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https://aninjusticemag.com/as-prison-guards-quit-in-record-numbers-will-our-failed-system-finally-be-reformed-bc029e9cf569>
"In the menagerie of American cultural insanity, few practices can outdo the
perversity of our prison system. Racism has always been reflected in the makeup
of prison populations, but when we started making it a profit center for
corporations, our carceral system became something beyond even the nightmare of
prison prejudice. We are now in a moment in which it may be impractical for us
to continue to maintain our record-high rates of incarceration. Will we be able
to take advantage of it?
We are facing a mass exodus in our jails and prisons as guards are quitting in
record numbers and not enough people are looking to fill those spots. In some
prisons, the limited support system available to the incarcerated is being
shredded as case workers and even teachers are being forced to assume guard
duties. In Colorado, for example, the head of the state’s prison system
admitted last year that the system is in crisis, but according to a
New York
Times article published just this week, Colorado continues to struggle with no
end in sight.
They are by no means alone. Across the country, states are trying everything
from signing bonuses to lowering the eligible age of employment to 18 in a
scramble to find guards. The results have been disappointing for them.
Meanwhile, the staff inside these prisons are operating “in full burnout mode,”
according to one teacher-turned-guard.
Is it time for us to finally rethink how we use prisons? Rather than earning
profits and putting the failed economies of rural areas on temporary life
support, should we return to the idea that people who are found guilty of
crimes might still have rights and that we ought to do something more than
warehouse the convicted in substandard conditions? Could pragmatism, in this
most transactional of all nations, do what moral argument couldn’t?"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
