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The UK's ministry of justice has rolled out phones to quite a few prisons now and they have had an amazing impact, despite the opprobrium of idiot newspaper edi
by hkt 3y ago
The UK's ministry of justice has rolled out phones to quite a few prisons now and they have had an amazing impact, despite the opprobrium of idiot newspaper editors.
It is thought that this cuts recidivism by 40% and allows people to stay in touch with family. The number is good, but it is worth considering one of the less often articulated points about the system: it punishes families, too. Take away a breadwinner, an extra pair of parental hands (however active), and put a father at a distance from their kids, and what do you get? A lonely partner who can't share domestic work. Kids with only one adult to relate to, where that adult now carries responsibilities that were previously shared.
In other words, prisons incarcerate individuals but punish families. Phones in prisons lessen the blow somewhat, and it is little surprise that even this very small line of contact keeps people in touch with people they care about, instead of leaving them adrift and vulnerable to mixing with the wrong sorts on release.
Really, they ought to be abolished. Other forms of punishment and rehabilitation exist. Restorative justice exists. It would be better that we used it.
(I'm gendering the above in the way I am because in the UK, as in many other places, ten men are in prison for every one woman, give or take)
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/in-cell-phones-for-more-prisons-in-drive-to-cut-crime https://www.gov.uk/government/news/in-cell-phones-for-more-p...
- sokoloff 3y agoThere are probably a lot of prisoners who could safely benefit from alternative treatments. (Safety as judged from the perspective of law-abiding members of society.) But there is certainly a subset of them who would not be safe to treat outside of prison. And those people should remain in prison, IMO.
- qingcharles 3y agoHaving spent a decade inside, I agree with your overall sentiment. There are some people who are completely unable to control their criminal behavior and probably just aren't safe to be released, but they could certainly be held in more humane conditions as their issues are probably due to the DNA lottery rather than anything they brought on themselves. But, the vast majority of those I met would be totally capable of living productive (tax-paying) lives if they had the necessary support to get their lives rebooted, employment and shelter found, etc.
- hkt 3y agoExactly this. Some UK prisons were found to be giving out tents to people who were leaving, which was illegal. You can, I am sure, imagine the results.
- qingcharles 3y agoI'm just out of prison. The authorities warned me that I cannot sleep on the same bench more than three times in a year or it would be classified as my permanent residence and I would have to provide utility bills to prove I lived there. This also applies for any subway train I was told - you can sleep on the same line three times in one year, but you have to switch between the lines every three days until you have exhausted all the lines. You cannot sleep in a tent in one position for more than three days unless you can provide documented proof of residence. If you sleep in your car note the street address of the nearest building to where you have parked. You can only sleep at that address for three days. They were deadly serious about this. Obviously you can lie to them about where you have been, but you have to tell them under penalty of perjury, so now you're committing a different felony which carries 5 years in prison.
- retrac 3y agoI am not quite a prison abolitionist but I am troubled by the same point. Punishment inflicted on an offender is transitive in its pain. Even if suffering is righteously deserved it is shared by innocent people with the capacity to love the wretched. Even if one does not wish to grant humanity to a criminal for his sake, it seems necessary for ours.