Going to a prison was not how I thought my college experience would start. However, there I was, first week at school, in a van on the way to a correctional facility for women. It was a service day for FYSOP, or First Year Student Outreach Program, in the human rights issue area. They had told us that we’d be talking with some of the inmates, and I wasn’t scared, but a little nervous maybe. We all had to take out our piercings, wear nice clothing and be on our best behavior. It wasn’t scary, but it was definitely intimidating.
I had no idea what to expect that day, but it ended up being an eye-opening, incredible experience. We all sat in a circle and got to talk with the inmates about prisoner rights, such as voting rights, and what their experiences were like in the correctional facility. On the down time, we talked about college, shoes or their families — any topic that came up. Some of them had service dogs that sat with us while we talked, and we were able to pet them. Conversation flowed naturally, and it was a genuinely enjoyable experience. I still think about those women a lot six months later.
What I found unsettling about the day was the way some of the guards spoke of the women, talking about them as if they weren’t human, making offhand comments or jokes about they way “they” lived. This immediately reflects the way society views people in prison as well. It’s as if someone who has committed a crime is automatically less human than anyone else. I’m not trying to make an excuse for illegal acts and crimes, but the way we’re treating prisoners now is creating an excess of issues that could be solved.
Mass incarceration in the United States is a huge issue. The negative stigma based around people who have been in prison is nationwide, and it is damaging. Many view inmates as being so far removed from society that they do not deserve to be let back in once they’re released. America’s prisons love to focus on punishment, not so much on corrections, as in having prisoners learn from their mistakes so they can be placed back into society.
Statistics released in 2014 by the Prison Policy Initiative, a movement that reports the effect of mass incarceration on the country, showed that the United States had the largest incarceration rate in the world. We have about 4 percent of the world’s population and about 25 percent of the world’s incarcerated people. The incarceration rate in America has increased 400 percent in the last 30 years. Our prisons do not meet up to international standards. Many prisons in America use solitary confinement as punishment. However, it is considered by international law to be torture.
As if it wasn’t hard enough to get a job in America already, we purposefully make it harder for those who have been in prison. As if living in America wasn’t hard enough, we put those who have been in prison at an absurd disadvantage. Those who have been convicted of a crime are ineligible for welfare, student loans, public housing and food stamps. There are high rates of suicide and homelessness for those who have been released from prison. Many find it so hard to make a life when they’re out of prison that they purposefully try to get back in. It’s a vicious cycle, and it benefits no one.
Prisoners’ voting rights differ from state to state. Some states only allow people on probation to vote, some on parole and probation. As of 2011, only Kentucky and Virginia don’t allow people who have been in prison to gain their voting rights when they’re released. However, that is a huge issue, regardless of the fact that it is only two states. By attacking people’s right to vote once they are released, you are attacking their human rights. When incarcerated people get their voting rights stripped forever, even when they are out of prison, it’s like they’re paying for their crime for the rest of their life with their rights.
Maybe we should think about how we treat inmate and crimes of different levels. Many are sentenced to sizable sentences for crimes that are non-violent, and the way we treat these incarcerated people is unethical, and not nearly as effective as we’d like to think it is. The way the prison system works now creates a huge ‘US vs. THEM’ perspective, and it’s disturbing to me how easy it is for many people to dehumanize inmates without a second thought.
Just because incarcerated people are behind bars doesn’t make them animals. We can crack down on crime without cracking down harder on criminals. We need to stop giving up on those who have been incarcerated, and I truly believe our nation will gain so much more than it will lose from helping them.
