Tag Archives: prisons

The Problems We Solve Are the Problems We Don’t Have to Face

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There was an article today in the New York Times titled, “For Ex-Prisoners, ‘Second-Chance’ Jobs Can Be Hard to Come By”, and I think it’s something important enough for us to discuss now, so instead of focusing on billionaires in sinking submarines near the Titanic or on international affairs/wars like in Syria or Ukraine, let’s focus on something a little closer to home, and something that may affect each and everyone of us.

Now, the chances of any of you reading this ending up in jail is pretty slim. Actually, I’m being kind of nice. Statistics from the Brennan Center for Justice indicate that one out of every three adults in America has a prison record. Yeah, I double checked that on another site, and it was correct. Doing some math myself, about a quarter of those arrests were for felonies, which means we have a lot of ex-cons in this country, and if you read this particular article, that’s a real problem.

One of the problems in America is that we’re not a very forgiving country. Oh, we say we are, but we’re not. You spend time in jail, and America kind of turns its back on you, kind of like the Klingons did to Worf when he was banished from Klingon space. Yes, that moment hit me hard, almost as hard as when I realized going for humor in a very serious piece is definitely reading the room wrong. If I was a Klingon, you’d be turning your backs on me and waiting until I left the room. Please don’t do that.

Getting back to seriousness, mainly because this issue is quite serious, I would like to ask the generalized question of “what should we do about this?”

One thing I’ve noticed from a lot of the pieces written and distributed on this site is that people have a tendency to complain about something that’s wrong and then advocate for nothing. Or worse, they advocate for something that’s ludicrous, as in something that’s never going to get done. I read an article the other day that argued that men tend to treat women horribly in relationships; then the writer advocated for all men to be nicer. Really? That was the solution?d I’m sure all those bad boys out there doing bad boy stuff are thinking about cleaning up their acts now.

One of my favorite moments in the Marvel movie Ant Man was when he got out of prison and took a job at Baskin Robbins, serving ice cream. And then he was fired once they discovered his prison record. His friends kept saying “Baskin Robbins always finds out.” And we in the audience all laughed.

I wonder if any ex-cons were in the audience and laughed as well. Well, they probably did because it was absurdly funny, but after some time I started thinking that perhaps there’s something wrong with the way we do things in our society.

The idea of prison is that it is punishment for transgressions. When your sentence is up, you are released and your crime is considered paid for. Sure, there might be probation and all that, but if they let you out of prison, it’s supposed to mean your debt to society has been paid.

But it doesn’t work out that way. Whenever you apply for a job, there’s almost always that section you start to fill out that starts to ask you if you’ve ever been arrested for a misdemeanor or a felony. And if you’ve been lucky enough to not have ever been arrested, I’ve even seen applications that ask if you’ve ever been accused of a felony or a misdemeanor.

I’m waiting for the application that asks me if I’ve ever imagined doing something that might land me a felony or a misdemeanor.

The point is: If you’ve paid your penalty, the punishment should be over. There are very productive citizens who had been locked up for years who are released and find themselves in situations that are impossible to improve. Not everyone comes across a reclusive millionaire who gives him an antman costume to fight crime. No, most ex-cons end up in situations where they can’t even find a job, so the most obvious next step for them is to do exactly what they did that got them the felony in the first place.

So, they end up back in jail.

What deranged mind thought through a system like this that makes it inevitable that someone who commits a crime is always going to end up in a vicious cycle that keeps that person in prison for life? There are some ex-cons who immediately commit another crime that is easy to solve, just so they can get back into prison, a place they at least know how to maneuver with some modicum of success.

And what this problem has led to is an overpopulation of prisoners across the country. And that has led to something extremely unique to the American prison system: For-profit prisons. Realizing that we have so many prisoners, independent contractors made their own prisons and farm their space out to cities, counties and states. Not only that, but they use the prisoners to conduct for-profit labor (the profit going to the guys that own these prisons). Had these prisoners been released into society upon the conclusion of their first incarceration, and been able to find productive jobs, they might never have seen the inside of a prison again, and they might be productive members of society again.

But America isn’t about forgiveness. Just watch an election debate, and you will see both sides of the political spectrum arguing to convince the voters how rough they will make life on prisoners and anyone who transgresses upon anyone. If one candidate talks about reforming the prison system, it’s instant political suicide, and you will never see that candidate again.

I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase: “Doing the same thing over and over again and getting the same bad result.” Usually, they add that this is the definition of insanity. They’ll also say it’s a quote from Albert Einstein. Well, he never actually said that, but if people keep repeating the same lie over and over again, people start to believe it, which is kind of similar to the quotation in the first place.

