elle kynzer

The Problems Associated With Our Prison System



Posted: Wednesday, August 06, 2008

by

There have been changes over the past sixty years, in how we handle prisoners. It was normal for them to spend a majority of their time alone, and they were provided with spiritual and mental help to come to a conscienceness about their crimes in the forties and early fifties. There were no televisions, or outside socialization as is required today. Radios, group meetings, psychologists or psychiatrists were the mainstay of their associations. Real physical work was applied, and the minimum necessary paid to the inmate, until their release. Some job skills were learned, but not a lot of education provided. There was an established change of clothes, and a few dollars given at release. Many went on to better lives, and people gave the best ones a chance, as long as they didn't cause any trouble. The recidivism rate was low. Most never wanted to go back into the prisons, so found work and stayed out of trouble.

During the late sixties and early seventies, there was a rise of concern over how prisoners were treated. Groups of do gooders felt religion or mental help was a violation of the inmates constitutional rights. In fact, so many opposition groups presented legal documents over how prisoners were being rehabilitated, that mandatory treatment was stopped and only voluntary treatment, or regular interviews were given. The active rehabilitation process was either stopped, or halted to the point it was ineffective in most states. Those same groups demanded socialization for certain hours, and entertainment of television, and required visitation weekly. Gangs memberships grew, and hostility toward authority. Soon violence within prisons became the norm, and intimate contact with each other rose, and more outsiders being admitted to the prisons as visitors gave way to drugs, and other problems internal to the system grew rapidly. The difference in the old system vs new system is astounding. Although many changes over the years have given the prisoners more rights, it has given the taxpayers a less stable system, a higher recidivism rate, and violent prisons with more problems than answers.

Now the pendelum of less strict rules, and more rights to the inmate vs the strong laws of incarceration and lengthy prison terms gives a severe swing of the pendulum from left to right ; depending on who is overseeing the system. The US prison system is in dire need of restructering, and massive changes. Gangs are running many of the prisons, and violence, sexual assault and unbelievable conditions of overcrowding make any type of rehabilitation impossible. More inmates are getting out worse than they came in, and the gang bonding causes more "institutionalization ( also known as prisonization)" than ever before. Without treatment these inmates will never be contributors to society, but siphons of taxpayer money through their many crimes, cost of court trials, court appointed attorneys, and constant incarceration. It seems both political parties do not want to tackle this problem, or else they do not know where to start.

It is a failure of the new system that prevents inmates from getting help for mental, emotional and past problems. A person who is "sick" does not know they need a doctor, and those of us who are "well" must be able by law to help them recover. That isn't possible when the inmates are running the asylum; and other "sick" people are backing them up from the outside, with their "so called" desire to make sure no one helps them against their will. A good analogy is that someone is choking but you can't apply the heimlich manuver, because another person there holds a legal document that you are violating their constitution rights to choke to death if you do save them. Then you will be sued, and imprisoned yourself for violating said order. The person dies, as others watch unable to help, and due to those who passed the legal order for the good of the "sick".

The War on Drugs is causing more criminals to be developed in the youth of America, who are being incarcerated with the hard core criminals, when their crime may only have been possession of marijuana. Is this what we want our prison system to do? Are we in the business of creating criminals out of misquided youth? It's time for taxpayers to ask for more from their taxdollars than a substandard housing of subculture criminals, who will not be changed in these cesspools of sex, black markets, and gang violence. Statistics show that youth not incarcerated with the hardcore recidivists will outgrow crime, and become productive citizens. Less than 5% would return to crime, and by thirty most would have established themselves within the community as normal taxpayers. This is a hidden issue that needs attention now, in order to protect and retrieve those youth whose crimes are tied up in "peer pressure" or curiosity, and can become productive members of society. Write your congressman and remind him that prison reform, and new rehabilitation program laws are needed to overhaul the American prison system for the benefit of all of us.

Elle Kynzer was born in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, and grew up in a rural area, as an only child. She is married with one son, and two grandsons.

She was a Personnel Assistant in her early twenties, and began hiring employees for the company. By her early thirties she had returned to NC, and became an Executive Officer in Real Estate. She also served as part-time USNR.

Elle went back to college at WCU, then went on to teach Criminal Justice for a local Community College, in the local High Schools/college credit.

Elle Kynzer, Author:

E Books:

Non Fiction: EXONERATED-Nancy Hanks Lincoln/mother to Pres Abraham Lincoln; Fiction Mystery: BLOODY CLOTHES ON THE INTERSTATE;UNDER MURKY WATERS.

Poetry: A WINDING RIVER; Paranormal: TRAMPLING ON JUSTICE; Christian: REFLECTIONS OF GRACE See Amazon.com; Smashwords, or visit my blog for descriptions/prices.

Her blog http://ellekynzer.blogspot.com/

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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)
» left by The Old Gray Mare
 87 days 14 hours ago.
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Well written and a tough subject. I've got some strong opinions on this subject. Also, a neighbor of ours has been a career prison guard in a Connecticut jail. Let me say this. I would never want a relative or any loved one to have to work as a guard in a prison. I think I am too naive to believe people are capable of what they do. You handled this subject well.
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