System of a Down - Prison Song

I decided to make a topic about this subject, because it is in my eyes extremely important. I'll provide some links about several different issues that are elements of the subject of American prisons or related to them. I will make sure to use discreet language, but I can assure you that not all sources are going to be family friendly.

American prisons are rife with various problems. They range from gang violence, to physical abuse by wardens, to drug abuse, to sexual abuse, to a severe lack of rehabilitation programs. There are also broader problems with correctional facilities in America on the whole. I cannot address them all adequately, but I at the very least hope to give somewhat of an image of the gruesome reality of American prison life.

That said, the emotional impact of what I am going to write is far less than reading the actual accounts, which are far more graphic, but which I shall not be for the sake of aforementioned discretion.

Prior to starting this story, I will first ascribe to a few opinions and denounce some other ones.

American prisons are not the worst around
This is indeed true. I think China has that record and I can assure that American prisons fare very well compared to China.

It's hypocritic to complain about American prisons when there are country that perform far worse.
I think a rather gloomy moral relativism is at the root of this line of thought. I am able to communicate with American citizens, but I am not able to communicate with many people living in countries with such appalling standards. Also, I have read more about American prisons than about prisons in other countries, even including prisons in my own country although I argue for radical reform in those, too. My arguments are thus adapted to this specific situation. My view is that there are absolute standards to which a prison should conform. If such standards are violated, criticism is due. It is useless to ignore horrible circumstances in one country because there are inferior circumstances in other countries; how could we confront the bigger evil if we allow the lesser evil to disseminate and flourish? Human rights violations are human rights violations, any of that ought be sufficient to legitimise opposition to such occurrences.

Honestly, I still don't see what wrong with things in the US if there are countries like Saudi Arabia that are really bad.
This one is in my eyes even worse. If something is dreadful, is something better then automatically okay? Are racial slurs good because racist violence is bad? That is a warped argument if I have ever seen one.

You are anti-American.
I am not. As I already mentioned, I also have criticism regarding prisons in my own country. Anti-Americanism constitutes antipathy on the ground of something being American. I oppose the prison system on the grounds of being severely lacking. That's completely different. I would like the American prison system if it fulfilled those standards. An anti-American is indifferent to reform because he or she hates it regardless of its quality, for it will remain American, reformed or not, while I am arguing for reforms and thus show detailed interest in your national affairs. That is remarkably un-anti-American.

Why do you then not argue about what is wrong in your country?
It is in my eyes far more effective to write about American prisons, because that's a far larger audience than people from the Netherlands. Then there's the point I have read more about American prisons than about Dutch prisons. I might extend this to other countries, though, because it is good to be critical of other countries, too.

Prisoners deserve what they get. If you don't want to go to prison, don't commit a crime.
No. There are several dimensions to committing a crime and demographical backgrounds can have an important influence. I don't want to delve into this yet, but consider the following line of thought: poverty has an effect on one's effectivity as a parent. Now I want to focus on whether prison inmates deserve whatever they face. I think this is rather nihilist. If we create prisons, do we not bear a little responsibility to make sure people can live in them? It is not the responsibility of the prisoners to make prisons safe, it is the responsibility of society. Then there is the point that not only prisons show this, but also jails. Not only convicts are effected, but also people in custody, including innocents. Furthermore, since when exists the option of convicting somebody to physical and sexual abuse? Even punishments have to respect bodily integrity.

But reform is underway. There's a National Committee that did some research on this and made recommendation to the general attorney.
Yes indeed and I am curious what will come out of it. However, state are not obliged to comply with those recommendations, it will result in a five percent decrease of federal funding. So I am afraid the effects will be marginal, but I am glad both parties recognise the problem at least.

Okay, now that I have pre-emptively struck some points that will only lead to futile debate, I am ready to fire off.

Gangs in prison: why are they there in the first place?
Gangs are influential in prisons, that is an understatement. Gangs define life in prisons. In most American prisons, survival depends on whether you are part of a gang or not. Gangsters rely on eachother for protection against other gangs, but the gang demands ultimate loyalty in return: a gang member should be ready to sacrifice his life for the gang he joined to protect him. Because gangs compete with eachother for various reasons, serious violence happens often, leading to injury, increased sentences and sometimes death.

