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The overcrowding of prisons and the lack of rehabilitation that is possible with the current system are frequent subjects of conversation with my (our) dad. The prisons are overfilled (don't trust me necessarily but I think I read that on average prisons are filled to 180% of capacity) to the point that the supreme court deemed it "cruel and unusual punishment". Wow! This infographic (from Good Politics--good.is) shows the change in prison population over the past 20 years (roughly). It looks like California has been committing cruel and unusual punishment for a while now. The three strikes law has been filling the prisons and keeping them full of drug dealers. The second graphic from the same article shows the breakdown of crimes within the prisons. There are no values given, just a schematic, but a large population of drug offenders fill the prisons. I would like to see how this breakdown changed since the three strikes law was enacted. (Now, I want to be clear that I am not against the three strikes law necessarily, I don't know enough about it to really argue anything, I'm just thinking). Regardless though, as my dad says, the prison system is not rehabilitating any of these drug offenders.  |
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More compelling than these infographics are the images from inside of the prisons that were submitted as evidence in the case. The images in the article at MotherJones show the prisoners stacked in triple bunk beds, the mental health patients in tiny cages and beds set up in gyms to accommodate the many people being housed there. I had a hard time living in a dorm room with 2 other people, I can't imagine being even slightly comfortable in a gym with a bunch of other people.
It's surprising to see this overcrowding so bluntly. I think California needs to do something about it, I guess they have to now.
S
Yes. Thanks for writing this, I wholeheartedly concur. There's absolutely no rehabilitation going on in the CA prison system anymore. The pictures on that slide show of where they put people with mental issues and on suicide watch are truly heart-wrenching.
ReplyDeleteAn update: according to my uncle (who I trust to know about these things...and pretty much everything else), there aren't many druggies added with the three strikes law, so maybe that part of the pie chart wouldn't change much.
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