Few things in the United States are as poorly run as our jails and prisons... If I was ever in a position of power I'd work on fixing these things even though they are unpopular with the voters- voters tend to think that since they'll never do anything majorly wrong they don't have to worry about these things but that is short sighted... JAIL isn't for guilty people, JAIL is where you go until a prosecutor decideds if you did anything wrong and to await trial or see a judge... for the most part people in jail haven't been convicted of ANYTHING, they can be your mom or sister who go into a verbal fight with a rude cop, a son or daughter arrested for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, or even YOU for speeding or just looking like someone the cops are looking for... You could spend a few hours to DAYS in jail while this stuff is sorted out... Not to mentions the big money you could be spending to clear your name, but that is another thread...

Jails, like prisons, vary from area to area... in NYC for example you could be spending time at Riker's Island- a gang contrtoled, filth infested abomination between Queens and The Bronx.

I would make Jails much more tolerable with more freedoms and make prison much less nice...

Jails
These would be basic motel like rooms... video cameras watching the main living area and a private bathroom behind a partial wall or stall, there would be a simple shower in the bathroom too with a drain direclty in the floor.. eveyrhthing would be stainless steel - baiscally industructable... Someone accused of a non-violent offense would get to choose if they wanted to share a room with someone else, these 'doubles' would be slightly larger then a single... poeple who are acused of a violent offense or who choose to be alone woulld be in a smaller 'single; - there would be basic climate control, meals would be delivered to the room as are basic toiletries and such. Once a day you'd be able to change out a towel, beddings, etc... These rooms would be built in such a way that communication with other prisoners besides your roomate is impossible. The main focus is that you, being still considered innocent, maintain your dignity- the purpose of Jail afterall is to make sure you don't run away before trial- it is NOT to punish you.

Prisons

Prisons are for people convicted of crimes... Of course there are wrongfully convicted people who eventually are set free but for the most part we have to assume that once you're in prison you're guilty. There would be completely seperate institutions depending on the crime, obviously people guilty of multiple crimes would be housed according to the most serious of their crimes. Non Violent - no real victims, semi violent, violent, sick crazy messed up mo-fos... There's no TV in prison, no excercise equipment, no time in a yard... you can do excercise by doing pushups and such in your cell... You basically never leave the cell... like in jail you have a bathroom with shower but it is no long private, everything can be watched by camera... there is no communication between cells... food and essentials are delivered, you give your trash... if you don't cooperate a log is made (everything is on camera) you don't get food or such until you decide to cooporate... if you pass out you might die- it's all on camera. I'm not for capital punishment but if you choose to kill yourself in prison that's fine, go for it. The only thing you get to have in prison is a library system. You can request one book a day from a list... when you return one you get another one... if your destroy a book you're off the list for x amount of time... destroy a second and you don't get books again. If you don't know how to read then you can get basic reading lessons for a little big- hopefully you're a quick learner. Books would be in ENGLISH only.

There's more of course but this would be a basic overview of how I'd reform the systems.

Joe, jails are full of guilty people. For the most part these people are guilty of misdemeanors, local ordinances etc... to say otherwise is completely incorrect. There are also people there that can't bond out, are waiting transfer to other facilities, jurisdictions, etc.. In Fl, you can commit a felony, be convicted of that felony and as long as your sentence is 364 days or less you can serve it in your local jail. Prison is where felons are sent to serve their sentences, those sentences are all of a time greater than 364 days.

Few things in the United States are as poorly run as our jails and prisons... If I was ever in a position of power I'd work on fixing these things even though they are unpopular with the voters- voters tend to think that since they'll never do anything majorly wrong they don't have to worry about these things but that is short sighted... JAIL isn't for guilty people, JAIL is where you go until a prosecutor decideds if you did anything wrong and to await trial or see a judge... for the most part people in jail haven't been convicted of ANYTHING, they can be your mom or sister who go into a verbal fight with a rude cop, a son or daughter arrested for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, or even YOU for speeding or just looking like someone the cops are looking for... You could spend a few hours to DAYS in jail while this stuff is sorted out... Not to mentions the big money you could be spending to clear your name, but that is another thread...

Jails, like prisons, vary from area to area... in NYC for example you could be spending time at Riker's Island- a gang contrtoled, filth infested abomination between Queens and The Bronx.

I would make Jails much more tolerable with more freedoms and make prison much less nice...

Jails
These would be basic motel like rooms... video cameras watching the main living area and a private bathroom behind a partial wall or stall, there would be a simple shower in the bathroom too with a drain direclty in the floor.. eveyrhthing would be stainless steel - baiscally industructable... Someone accused of a non-violent offense would get to choose if they wanted to share a room with someone else, these 'doubles' would be slightly larger then a single... poeple who are acused of a violent offense or who choose to be alone woulld be in a smaller 'single; - there would be basic climate control, meals would be delivered to the room as are basic toiletries and such. Once a day you'd be able to change out a towel, beddings, etc... These rooms would be built in such a way that communication with other prisoners besides your roomate is impossible. The main focus is that you, being still considered innocent, maintain your dignity- the purpose of Jail afterall is to make sure you don't run away before trial- it is NOT to punish you.

