Prison Reform

I have been asked to state my position on incarceration and its true purpose.

It is my contention that prisons should be humane and safe places for their inmates to reside. The security staff at a prison should model their activity on the precautions taken by the staff of a major casino. If someone can be spotted counting cards at the Black Jack table surely an inmate at a prison can be spotted with drugs or a weapon.

Long-term inmates should be housed in prisons that are far from populated areas and are secure from attack from within or without.

It should not be the responsibility of a prison to rehabilitate a person for committing a criminal act. The goal of a prison is to separate inmates from society as humanely and safely as possible until it is time for their release. The imposition of work details would also come under the purview of prison authorities.

It is the responsibility of the Justice system to make sure that violent offenders are incarcerated and out of circulation for a long enough period to protect law-abiding citizens. Society may well have to contend with an increase in geriatric crime when violent offenders are released, but at least we will be able to out-run them.

Cost savings can be enhanced with the use of modern technology to control the movements of inmates in a prison. Much of this can be done without human intervention. Identity management systems could be used to grant access to areas based on privileges that are unique to each inmate and operate automatically. Surveillance systems can monitor every movement of an inmate and behavioural software would identify aberrant behaviour. A prison should be compartmented so that only a small number of inmates can be together at one time.

A special branch of the army should administer federal prisons. The guards would be rotated through the prison system in the early part of their careers and would be highly trained for their task.