An important element of gangs is that they are composed along racial lines. Latinos join latino gangs, blacks join black gangs and whites join white gangs. If you wonder about Asian Americans, there are, in proportion to the numbers of Asian Americans, few Asian Americans in prison and they are not an enormous group in the first place compared to other groups. There is strident animosity amongst those gangs and aside racial lines, they also adopt racist lines. White gangs are often Neo-Nazi in beliefs, but this is not true for all. (For more information, check this site, which contains a lot of nazi imagery (WARNING) http://whiteprisongangs.blogspot.com/2009/09/neo-nazis.html )

Not only do prisons gangs define life in prison, they are also influential outside prisons. They are influential in criminal activities outside prisons, sometimes they even coordinate them. (NPR: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4525733 ) This way, organised crime is for a large degree sustained from prison. Criminals even sell drugs to other inmates, prostitute themselves and settle scores. Vendettas are sometimes also settled outside prison from within prison, which should demonstrate there are some very clear flaws in the current system. (Some more information, contains nazi imagery (WARNING) http://www.crimeusa.com/prison_gangs.html )

Why are those gangs not ended? One view is that gangs are too strong for prison personnel to effectively destroy. Another view is that prison gangs are used to control inmates as a means of sowing discordance. In the latter view, prison keepers use gangs as a tool to prevent prison revolts as the one in 1971 in Attica, to keep the prison safe. In any case, whatever view is true, prisons are literally stacked with prisoners, with many residing in improvised containment rooms in which hundreds of prisoners interact freely in too little space. Violence is the logical harvest of this seed and we cannot blame the fresh convict, new to prison life, for joining a gang. Not joining can be suicide. In this sense, prisons are effective recruitment centres for organised crime.

Organisation of prisons: go with the flow (of money)
There are many prisons in America. There are also many private prisons in America. Those are third parties who run a prison for profit and are paid by state or local governments to contain inmates. Usually, the pay is per prisoner, so it is economically interesting for a private prison to hold as many inmates as possible, while neo-liberal efficiency demands that the costs should be kept low to increase profits. As a result, many prisoners are located in stacked prisons, with sometimes nearly double the number of inmates the capacity allows. (Wikwikwikwikwik wikipedia!! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incarceration_in_the_United_States#Conditions ) Usually the buildings used were not intended to accommodate inmates and certainly not that many, leading to additional dangers.

The privatisation of prisons vastly increased in the years of the neo-conservative champion Reagan, who favoured a clearly right-wing economic agenda, as any former unionist can tell you. More prisoners came in as a result of the War on Drugs, prisons became more expensive and these were the days that Reagan and Thatcher ruled the West, so privatisation was the result. Not only did this subject hundreds of thousands of prison inmates to the market charities of supply and demand, it also removed them for a large part from federal concern. (This is a good read on private prisons: http://mediafilter.org/MFF/Prison.html ) It is also clearly in the interest of the public to have them privatised, because who want to spend lots of money of prisons and markets are a great method of cutting expenses, aren't they?

It is clearly in the interest of a private prison to house as many inmates as possible, with maximal funds and minimal costs. This has done the private entrepeneurs no ill business, the private prison industry is a twenty milliard/twenty billion dollar industry and profitable indeed. A steady influx of prisoners ensures that this is a booming business for years, if not decades, to come!

Not only can profits be raised by increasing tthe number of inmates, nor merely by reducing the care they receive, but also by cutting on guards. American prisons are not only overcrowded, they are also underemployed. A considerable amount of money spent on prison inmates is actually spent on their protection (which is somehow still woefully inadequate). Because of their low numbers, guards can be quite influential and allied to their employers, their unions have been hampering reform for quite some time.

Dirty deeds don't come cheap: the costs and gains of prison privateers
Private prisons are an enormous industry, as stated above. They are ultimately still financed by public money (which still leads to a public responsibility for the quality of prisons). The money drain on quality care they pose and the ineffectiveness of combatting crime are significant setbacks to them.

