Prison used to be a place where they held people until they could receive their punishment. We stopped doing the punishments (largely because they were inhumane) but never found an alternative solution. So, prison (and prison labor) became the solution.
So, prisoners were put to work. They're paid less than a dollar an hour, but they're lucky to even get paid. Why do they need money? They're prisoners.
Never mind that people are regularly placed in prisons far from home, effectively depriving them of any familial or community support.
Never mind that phone calls to loved ones cost them per minute about as much as they make in an hour.
Never mind that they have to buy their own supplies, such as toothbrushes and soap and menstrual products.
Never mind that people in prisons are disproportionately more likely to have chronic health problems.
Never mind that prisoners are exposed to abuse from guards and fellow prisoners.
Never mind that the people most likely to go to prison are historically marginalized.
Never mind that there are few resources or opportunities available to them to help them reintegrate into society after they get out. And the ones that do exist are overburdened, underfunded, or shitty and predatory.
Never mind that few employers are willing to hire people who have been in prison.
Never mind that people who go to prison once are far more likely to be sent back.
Just like you stow away a belonging that you don't know what to do with in a drawer or back of a closet to forget about, so too does our society do with people in prison. Out of sight, out of mind. And it's hard to get people to care because "oh, they're criminals."
They are also humans. And all humans deserve to be treated as humans. Even the worst of us.
If we distinguish who gets to be treated like a human, somebody is going to draw a line one day that makes YOU no longer human. Don't believe it? Look to history. If there is one thing humans are good at, it's pointing at other humans and declaring them "Other."
Prisons are unethical and immoral. Prison labor is slavery. Everyone deserves to be treaty with dignity. Everyone.
germansingergirl
annaxmalina
ellievsbear
2087
theartofmadeline
yousharknotpass
