American Prisons - the Vacation Resort for Criminals

Sara Ferguson, Yahoo! Contributor Network
Dec 26, 2007

Are prisons the educational system for criminals? Modern prisons have the claim that they are the most secure and humane prison. While they are more secure with the new technology is it really the best environment for criminals?

A modern prison contains a virtual host of new security options; Non-lethal to lethal weapons, electric fences, more secure cells, and much healthier. Is this too much though? Have we gone too far? Have prisons turned into modern criminal educational systems?

Yes, prisons are more secure. The down side is that while upgrading security they have updated treatment of prisoners. When a person goes to prison they can look forward to three healthy meals a day, weight rooms, baseball, a retail store, television, movies, mail, and a host of other privileges which a lot of Americans outside prison may never have access.

Added to this home away from home are the gangs which now dominate prison life. Once you go to prison, your choice is limited on which gang you join or if you join. You either join or die in the system. Which gang you join isn't based on anything but race. You join a gang and a join for life. When or if you do get out of prison you are still in the gang, once out you can expect the gang member on the outside to take you in and once in you get out only through death.

While in prison and your gang you are treated to a host of systems designed to help you. Yes, reform is the goal of the prison system, but that isn't the help you get. First you get a free lawyer, paid for with tax dollars your lawyer is there to represent you in all aspects of your criminal life. If you find yourself mistreated by guards you can sue the prison system. If you kill someone in prison, they will try to get you off on the charges. While you are in prison your lawyer will be trying very hard to get an appeal on your verdict. All of this is paid by the tax payer, in other words YOU.

College educations abound in the prison system. If you are in prison for a year or life you can get a college education all the way to a doctorate degree. Some prisoners get more than one doctorate degrees. You are allowed to study any degree program and since you are in prison you have plenty of time to increase you education. Of course all of this is at the tax payer expense.

Non-college education. While you are earning your college degrees you are surrounded by inmates who for a little loyalty, a pack of cigarettes, or out of boredom they will gladly teach you about security systems, drug dealing, robbery, stealing cars, weapons, and a host of other information to help you along in your criminal career. Including contacts on the outside which will help you along the way if you get out of prison.

Have you ever noticed that prisoners tend to be very healthy and fit? When you have a weight room and three healthy meals a day, plus all the time to work out what would you expect? Most of us have a problem just getting to the gym a couple of times a week. What if you have time each day to go to the gym for free? Do you eat three healthy meals a day? I doubt it, most people rarely eat healthy here in the USA. Most families eat out a few times a week or something that isn't even considered in the food pyramid. While prisoners get three healthy meals a day they also get the option to cook their own meals right in their cells.

Weight training isn't your thing? Some federal prisons also have a baseball team, tennis courts, a track, football, and basketball teams. You are given the choice and can do any or all of them. Free of course since the tax payer is paying for everything. In other words, when you buy that tennis ball pack your taxes help go to pay for tennis balls for prisoners.

Illegal drugs are rampant in prison. Most convicts are drug users. The question comes to how do they get illegal drugs in prison? Some of it is mailed, some given by visiting family and friends, and yes believe it or not guards have been a source of illegal drugs as well. Drugs are used for much more then just an escape, they can be used as money to get food, cigarettes, and sex. If the prisoner wasn't a drug user when they went into prison, it is a good chance they will be a drug user upon release.

Sex? Yes, it happens. Rape, prostitution, and same sex couple relationships form in prison. Gay and transsexuals will often sell themselves for protection, drugs, and things they need or want. Transsexuals in prison can even get hormones through the same illegal drugs lines that already exist.

Prisons have become a vacation resort for criminals at our expense. Prisoners do not have to pay for anything. Get a free education and luxury of life without even working. All of this happens while you pay the taxes to support them and the system that put them there.

What about other countries? The legal systems differ a bit. Some countries while abolishing the death penalty, they do not cater to the comfort of the criminal. Prisons are a harsh environment that will give the prisoner a reason not to want to return. Crime rate in a lot of these countries are also lower for that fact. Strict laws and punishments have and do affect the crime rate.

While some people view this as a horrible condition for prisoners citing human rights, we must remember that criminals made the choice for the lifestyle they live. Yes human rights are important. Yes it is important to make sure we convict the right person for the crime. After that though, punishment needs to happen. They took away other people's human rights when they committed that murder, rape, robbery, or other criminal offense.

American Prisons are a vacation resort. The prisons are so over crowded with people that prisoners who have been in the system are not getting released early, only to return because they returned to their criminal life outside of prison. The prison in the USA must change to better reform the prisoner and give them a reason not to return. Currently we are fighting a losing battle. If the prison system isn't fixed, it will overflow into the society which you now live. We will have no choice but to increase taxes to pay for bigger prisons or deal with a much higher crime rate.

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