The problem isn’t that we do the same thing over and over again, get the same result, and then repeat the sequence. The problem is that we do the same thing over and over again and then never check on the progress, cause if we did, we would realize that our prison system doesn’t work and needs reform.

So who can we turn to if our politicians can’t fix it without being run out of office? For that, I suspect the answer is awareness that there’s a problem because I don’t think people are even cognizant that there’s a problem in the first place.

But there is a problem. So what do we do?

We Still Don’t Get the Whole “Education” vs. Incarceration Thing

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One of the continuous statistics that plagues the United States is our incarceration rate, especially when compared to how unwilling we are to support education. Some time ago, like back in the 1960s, social scientists figured out that if we wanted to grow our country as it needs to grow, we needed to stop putting people in prison and start taking extra efforts to educate the people who generally end up in our prisons. But rather than put together a national effort to turn this population around, we responded to fear and opportunistic politicians who realized that we’d put them in power if they pretended to be doing something about crime. You know the old call of the politician (“elect me, and I’ll clean up crime because my record has always been about putting bad criminals in prison”). Yet, no matter how many of these politicians we put into office, they don’t clean up crime, they don’t make the streets safer, and that population of potential criminals just seems to soar.

We know all of this. We realize what’s wrong. We know EXACTLY what we have to do to fix this. Yet, we don’t, and we won’t. Instead, some prosecutor or district attorney from Bumfuck, Montana, or Idaho, or Utah, or wherever, is going to make a career out of locking up violent criminals who took the only path they have ever been taught. What no one ever focuses on is WHY DO WE KEEP DOING THIS?

The reasons are simple if you understand game theory. Actually, the reasons are simple if you understand common sense, but I probably shouldn’t have to go there. But in game theory, the simple prisoner’s dilemma gives the rational choice explanation that people tend to do what is easiest and provides the best payoff with the best incentive. Sometimes, even the best incentive doesn’t matter. In the end, people want to travel downhill because once the wind gets into your sails, you don’t have to do a lot of work to get to the bottom of the hill. So, if we examine a system where we offer almost no incentive to educating our population, but there are incentives to go into lives of crime (sailing downhill without any real resistance; face it, police departments are obstacles, not impediments), the most obvious result is going to be a life of crime rather than a life of productivity in society.

Our response has always been the most ridiculous one available: Morality. We try to put forth this argument that if we try to convince people to do the “right” thing, they will, because that’s what good, moral people do. But morality is based on societal norms, not on what is right or wrong, and that’s where we error most of the time. Most people who argue morality tend to have their grounded in some higher concept (either religion or a history within a government that has served them well). When you try to convince everyone else that they need to comply with the same moral foundation, what incentive do they have to participate? If someone isn’t a strong follower of your religion or hasn’t benefited from the civilization like someone else has, what makes any logical thinking person come up with the determination that someone deciding on a future will choose the more difficult path? Logic says it’s probably not going to happen. Reality agrees. History confirms it.

So, what is the solution? Well, first off, we have to get rid of this whole moral foundation crap and find a commonality that everyone can actually agree on. Doing the right thing means nothing when doing the right thing equals starvation, social pariah status and a pretty crappy life. But doing the right thing might mean something if the bar is raised so that those who aren’t participating in the game actually start to see the payoffs as productive AND achievable. For too long now, we’ve played this game of wanting people to rely on government to assist them, but then allowed government to only do as little as possible so that we’re lucky if the rising tide equals basic survival needs. America is a place that offers this fantasy dream for everyone, and as long as we keep the ability to achieve that dream too high for the average person, then people are going to reinvent their path to achieve it.

What needs to be done is nothing less than a nation’s desire to raise everyone to a level of an agreed upon American Dream. This means that everyone gets to participate, and the bar isn’t constantly lowered so people can achieve some level of clout that’s higher than everyone else. Yes, we’re talking about a socialism of ideas, although not necessarily a socialism of economy. As long as there are people who feel the need to want to be “above” everyone else, we’re never going to achieve a level of sustained prosperity. And without everyone able to prosper in society, we’re left with what we’ve always had: A civilization that constantly strives to reach for the bottom.

It’s not just enough to increase education at the expense of incarceration. It’s a need to make that education lead to something bigger than we already are. Otherwise, we’ll never achieve anything other than classism and separation. Unfortunately, we’ve gotten really good at reaching just that.