Prisoners shouldn’t be punished for something that was done before entering the prison. Being sentenced to time in prison is punishment enough and certainly, the criminal has an idea of what goes on in there before he is imprisoned.
Being punished for something that shouldn’t have been done in prison is a horse of another color.
Rehabilitating prisoners would be the best solution. Maybe, learning a trade for when he is released and needs work or working toward a degree.
Probably, if he had had the income, the crime would not have been committed, in the first place. In the second, it would give him a feeling of worth and take away some of the violence he feels toward society.
By no means am I saying that criminals should be pampered; receiving food and shelter is more than a lot of people have now and still live by rules and laws. Prisoners are furnished television, a library, overnight visits with their wives or girlfriends, allowed to grow gardens, have fitness rooms – I could go on and on. This is what we are buying them with our tax dollars.
On second thought, why would they want to be released? They live in a city in itself and it doesn’t cost them a cent.
A person who has been in prison, should be treated like the rest of society but, as far as any friend you make or anyone you employ, an eye should be kept out relating to the crime he committed that sent him to prison.
For example: Who would trust a pedophile with their children? Or a thief with their money? An ex-convict would certainly be watched carefully; however, there are always potentials and sometimes, you learned you trusted the wrong person.
How could society punish anyone other than keep them at arm’s length? Not knowing much about ex-convicts, it’s hard to understand what they need, though once I read an article that said if most of the people in prison had been on their medication when they committed their crime, it most likely wouldn’t have happened.
There are so many types of psychologists and psychiatrists today who can treat almost any mental illness and there are so many people who need treatment of one or the other, it is a crying shame.
There are anger management, most forms of psychosis, bi-polar, schizophrenia, manic depressive, you name it, there is a medication for it. But, acquiring this medication is not all the time possible, unless, a patient is taught the importance of his/her illness and medication.
Prisoners are people and someone said once, “the only people who do not have warrants out for them are people in jail or prison.”