Why is America Prison Crazy?

 Call me an interested party on this subject, yet you should be as interested. This is a topic which I think says too much about the reality of America. America as a Christian country gives preference to punishment over redemption and atonement and mercy - all I used to think of as Christian concepts, even the cornerstone of Christianity.

Vox also took an interest in our American fetish for prison in its The United States leads the world in incarceration. Why?.

The article points out an alternative:

“Prisons aren’t working,” says Fritzi Horstman, founder of Compassion Prison Project, a nonprofit organization focused on humanizing incarcerated individuals. “Prisons should not be for punishment, they should be for healing, because if you realize that everyone in a prison is traumatized, why would you continue to traumatize them?”

Horstman created a short program series called “Trauma Talks,” in which incarcerated people fill out a questionnaire that identifies their types of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), such as emotional or sexual abuse, physical or emotional neglect, and mental illness. The program provides tools that encourage healing through breathing, writing, meditation exercises, and group discussions.

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"Awareness of one’s childhood traumas isn’t meant to excuse bad behavior, she said. It’s an opportunity to take responsibility for one’s actions and develop coping mechanisms to better control them.

“A lot of people in prison don’t want to take accountability because it makes them feel like they’re wrong, and it brings up their shame,” Horstman says. “But accountability is courage. Accountability is saying, ‘Look, I’m human, I did something wrong.’"

I like the acknowledgement of no silver bullets, since I do not believe in such simple cures.

Horstman acknowledges that the rehabilitative approach she advocates isn’t a panacea. She believes “probably about 3 to 5 percent of people” in prison can’t be helped because of conditions that limit their ability to “see people as human.”

But advocates say that in most cases, criminal behavior isn’t innate — it’s learned, and the prevalence of juvenile detention has something to do with it.

What I saw in prison agrees with these statements.

What will be harder will be convincing the general population they can live without the thrill of sending people to prison.

Through accountability, compassion, and healing, Horstman and Tapia say that rehabilitation is possible for a large majority of those who are incarcerated and will make safer work environments for staff. But the commitment of correctional facility administrators to operating under the status quo is preventing progress, they say.

No kidding. Massive incarceration means guaranteed employment for correctional officers.

sch 10/17/22