But this is not all. The vast portion of money spent on prisoners is spent on security and medication. The annual average sum spent on a state inmate was $22,650 per year in 2001, while the median income per household member was $26,036. This does not make them leeches of a lavish prison system, because about 80% of this was used for security and medicine, with the rest ($4,530) spents on food, clothing, education and administration. Nevertheless, if more money was spent on correction, rehabilitation, decent security (less "packing" and less correctional violence) and better healthcare instead of on executive salaries and profit margins, maybe it would be less costly. (For private prisons are not more cost-efficient http://www.3news.co.nz/Private-prisons- ... fault.aspx )

The annaul average sum per inmate allows us to estimate the annual costs of prison inmates as a whole. 2.5 million times $22,650 makes 56.6 billion/milliard dollars. Well, I would expect better care for prisoners, but it's clear that the privatised industry does not prioritise this concern.

All I wanna say is that they don't really care about us: health in prisons
The prison population is in poorer health than the general American population. Several diseases and mental illnesses are a serious cause of concern. Diseases like HIV/AIDS, TBC and hepatitis even present a potential health risk for the non-incarcerated, for the disease might spread from prisoners to prison employees to the outside world. Sufficient funds, enough staff and better communication between the custodial and medical staff would do a better job of guaranteeing their rights. (A very good source: http://www.justicefellowship.org/key-is ... ate-health )

Mentally ill inmates often face inadequate accommodations. They are often located near violent or predatory inmates (what to think of sex predators?), sometimes they are put in solitary confinement for extended periods of time too liberally without occasional supervision, which can lead to suicide (this is quite gruesome (WARNING) http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/200 ... ides_x.htm ). Far too often the mentally ill do not meet care, but severe torturous abuse. Traumas are also existent, they can be caused by overcrowding or sexual exploits. (This link provides much detail about mental illnesses in prisons http://www.squidoo.com/prisonmadness )

Violence in prisons leads to injuries. A particular branch of injuries that combines physical and mental health is traumatic brain injury. Not all of these are caused in prison, nor are they all caused by violence. Regardless, failing to address this point can cause inmates to resort to substance abuse, leading to additional problems. Traumatic brain injury is a cause of anxiety, suicide thoughts, depressions and poorly controllable anger. In order to effectively combat traumatic bain injury, sufficient staff is required, which sadly is lacking. ( http://www.brainline.org/content/2010/0 ... jails.html )

An issue that is becoming more prominent with an aging prison population is care for elderly inmates. Elderly inmates require special care, just like regular elderly people need specialised care. Some states arrange geriatric section, many offer hospices, some have entire prisons devoted to the elderly, others offer early releases and parole. One prison that was once the most notorious that now provides such care is Angola, which now provides hospice care for elder inmates. ( http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/200 ... usat_x.htm ) However, there are also problems, with younger inmates proving to be a threat for older inmates. ( http://cad.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/53/2/187 )

There is also a place in the US where a paraplegic was turned into a quadraplegic because of insufficient care, where a pregnant woman had a forced abortion and where a few people died because they weren't treated well by the staff. That was not a jail though and I'll come to it later, but it is at least related to health care, isn't it?

In their darkest hour: notorious prisons
Not all prisons are of the same quality. Some are better, some are worse. This section is devoted to these very ones and the people who have to cope with those institutions every day of their life.

Angola Prison in Louisiana has already been mentioned with regards to their ethical treatment of elderly prison inmates. Angola is a working farm and a state-owned maximum security prison. With a population of 5,000 inmates and a staff of 1,800 employees, it's also the largest maximum security prison. In collaboration with the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary inmates have the option of attaining a bachelor's degree in ministry. (Wikwikwikwikwik Wikipedia! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angola_Prison ) However, alongside these hopeful, humane elements, there is also a grim side to reality in Angola. Angola Prison is the location where former Black Panthers Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace have been in solitary confinement for decades. It is also the setting of an unnerving repott of brutily when according two tenty-five testifiers a decade ago, after an escape attempt several inmates were severely abused, including death threats, threaths of sexual abuse, having teeth knocked out, being attacked with batons, kicks and punches, left naked in a freezing cell and being forced to besmirch themselves with their own excrement. There are also indications of testimonies being extracted by the use of torture (this source, albeit not for the youngest (WARNING) provides much information http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2009/fl ... 70109.html )

Another infamous prison is Pelican Bay in California. It is a supermax state prison which houses some of the most important gangsters. If you have been checking links, you would have known that some gang leaders managed to have ordered murders outside prison while they were incarcerated. Concerns about Pelican Bay involve the prolific use of solitary confinement, a riot that was eventually stopped by officers at the cost of killing an inmate and injuring several other, while several inmates were injured by gang violence during the riot. (Footage of the riot, alongside sensationalist commentary can be found here (WARNING) http://www.yourdiscovery.com/video/ramp ... ison-riot/ ) Another controversy is related to the ban of Revolution newspaper from the institution, alleged to be an act of political censorship. The prison authorities claim the paper is leading to an increase of racial violence. It has been read by prisoners of various background, though. (For the voice of the Revolution newspaper itself, take a look at this http://revcom.us/a/199/Prisoner3.pdf ).

