#politics

Why do we jail

There's a disagreement in the US about why we send people to prison.

Some say it's for punishment (or a deterrent), others say it's for rehabilitation.

There's a major discrepancy here, and the answer seems to be "it's for profit", which, as far as I can tell, is the worst answer of all.

It's a well known fact that black people are disproportionately jailed compared to their population, This implies either that black people are proportionately more inclined to be criminals, or that they are proportionately more inclined to be jailed.

I believe the latter (though for evidence of the former, you can look at wealth distributions by race, as well as this quote).

Black people are more likely to be arrested for a crime, police are more likely to patrol in black neighborhoods, they're less likely to get lenient sentencing. It's a whole thing.

But what do we, as a society hope to accomplish from jailing people?

We should probably figure it out, we've got 2.3 million of 'em sitting there.

Recidivism

It should be no surprise that people who have been in jail and been released end up back in jail. What do you expect when we brand them as criminals for life?

See also my thoughts on this scene from the Stranger:

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my thoughts on this scene from the Stranger

What it means to be criminal

There's a scene in The Stranger where Meursault is being interrogated after killing a man. The prosecutor holds up a crucifix and thrusts it at Meursault, who is unaffected (presumably because he is not a Dracula).

The prosecutor is confused, he says something to the effect of "I've done this for a long time, and every single person breaks down crying in front of the cross".

"Of course", says Meursault. "They're all criminals".

He then realizes that he himself, having shot a man six times, is also a criminal.

But the takeaway here is that he didn't. He didn't think of a criminal as a person who has done a crime, but a person who DOES crime. It's an unalienable trait, and one he didn't see himself possessing. It's the othering of "criminals" that enables Meursault to look down on them, and see himself as something else, something superior.

How many places do you know that eagerly hire convicted felons?

We don't give voting rights back! We tax these people and say "you've surrendered your rights forever!" and we treat them like second-hand citizens. We take away their options, pre-judge them on past mistakes and wonder why they end up back in exactly the place we expect them to go. It's bananas!

See Also

The Worst Thing You Did At 16