American Imprisonment

A man is condemned to the same fate for a crime no matter his background. A man entirely without money or friends, raised in debauchery and ignorance receives the same punishment as a man born into every blessing of life, surrounded by people who love him, who is highly educated and has moral instruction. These two committed the same crime, yes. But are they both equally accountable?

I cannot believe so. However, there isn't anything to do about it. Who could understand individual situations well enough to decide what mercy should be shown? And besides, these crimes would continue being perpetrated. Because we don't do anything to try to fix it.

The purpose of imprisonment should not be punishment of those who have done wrong. Hammer that into your head right now. That is an immature and ineffective paradigm. The purpose of imprisonment should be to protect those who are innocent. Completely destroying the lives of criminals by locking them up for most of their lives could effectively do that, I suppose. But there are many things to consider before choosing that.

The sentences given are ineffective. What are years in prison going to do for somebody? The answer is simple. The convict is going to come out having lost some of the most important time in his life, and relapse. Perhaps he will be slightly more bitter and hardened. Without more meaningful correction, there isn't likely to be meaningful change. For those who are already fairly well-equipped for a normal productive life and just screwed up once, this might be serious enough to keep them well, but those who only know this type of life are not going to be able to come out as a contributing, happy citizen.

I am not even going to talk about the financial issues this system brings the whole nation, the corruption within facilities, or abuse within prisons because that is not the point of this post. But consider those as well. The problem of criminal justice is complex. It's going to take a whole new way of thinking and take a while to implement change. This is worth it, though. Don't just leave the lowest of the nation behind.