In God We Trust: yet why are faith-based initiatives taboo in so many prisons?
Faith-based initiatives have been proven to have a positive effect on the behaviour of inmates. Supporting inmates with religiously coloured aid can play a pivotal role in the moral development and reintegration of prisoners. The American government acknowledges this, allows it and funds it, regardless of religous orientation as long as the inmate volunteers to the service and as long as the programs do not incite violence or racial hatred. (The specifications of what is and is not allowed can be found in this government document http://www.justice.gov/archive/fbci/doc ... 081207.pdf )

However, many prisons still do not allow such programs, despite of the benefits they may pose to some inmates. As long as there are high quality secular alternatives for inmates who do not wish to participate in religious programs, faith-based initiatives present a valuable additional tool to the rehabilitation of prisoners. Several institutions avoid contact with faith-based initiatives, though, and thus fail to present a potent alternative to secular rehabilitation, if there is any rehabilitation at all. This truly is a missed opportunity in such cases, for such initiatives prove to be not only effective for rehabilitation in prison, but may also provide support when the ex-inmate rearrives to society. Recidivism is an enormous problem in some prisons and any chance to tackle it should be applauded, not ignored. (Here's another link by the Justice Felloweship, who truly are a magnificent source: http://www.justicefellowship.org/key-is ... nitiatives )

Faith-based initiatives are not by rule part of the traditional monotheist religions to which the majority of Americans adhere like Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Humanist, Neo-Pagan, Hindu, Buddhist or other faith-based initiatives are equally welcome, as long as they adhere to a few standards (check the link to the government document above for more information). A diverse spectrum of faith-based initiatives is more likely to appeal to more inmates, thus improving overall inmate behaviour according to research.

[to be continued]

This post is a buffer in case I hit the character limit, please don't delete this, members of the staff.

You sure it isn't Russia's gulags?


You know, I'm not sure MLG is the best place for serious stuff like this in the first place.


Because society is correct.

And I haven't bothered to read the rest.

You forgot about the butt rape

Wooooow. Too long, didn't read. Are you seriously posting something like this on a kids' forum community? Aha. Hah.

Could you like, direct me to the point that you're trying to make, or summarize it or something? I got lost halfway through your rebutting of things that people could use to try and decredit your thesis.


Case in point about this being a kid's forum.

It's just a source of debate

It'd be good though if the posts here were limited to those participating in the debate.

Unfortunately, Villerar's done a really good job. I have absolutely no qualms with what he's written, only additions

But as for the "Prisoners deserve what they get. If you don't want to go to prison, don't commit a crime." section, there's also bail to consider. People accused of a crime can be sent to jail if they can't afford it. Thus, those who are innocent are forcefully exposed to a concentration of gangs. etc. etc. etc.

The removal of faith based initiatives is understandable. If I was responsible for a prison, I wouldn't want Hindus coming in and spreading what I believe is a fallacy. Atheist prison wardens probably are of the same view.

I'm not sure what "two tenty-five testifiers" means however.

But how about prisons in general?
It's scientifically proven that men (the majority of prisoners) need to have something to do however the point of prison is that they can't do anything. It's similar to Chinese torture. The torture of the mind. It's also proven that those who go to prison are more than likely to revisit and thus there's obviously something wrong. Should condemnation be as important as rehabilitation? We want revenge rather then seek to help those who are in trouble. We dwell in the past as opposed to trying to work out how we can improve the lives of our fellow human beings.

I'll go through more later.

I was talking about contemporary prisons (present tense).



Well, I thought there as been debate here in the past and this is another debate.



The point was that society should take its responsibility and that the government should act at an enormous scale. It's obviously not correct at the moment if it ignores those issues, but that doesn't mean society can make a difference and set matters straight. Somebody can have responsibility without acting correct (for instance politics).



