Re: Some prison statistics

Chuck Kuecker (ckuecker@mcs.net)
Tue, 15 Jun 1999 19:34:50 -0500

At 12:53 PM 6/15/99 -0500, Sasha Chislenko wrote:

>I wonder if the problem could be alleviated if they put people of
>both sexes in jail and allowed them to have consensual sex?]
>

Prisoners who rape are doing it for much more than sexual release - it's a power trip. Putting women in with the men would just heighten the tensions as the most powerful gathered 'harems' and raped whichever woman caught their eye at the moment.

A real solution would be MUCH more internal surveillance in prisons. Any inmate found using force of any kind could be segregated from the rest of the population.

Prisons here are simply warehouses for criminals. There is no attempt at rehabilitation; in fact, recently many opportunities have been removed as the 'get tough' crowd gains power.

Here in Illinois, Tamms Prison is touted as a 'hell' that no inmate would ever want to be sent to. The prisoners are chained whenever they are out of their cells, usually less than an hour per day. No talking whatever is allowed. This is a really good way to push the inmates right over the edge IMO.

I don't know what the solution is, but we are moving in the wrong direction at present.