Don't Go to Prison

Don't go to prison." I'm sure most of you have heard this phrase from your parents, grandparents, teachers, or whoever else. And, I mean, it's not bad advice, though it shouldn't be necessary for them to say. Sure one could argue it's common sense not to break the law, right? Well, people do it anyway, obviously. That's not even including the thousands of innocent people being arrested, thrown behind bars, or even sent to death row (as stated in https://www.innocenceproject.org/how-many-innocent-people-are-in-prison/). The point is, there are a LOT of people in prison, I'm talking thousands, no, hundreds of thousands, no, millions of people imprisoned. A whopping 2.3 million people (as stated in https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2016.html) are currently having their life snuffed away in our jail cells. Some of these people for more just reasons than others. How do we treat these people? Those people who couldn't follow the simple advice of "Don't go to prison." Of course we'd be able to set a good system in place for 2.3 million people, right? Nah, we just shove everyone in a small, dirty, cluttered cell and let them be until one of them beats another up. It's a sick, twisted, and frankly disgusting method. It's unarguable that some people who simply committed a few small thefts are put in the same environment as hardened armed robbers, thugs, and even murderers. What person can live in that environment and come out a better person? Or even the same person?

In a perfect world, prison should be used as a method of rehabilitation, a way to fix problems of people who found they needed to break the law. It shouldn't be used as a punishment, a method of beating ordinary people down. Sure, there are some people who cannot be fixed, but they should be treated differently. Mass murderers and petty thieves should not be in the same situation. Not only that, but a rehabilitation center should provide countless opportunities for meeting good people, jobs, and keeping in contact with loved ones. Of course, prisons in America don't do that. In theory, a person who gets better should be rewarded for it, not be beaten even further down then they were before. What about those innocent people in jail? Should they be subject to the same punishments and hell that others go through, just because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time? Overall, prison in its current state is a death trap. Once in there, you either die a prisoner, or die thirty years after release, still a prisoner to the corrupt system.

Prison changes people, and never for the better. Even if they do come out a better, less criminally inclined person, hardly any job will even consider accepting them. Not only that, but their life will continue on without them. Their wives and kids no longer used to being around them, and sometimes even moving on to different people. They lose friends, lovers, job opportunities, and sometimes even their relationship with your parents. Once you're in prison, your life is over. Once you're out, you can start again, but always with that stain of your past. In a way, it does function as a stain. Jobs look at it in the same way, basically as evidence that you aren't clean. Sure, some desperate jobs or minimum wage jobs will accept an uncleanly person, but that's all some ex-inmates get. And even then, there comes a point where a stain is so large that no job will accept it. So, prison inmates spend days, months, years, or even decades in prison, and come back to a lonely, dead end shadow of their previous life. Getting out of prison should be something that inmates look forward to, not something they dread.

That's all just talking about the effects of prison, not even touching on the literal hell some poor souls have to endure for years on end. The punishments prisons make their inmates go through are utterly inhumane, and most of them aren't intended. For instance, the amount of rape that goes unpunished is actually sickening. 200,000 people are raped each year in prison, and that's just the statistics that are recorded from ABC News (https://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=131113&page=1). Some predators are actually bribed to stay in cooperation with the guards, and in return, they are allowed to do whatever they want, to whoever they want. If that weren't bad enough, almost 500 suicides occur each year in prisons because of what they have to endure. Lastly, the amount of people who are issued solitary confinement is disgusting. The arguable worst thing a man can endure is simply brushed off as a minor punishment, for sometimes years on end. 22 hours without sunlight or seeing another person's face. That's something no one can endure without seriously psychological damage. 90,000 people are currently inside of solitary confinement right now, 90,000 people. In most countries this is considered torture, but the Land of the Free has almost 100,000 people in solitary.

All of this can be fixed though, albeit with a massive amount of work and dedication. Traditional cells cannot remain the same, and guards cannot overlook violence. There should be better separation between the bad apples and the good ones, and solitary confinement should be used as a last resort. There should be better and much more accessible job opportunities, and much more importantly, contact with loved ones needs to be a more welcoming environment. Once this is done, we can work on making the primary activity for prisoners into community service, bettering the lives of others while also bettering their character. Lastly, rape needs to be taken much more seriously, and can never go overlooked. So, finally, I leave you with this advice. Don't go to prison.

Sources: (https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2016.html) (https://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=131113&page=1)

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solitary_confinement)

That's all just talking about the effects of prison, not even talking about the literal hell some poor souls have to endure for years on end. The punishments prisons make their inmates go through are utterly inhumane, and most of them aren't intended, just looked away from. For instance, the amount of rape that goes unpunished is actually sickening. 200,000 people are raped each year in prison, and that's just the statistics that are recorded. Some predators are actually bribed to stay in cooperation with the guards, and in return, they are allowed to do whatever they want, to whoever they want. If that weren't bad enough, almost 500 suicides occur each year in prisons because of what they have to endure. Lastly, the amount of people who are issued solitary confinement is disgusting. The arguable worst thing a man can endure is simply brushed off as a minor punishment, for sometimes years on end. 22 hours without sunlight or seeing another person's face. That's something no one can endure without seriously psychological damage. 90,000 people are currently inside of solitary confinement right now, 90,000 people. In most countries this is considered torture, but the Land of the Free has almost 100,000 people in solitary.

All of this can be fixed though, albeit with a massive amount of work and dedication. Traditional cells cannot remain the same, and guards cannot overlook violence. There should be better separation between the bad apples and the good ones, and solitary confinement should be used as a last resort. There should be better and much more accessible job opportunities, and much more importantly, contact with loved ones needs to be a more welcoming environment. Once this is done, we can work on making the primary activity for prisoners into community service, bettering the lives of others while also bettering their character. Lastly, rape needs to be taken much more seriously, and can never go overlooked. So, finally, I leave you with this advice. Don't go to prison.

Sources: (https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2016.html) (https://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=131113&page=1)

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solitary_confinement)