The current penal system in America is not working. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to come to the conclusion, that it predisposes prisoners to recidivism, a relapse into a life of crime. Since man is ultimately a product of his environment, the current system products speak for themselves: failure. The system practices set it’s occupants up for exclusion from the mainstream success stories of society, except for the families, friends and loved ones of prisoners and ex-prisoners. Most Americans have not really considered prisoners plight and daily struggles. Though various studies show that from one-half to two-thirds of parolees return to prison for violating the conditions of their release, or for reoffending, few people, tax-payers, prosecutors, politicians and CEO’s of corporations seemed to have really pondered the critical question: Why is this colossal recidivism taking place on our soil? Have the citizens of this great industrial nation become so detached and desensitized that they could care less about prisoner’s lives. Well, I hope not because prisoners desperately need your assistance in reintegrating back into society and upholding the anticipation that they will become an asset to their respective community.
Richard Gustufson, a columnist and retired teacher who taught 30 years at Miami Valley Career Technical Center, said, “National statistics indicate that recidivism is cut in half with support from the community.” It is my personal and unyielding belief that recidivism is also tremendously reduced when the system pursues its once desired effect, rehabilitation. However, rehabilitation is a thing of the past.
It was in 1790 that the first penitentiary in this country opened its doors to house criminals. The purpose of this new creation was to place criminals in a confined area, where they might ponder over their crimes, repent and reform themselves, hence, the term penitentiary. Much has changed in the last three decades due to the influences of tough talking, opportunistic politicians, who have reduced funding for rehabilitative programs to almost nil, so much so that rehabilitation, or producing a repentive person is no longer the desired objective. Instead, the current objective is to warehouse prisoners and deliberately create the circumstances for their failure. This cruel objective is being perpetrated to perpetuate job security for parole officials, individuals in corporate America and the like, who benefit financially from the prison boom, which currently incarcerates 2.2 million people in our nation’s prisons. This new trend of merely warehousing and punishing prisoners is not conducive to the security and stability of this nation. All it does is mentally crush prisoners will and doom them to inevitable failure.
As a result of this new trend, prisoners are being released with no skills, no education, no support system, no job and only a few dollars in their possession to try to make it in this dog-eat-dog society. Indeed, a recipe for disaster. It’s implausible for prisoners to survive under these bleak conditions. Let us not forget that unemployment, poverty, exclusion and a lack of education and guidance are the ingredients which led to their imprisonment, so how can the system or any rational human being expect ex-prisoners to succeed when they are still caught in a catch-22 cycle? Although a job is an essential means of support to help people acquire the things they need, trying to secure a job is the ex-prisoners greatest obstacle. Except when family or friends have been able to secure them employment, ex-prisoners are refused work due to their criminal history, something they can’t change.
With this revolving door being slammed in their faces, how do we expect them to react when they are stuck between a rock and a hard place? They then end up adopting the only culture they know, survival of the fittest. In plain old English, they resort to exploiting their old ways of living that is, victimizing others to survive. Because of this induced failure, I share the sentiments of El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, also known as Malcolm X, who said, “I have no mercy or compassion in me for a society that will crush people and penalize them for not being able to stand up under the weight.” It is my only hope that society will come to realize prisoners have the same tools, the same potentials, the same basic human desires and the same capacity for change and positive development which all other citizens possess; they just need assistance in effectively developing their latent potentials.
People change. Even I have changed. In fact, life itself is a process of transformation. With this said it is my prayer that people will call on their elected officials to push for rehabilitative programs in prisons as well as re-entry programs in society that will help prisoners reintegrate in their communities and become law-abiding citizens.