The closure of American prisons
In the past few years, the general public has become much more aware of the horrific conditions and standards of American prison systems. Even more recently, these standards have been brought up time and time again alongside headlines regarding a decline in the number of prisons.
One of the major problems bringing these issues back into the public’s attention is the high number of COVID-19 cases that have surfaced in prisons. High incarceration rates have fueled COVID-19 rates, which is one reason for making strides towards closing more prisons.
The closure of prisons around the country does not, however, guarantee change or improved standards of living for incarcerated persons. While closing prisons saves taxpayers money, it does not improve the conditions or resources available within prisons and decreases job opportunities for the communities in the surrounding area.
Additionally, the closure and consolidation of prisons does not address the issues with staffing, corruption, training of employees, abuse, and substance issues that define the many problematic aspects of the American prison system as it exists today. Rather than closing prisons, it would be more productive for prison systems to improve the resources and conditions they should be providing now.
The conditions that currently define American prisons create a system that is not only unconducive to closures, but does not meaningfully provide incarcerated persons with the resources that are needed to successfully establish a life for themselves after prison. As prisons exist today, there are very few resources available for incarcerated persons to successfully learn, change, and grow within their environment and move onto a better future.
The lack of resources can be incredibly destructive to the mindsets and self-esteem of persons involved in the American prison system. Because there is very little care and intention put into how prisons operate and how staff treat incarcerated persons, incarcerated persons are trained to see themselves as nothing more than inmates, unworthy of any sort of help or support that may be legitimately useful to them.
Of course, this mindset is only furthered by the abuse that runs rampant in American prison systems, further solidifying the narrative that incarcerated persons deserve the treatment that they receive in prison. This mindset inherently sets incarcerated persons up for failure after they re-entered society and creates a vicious cycle in which incarcerated persons are brought in and out of prisons due to a lack of legitimate change and growth.
Beyond damaging the mindsets of incarcerated persons, a lack of access to helpful resources is resulting in deaths within prisons as much as it is destroying lives post-incarceration. Federal data has shown that overdose deaths in state prisons have increased by 600 percent since 2001, demonstrating that access to drugs remains unchecked in American prisons, while rehab and support for substance abuse issues is completely inaccessible.
Beyond rehab, most prisons suffer from a lack of access to counseling and education—this essentially sets up incarcerated persons to leave prison, make the same mistakes that caused them to end up in prison, and then, unfortunately, re-enter that system.
Despite the benefits that closing prisons would have for taxpayers, there is a clear lack of change that would result from the closure of prisons. It may be very worth it to refocus the priorities of this money towards bettering the resources available within prisons rather than consolidating them and leaving the slew of problems associated with prisons unaddressed.
To learn more about the issues with American prisons and possible solutions to these problems, check out: