To me the state of US prisons reveals a really dark aspect to US culture and that is there's a real penchant for... cruelty. Like here's just a partial list of

To me the state of US prisons reveals a really dark aspect to US culture and that is there's a real penchant for... cruelty. Like here's just a partial list of major problems just off the top of my head: - The essentially institutionalized use of rape as a means of controlling inmates; - Ridiculously long sentences for relatively minor offences as just another casualty of the disastrous war on drugs; - commissaries as a profit center with ridiculously marked up prices; - ridiculous costs for telephone calls as another profit center, making it more difficult for inmates to maintain social ties to family; - prisoners count as citizens but can't vote. Also prisons are jobs. This makes prisons the perfect tool for gerrymandering and pork barreling; - being charged (not convicted but _charged) with a felony while on parole violates your parole and can send you back to prison to serve the remainder of your sentence. I don't know how this passes the due process test; - Overcharging to force plea deals; - Paying prisoners <5c/hour; - Forcing prisoners to pay a co-pay to see a doctor. $2-5 might not sound like much but it is at 5c/hour; - Female prisoners may need to see a doctor to get adequate tampons or sanitary napkins. See above for why that's a problem; - 5c/hour incentivized individuals and private companies to use prison labour to undercut real competitors; - You don't really have a choice: working is typically mandatory; - Prison food. 'Nuff said. - The "are you a felon?" scarlet letter you'll carry for the rest of your life. This actually causes problems even for the ultra-rich. As one example, it has caused real problems for Mark Wahlberg, such that at one point he sought a pardon from the Massachussetts governor for what was a fairly vicious assault when he was young. That effort failed. I absolutely oppposed the Wahlberg pardon. He shouldn't get an exemption. Reform this stupid system instead; - Early release prisoners having to pay for their own drug tests where they have huge problems even finding a job as a felon in the first place; - Disenfranchising felons in fairly stupid ways that are clearly a form of voter suppression ie they can't vote for really no good reason; - Overcrowding; - Privatizing of prisons; - Having a delay between parole being granted and the prisoner being released. This is so dumb. This allows other prisoners to "tax" the parolee as any infraction during that period may violate their conditions of release. In comparison I saw a show about a prison in Mexico where a prisoner was called intot he warden's office, told he'd been freed and he was immediately free to go (probably for this "taxing" reason). I was honestly surprised at how humane Mexican prisons seemed in this show (compared to their US equivalents); I don't think it's an understatement to call the US prison system to be a humanitarian crisis and a blight on the soul of the country.