The Department of Corrections Does Very Little Correcting

Corrections is an interesting term for the prison system. The word prison itself is really only used out of habit as most such institutions are now called Correctional facilities.

Somewhere a long time ago people decided that prison sounds too harsh. It sounds like a place where convicts are thrown to punish them for their crimes. "Wouldn't it he better if we were correcting, not punishing?" They thought. The idea of a prison being a bad place for bad people was slowly replaced by the concept that facilities could be used to rehabilitate those who had turned to a life of crime.

The idea of rehabilitation is admirable. Turning a life around rather than throwing it away in a dark prison cell is certainly more beneficial to us all. However, not all are capable of rehabilitation and many of those who are, are not given what they need to change. This is the problem with calling modern-day prisons "Correctional Centers."
Prison is kind of like sending your kid to their room when they are in trouble but their room is filled with toys and candy. Prison is simply a place to store people and very little is put in place to change their criminal behavior. There are gangs in prison, drugs, prostitution, violence, everything these offenders did on the outside is available to them on the inside in some variation.

Furthermore, a lack of responsibility coupled with a sense of entitlement is what leads many to prison. People will say "I had to commit that crime. I had to make my money." Or "He shouldn't have been in that neighborhood." or "she shouldn't have dressed like that." Or any other collection of nonsense criminals use to avoid responsibility for their actions. It is clear to see that mindset is a key factor in criminal behavior. What if we looked at the mindset that creates a criminal as the disease and crime as the symptom? Our emotion makes this hard to do often times, but just think for a minute about what could change if we tried to change criminal thinking instead of just responding to crimes.

Imagine someone who has never had a legitimate job, never paid bills and only known a life of poverty and crime. This is essentially a person who never grew up and never learned to be a productive member of society. Let's say this person is serving 5 years. This is longer than it takes to earn a bachelors degree or learn a trade.

A correctional center is actually a perfect place to help someone like the above to become a more productive part of society. What we have in a correctional center is an opportunity to rewrite a person's life script and help them to build an existence outside of the systematic failure they have grown up with. Now, it's probably safe to assume that some of you reading this are already dismissing this as "Liberal propaganda" trying to blame society and take responsibility away from the people committing the crimes. If this is you, please keep reading because you are going to like the rest(if not tell me in the comments.)

It is not about taking responsibility away from the inmates, but about placing responsibility on them. The fact is, prison does not teach responsibility. inmates say things like "the judge put me here" or "I Caught a case" like they're talking about the common cold. They speak of their sentence as though it was something done to them or some act of God which they had no control over. Getting locked up does not make a person take responsibility, it just gives them more people to blame...the CO, the Warden the State, etc.

What makes prison such an opportunity for rehabilitation, is that it is a structured environment where an individual can learn to live in a system outside of what they are used to. A person who is conditioned by their social environment to reach for a low bar, can learn to achieve more while taking responsibility for themselves in a system of rules. Coming back to our example of the person who has never had a job, paid bills or done any real adulting in life, think about what incarceration could do to teach life skills. Some people reading this won't know that inmates receive free money every month. The "state tip" is basically an allowance for inmates so that they can buy phone time, candy, soda, etc without having to work if they don't want to. cable is free for all inmates, medication and medical treatment are free, there's free food, free gym access, utilities are provided. Does anyone outside of a correctional system live life like this?

Does it make sense to take an irresponsible person who doesn't know how to take care of themselves, put them behind walls where everything is provided, and they don't have to take care of themselves, release them 10 years later and expect them to go get a job and be a productive member of society? No. What "Corrections" does is reinforces the mindset that brought offenders to prison in the first place so that the department will have return customers.

Honestly, the recently incarcerated are fighting an uphill battle to succeed in society. Job opportunities are limited and people are not eager to give a convicted felon a chance. This is true in the best of circumstances for parolees. Consider how much worse the department make matters.

Imagine someone with a history of narcotic distribution and theft. This is a person who has lived a life of excuses and entitlement. They say that they had to steal, they had to sell drugs because it's the only way for them to survive. In reality, they have other options but don't seek them out.

If we take this person and incarcerate them where everything is provided, how can we expect them to abandon their attitude of entitlement? If we give them everything for free and tell them it's unconstitutional to make them work, how can we expect them to get out and get a job and work hard?

Newton's first law of motion says that "An object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force." This applies to our lives as well. The direction of our life does not change unless action is taken to redirect. If we are on a path of success, it will not change until something changes the course. Likewise, a person on a criminal path will not change unless they are motivated to. You cannot reinforce negative behavior and expect it to change.

Going back to the "state tip" what if inmates were allowed to keep this free money, but they also had a monthly budget. Out of their allowance, they have to pay a percentage for their water and electricity, cable costs a set amount per month if they choose to have it, medical appointments and medications all have a copay and no meals are free.

In this scenario, inmates would find that their money goes quick and if they want extra canteen, cable or any other extras, they are probably going to need a job. Furthermore, they may think twice before stealing from their job in the kitchen or assaulting someone when it means losing their job and not being able to afford the things they want.

This is called responsibility. It's something we all are required to have in our daily lives. It's something that would be so easy to teach to portions of the offender population, but the department doesn't want that. Why? Because responsibility is freedom, freedom from reliance on someone else. The State wants people who are reliant on them because that is how they make their money. The Department of Corrections is not about correcting anything, but rather keeping their customer numbers high.