#prisonreform
Americans generally have barbaric, eugenic attitudes towards incarceration. We want punishment, particularly the punishment of POC, the poor, and those with mental or emotional disabilities. A permanent complaint among conservative Americans is that prisoners "have it too good." Yet those who complain the most are the least likely to be incarcerated.
So what should our attitudes be based on?
Two things:
Reformation and objective threat assessment.
Some crimes are symptoms of correctable self-destructive or antisocial behavior. Punishment for its own sake does nothing but inflict pointless suffering. Reform and rehabilitation should be the goal in these situations. However, prioritizing this goal means recognizing the incarcerated as persons, as members of society worthy of our help and resources. It will also require that we recognize our contributions to the antisocial/self-destructive behavior of others.
It might also force us to recognize the biased systems of threat assessment we use every day. For example, few seriously consider legalizing the drugs popular with POC but legalizing the drugs favored by the dominant social group seems like a no-brainer to many.