Prisons

Prisons are for people convicted of crimes... Of course there are wrongfully convicted people who eventually are set free but for the most part we have to assume that once you're in prison you're guilty. There would be completely seperate institutions depending on the crime, obviously people guilty of multiple crimes would be housed according to the most serious of their crimes. Non Violent - no real victims, semi violent, violent, sick crazy messed up mo-fos... There's no TV in prison, no excercise equipment, no time in a yard... you can do excercise by doing pushups and such in your cell... You basically never leave the cell... like in jail you have a bathroom with shower but it is no long private, everything can be watched by camera... there is no communication between cells... food and essentials are delivered, you give your trash... if you don't cooperate a log is made (everything is on camera) you don't get food or such until you decide to cooporate... if you pass out you might die- it's all on camera. I'm not for capital punishment but if you choose to kill yourself in prison that's fine, go for it. The only thing you get to have in prison is a library system. You can request one book a day from a list... when you return one you get another one... if your destroy a book you're off the list for x amount of time... destroy a second and you don't get books again. If you don't know how to read then you can get basic reading lessons for a little big- hopefully you're a quick learner. Books would be in ENGLISH only.

There's more of course but this would be a basic overview of how I'd reform the systems.

I approve of this thread! :pirate::pirate::pirate:

Joe, jails are full of guilty people. For the most part these people are guilty of misdemeanors, local ordinances etc... to say otherwise is completely incorrect. There are also people there that can't bond out, are waiting transfer to other facilities, jurisdictions, etc.. In Fl, you can commit a felony, be convicted of that felony and as long as your sentence is 364 days or less you can serve it in your local jail. Prison is where felons are sent to serve their sentences, those sentences are all of a time greater than 364 days.

Well, no system is perfect right outta the gate, obviously some changes would need to be made if this were implemented..:sumo:

Prison should be hard time. If I ran the system, hard labor for all prisoners regardless of the crime. They work six days a week and get their sabaticcal day off (christian= Sunday, mussies = Friday, or their choice). The work day is at least 10 hours with a lunch break. The prisoners are feed well and receive world class health care (in order to keep them working). Ditches need to be dug along with other tasks to save the states money. Refuse to work = solitary confinement and no visitation rights period.



If they try to escape, the guards shoot to kill. Work the prisoners and they will be to tired to get into trouble at the end of the day or their day off. I would have no problems if the death penalty went away but not right now since the gangs run the prisons.

Joe, jails are full of guilty people. For the most part these people are guilty of misdemeanors, local ordinances etc... to say otherwise is completely incorrect. There are also people there that can't bond out, are waiting transfer to other facilities, jurisdictions, etc.. In Fl, you can commit a felony, be convicted of that felony and as long as your sentence is 364 days or less you can serve it in your local jail. Prison is where felons are sent to serve their sentences, those sentences are all of a time greater than 364 days.

While there are guilty people in jail - a practice that would end under my setup- you still have to cater to the fact there are also not-guilty people in jail- so you should, even today, be treating people like they aren't guilty if you're going to mix the two together.

What do you do with someone who truely wants to chnage their life around? Putting them in a system where many are serving life without parole (and nothing to lose) only makes them harder to turn around.

We need another prison that deals with long time convicts and those with diciplinary problems.

prison just makes people better criminals

Joe, jails are full of guilty people. For the most part these people are guilty of misdemeanors, local ordinances etc... to say otherwise is completely incorrect. There are also people there that can't bond out, are waiting transfer to other facilities, jurisdictions, etc.. In Fl, you can commit a felony, be convicted of that felony and as long as your sentence is 364 days or less you can serve it in your local jail. Prison is where felons are sent to serve their sentences, those sentences are all of a time greater than 364 days.

And a lot of felonies are b.s. Prisons should be for violent people, not for some guy who got caught with a few joints or pouring motor oil down a storm drain. We could flush half of our prison population if we stopped pretending that prohibition works, and decriminalized personal drug use.

First things first, remove all the illegals from prisons that are full of them and send them back home. Protect the men and woman that are protecting the bored and are forced you open fire from lawsuits. Next, if you rape a woman or child I think you need to be killed and not supported by taxpayers to live your days out in prison. You try and rob me then I will not hesitate to retire you from life. I believe in second chances in some cases(not raping or murdering). I dont like repeat offenders, I like dead offenders. If you punish these people the way the deserve to be punished then I guarantee others will take notice and think a lot more before they do something.

Once a day you'd be able to change out a towel, beddings, etc...

Hell, that's more often that bedding in European hospitals gets changed.