High Time For Alternatives To Punitive Prisons. Here's How

Soon to be released as productive, law-respecting members of society.

Alan: Although violent felons must be isolated from society, the punitive model of incarceratory reform is counter-productive. 

Prison sentences for non-violent offenders are instructional centers for violent crime, whose final result is the reckless endangerment of citizens like you.

We participate in comprehensive destructiveness of default incarceration for all crimes (only a small percentage of which are violent) because homo sapiens committed a massive psycho-philo-theological mistake "back in the mists of time."

Although this mistake is not limited to the purgatorio/inferno model of justice, it is an ugly, sorry-ass fact that conservative Christians would rather be punitive than effective.

World's Most Humane Prison: This Will Not Happen In The United States Where Punishment Is Primary

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2015/03/the-worlds-most-humane-prison-this-will.html

The Future Of Race In America: TED Talk By Michelle Alexander, Author Of "The New Jim Crow"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2015/03/the-future-of-race-in-america-ted-talk.html

It's time for a radical alternative to prison that would be less expensive and help people become productive citizens. "It's simply not true that to punish someone and control his behavior you need to lock him up and pay for his room and board. ... A substantial fraction of prison releasees go from a cellblock to living under a bridge: not a good way to start free life. Spend some of the money that would otherwise have financed a prison cell to rent a small, sparsely furnished efficiency apartment. In some ways, that apartment is still a cell and the offender still a prisoner. He can't leave it or have visitors except as specifically permitted. The unit has cameras inside and is subject to search. But he doesn't need guards, and doesn't have to worry about prison gangs or inmate-on-inmate assault. Drug testing and sanctions can avoid relapse to problem drug use; GPS monitoring can show where the re-entrant is all the time, which in turn makes it easy to know whether he's at work when he's supposed to be at work and at home when he's supposed to be at home." Mark A.R. Kleiman, Angela Hawken and Ross Halperin at Vox.

America's jails have become hell. "The modern American jail — which is distinct from prison, the place where those convicted of crimes go — primarily houses the legally innocent. ... Of course, not being convicted of a crime does little to change the character of time spent in jail. And because jails attract almost no media attention, because they are often run by corrupt or incompetent local officials, and because skinflint local governments often refuse to provide the money for decent conditions, in many cases jail time can be as unjust or brutal as that spent in state or federal prison — if not more so." Ryan Cooper in The Week.