The Real Macai XXXV
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- Posted: Tue, 27 Oct 2009 03:52:27 +0000
The way we treat prisoners in the United States is atrocious. When I was a kid, I thought prison was merely an extended time out, and that seems to be the implied point of prison, but it's much more than that.
Prisoners get locked in tiny cages and are only let out of them for an hour a day, if that. There's this thing called "The Hole", and it's a reality. They put you in a dark room for days, weeks, months at a time. You s**t and piss in a bucket. Human beings are social creatures; its in the nature of the majority of us to want to interact with other humans. The Hole and other forms of solitary confinement are designed specifically to exploit this and use it as a form of punishment. In other words, they're intended to drive the punished individual insane.
Health coverage is absurd. Supposedly, the government gives you health insurance, but prisoners are known to be made to watch their teeth rot out of their mouth and just about die before they can see a doctor. When they get life saving medical treatment, price is really the only thing that's taken on board. Amputation is cheaper than chemotherapy, and so on.
Prisoners are brutalized on a daily basis, not just by other prisoners, but by cell guards. If you get anally raped, and go tell a guard in hopes of getting to be in a more physically secure place, they have no real world obligation to put you in one. If the prisoner that did this to you catches wind of it, your dignity isn't the only thing at stake anymore, but so is your life.
Sentencing is draconian. People still to this day get ten, twenty, thirty year sentences. Going to prison ruins your life. There is no way a person can reasonably spend twenty years of their life in a cell and then be expected to just get up and get a job like nothing happened.
In the event that someone gets out of prison, they are expected to get back on their feet. However, employers have a right to look into your criminal history, which is public information. Your punishment, once convicted of a felony, is never over.
Sex offenders have it even worse. No matter where you go, you must register yourself, and any malicious jerk can turn you into a social pariah simply by looking you up. They can find out where you live, and plaster your face everywhere you go, making you vulnerable to harassment or worse. Police and judges aren't likely to sympathize with a convicted child molester, and might choose to turn a blind eye to vandalism, break-ins or attempts at the person's life.
Human rights are, as their name implies, conferred upon someone because they are human, not because they are law abiding. If we were talking about anybody but criminals, hearing about these things happening to someone would make most of us cringe. Since they're criminals, though, they lose their human rights. The implication? They're not human anymore once they get caught breaking our rules.
Prisoners get locked in tiny cages and are only let out of them for an hour a day, if that. There's this thing called "The Hole", and it's a reality. They put you in a dark room for days, weeks, months at a time. You s**t and piss in a bucket. Human beings are social creatures; its in the nature of the majority of us to want to interact with other humans. The Hole and other forms of solitary confinement are designed specifically to exploit this and use it as a form of punishment. In other words, they're intended to drive the punished individual insane.
Health coverage is absurd. Supposedly, the government gives you health insurance, but prisoners are known to be made to watch their teeth rot out of their mouth and just about die before they can see a doctor. When they get life saving medical treatment, price is really the only thing that's taken on board. Amputation is cheaper than chemotherapy, and so on.
Prisoners are brutalized on a daily basis, not just by other prisoners, but by cell guards. If you get anally raped, and go tell a guard in hopes of getting to be in a more physically secure place, they have no real world obligation to put you in one. If the prisoner that did this to you catches wind of it, your dignity isn't the only thing at stake anymore, but so is your life.
Sentencing is draconian. People still to this day get ten, twenty, thirty year sentences. Going to prison ruins your life. There is no way a person can reasonably spend twenty years of their life in a cell and then be expected to just get up and get a job like nothing happened.
In the event that someone gets out of prison, they are expected to get back on their feet. However, employers have a right to look into your criminal history, which is public information. Your punishment, once convicted of a felony, is never over.
Sex offenders have it even worse. No matter where you go, you must register yourself, and any malicious jerk can turn you into a social pariah simply by looking you up. They can find out where you live, and plaster your face everywhere you go, making you vulnerable to harassment or worse. Police and judges aren't likely to sympathize with a convicted child molester, and might choose to turn a blind eye to vandalism, break-ins or attempts at the person's life.
Human rights are, as their name implies, conferred upon someone because they are human, not because they are law abiding. If we were talking about anybody but criminals, hearing about these things happening to someone would make most of us cringe. Since they're criminals, though, they lose their human rights. The implication? They're not human anymore once they get caught breaking our rules.
