conclusion

Now many can agree that the system is definitely broken, There is

absolutely no chance that theyll be able to return to society and have a

better life. But there are answers to this , first get rid of solitary

confinement I mean thats a huge drawback we have to get rid of as soon

as possible. Another is a an international campaign by civil rights leaders

called Ban the Box That little box in the application is a huge disability

for prisoners looking for jobs, and this group is dedicated for people to

give ex prisoners a second chance. So many states have done this already

like California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii,

Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Jersey,

New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island,

Vermont, Virginia, and Wisconsin. And most importantly give all of your

energy into this cause. The prison system is not unfixable it just needs
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some hot glue, elbow grease, and very open and sharp minds to make it all

better again; turning it from a broken down shack into a colossal beautiful

five star hotel. The change can happen absolutely All we gotta do is give it

our all. This is a very serious matter and I urge you to take this seriously.
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Larson, Erik. "Captive Company." (1 Jun. 1988) [Article] Retrieved from

https://www.inc.com/magazine/19880601/803.html

Sullivan, Laura. Life in Solitary Confinement. (26 Jul. 2006) [Article]

Retrieved from

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5579901

Stillman, Sarah. Get Out of Jail, Inc. New Yorker (23 Jun. 2014) [Article]

Retrived from

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/06/23/get-out-of-jail-inc

Southern, Coalition. Biography, Southern Coalition. (n.d) Biography.

Retrived from

https://www.southerncoalition.org/portfolio-item/daryl-v-atkinson-staff-att

orney/

Ban the Box Campaign. (n.d) civil rights campaign . Retrieved from

http://bantheboxcampaign.org/

Averick Spencer (Producer) & Ava Duvernay (Director) . (2016). [13th].

U.S.A: Netflix