There's still a [to be continued] down there, but as I said, I don't want to give children mental scars when reading it, so I think I'll go for this:



That's indeed important and actually I am considering writing it in a very to the point, undetailed manner and leaving the detailed sources out and that interested people have to PM me to get to those links. If you want me to, I can send it for a check before posting it and if it is simply too NSFW I'm okay with leaving it out.

Now I want to thank Hakker and |~DVD~| for giving some very good points for improvement.



Yes, I understand it, to be honest I only started writing it yesterday. A summary would however be a great thing indeed and maybe I'll put one at the top of the second post. Because I can't deny it is a long and tedious read.



Well, it's not as if reactions like "TOO LONG" are from a different planet, I don't mind it that much.



I'll really try to implement your criticism to the best I can.



I didn't know about this. I did know that people in jail can be in custody, thus they haven't been proven to have committed something wrong and as a result innocent people died. I was planning to write a special section about jails, though.



That might be acceptable if there are prisons with a specific religious orientation, but prisons aren't, thus I think one is not allowed to enforce his own religion by not allowing others (or any at all). One could argue for secularism, but that "neutral" secularism is not my secularism and I think that that secularism inherently fails. I'm one in favour of allowing religious pluriformity in such institutions.



It's a mistake, it should be twenty-five, I'll fix it and thank you very much for noting it (and reading it so far through).



This is an important point. Solitary confinement is even worse, it's deprivation of virtually all stimuli and sometimes people are put into solitary for hours without a check on them, which can be disastrous for mentally ill inmates.

I don't mean incriminated, I was just referring to them being held in the same or at least very similar conditions. They get exposed to murderers and gangs and the like, and if they're there under accusations of raping a woman (a crime viewed low even to criminals) they will get beaten unless they're very good at defending themselves verbally.


That might be acceptable if there are prisons with a specific religious orientation, but prisons aren't, thus I think one is not allowed to enforce his own religion by not allowing others (or any at all). One could argue for secularism, but that "neutral" secularism is not my secularism and I think that that secularism inherently fails. I'm one in favour of allowing religious pluriformity in such institutions.[/quote]
While there is no such thing as a "Christian prison" or a "Buddhist prison" are still managers for each prison. For each prison, there is someone with more authority than the wardens and can make decisions as to who can see the prisoners as a group. The fact that some prisons allow this and others don't is evidence of this. The decisions made by the managers to disallow religious representatives probably reflect their religious views: they believe there is no God and that the conversion of athiests is something to be avoided as "religion is for fools". I know I personally wouldn't be able to view some religious sessions without enduring incredible frustration. Either that or they fear that these criminals may actually choose the correct religion and be forgiven for what some would view as unforgivable. Either way, it's not something unexpected.



This is an important point. Solitary confinement is even worse, it's deprivation of virtually all stimuli and sometimes people are put into solitary for hours without a check on them, which can be disastrous for mentally ill inmates.[/quote]
There are checks. At least some of them (maybe all) are filmed to ensure they don't try to kill themselves or do something of that callibre. But it can do more than change people mentally, it can lead people to suicide. I was looking up a bit on this topic and I found this: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/200 ... ides_x.htm.
Pretty bleak stuff. The author, Kevin Johnson wrote a series of articles on prisons and very few discoveries have been good.

So was the second post for further information? Or was the character count not exceeded?

I intend to put the summary at the top of the second post, but I still have to write about physical abuse and such.

I think that managers do not allow fbi's because of the notion that fbi's should not cooperate with secular institutions (prevalent in America amongst liberals). Even then, they have a responsibility to improve rehabilitation to their best efforts and having personal political beliefs interfere with that is wrong.

Yes, there are checks in most cases, but there are also severe examples of neglect. It can indeed lead to suicide (I wrote that in the second paragraph of "All I wanna say is that they don't really care about us: health in prisons" ).

Yes, I am aware it is long, the message has been understood already and it is not as if I am naïve enough to believe that more than 1% of the forum's populace would read anything of it in the first place.

Such comments have already been made and I prefer that some fresh criticism is added if you plan to point it out, like suggesting to add a summary as Hakker did.

Is China the only country who has prisons worse than America's?

I thought the Russian gulags still existed.


I find it funny on your view that society absolutely must hold responsibility and owe something.