Loomio
Fri 5 Dec 2014 7:45PM

The Prison System

CS Charlie Spears Public Seen by 67

We all know its fucked up. We need collectively generated ideas to fix it.

CS

Charlie Spears Fri 5 Dec 2014 8:06PM

I think prison should be publicly owned an those in prison should be building cooperatively owned windmills and schools for the communities they grew up in.

JEL

Jasmin Estrada Levenson Fri 5 Dec 2014 9:14PM

I think it could start with the Crack vs Powdered Cocaine laws, there are systems we have in place, like this law that is we get changed because it is an inherently raciest law it will show the systems that race does have something to do with it. That may be the first issue

MP

Matty Poon Sat 6 Dec 2014 2:29AM

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-30275026

A good article on how Texas is changing its focus on imprisonment and spending money on rehabilitation. I mean, they're doing it to save money... but it's still a positive step. Sadly, Canada is cutting funding to rehabilitation in favour of prisons... =*(

LS

Luke Schantz Mon 8 Dec 2014 12:15AM

Check out the Frontline "Locked up in America" series. It was two episodes. "Solitary Nation" and "Prison State"

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/locked-up-in-america/

Getting prisons back into public hands is a great idea but easier said than done. We have a Prison Industrial Complex on our hands and it is interwoven with our Education, Racial and Class Warfare issues.

L

Logal Mon 8 Dec 2014 1:42AM

Aside from tackling prisons head-on, here are at least 3 practical, conceptual techniques that if applied diligently for 5-to-10 years, could melt away quite a number of prisons.
1) boost people coming out of prisons into excitingly wonderful lives (deep, wrap-around support for what's currently called "re-entry")
2) dedicated programs, especially through community colleges & universities & employers, to recruit prison staff away from prison-work & into liberating avenues of work, advanced education, & careers
3) offer most convicted offenders, even those convicted of violent offenses, the chance to go to a college for 2 years & live with a host family, instead of prison, even if they already have a college degree.