Bo Lozoff on Prison Systems

This article basically sums up how I feel about prison, except that I take it a very unpopular step further with my opinion that we don't need prisons at all. We can touch on that some other time, though. In the meantime, read this awesome article by Bo Lozoff - when you hit the link, scroll down a little to find this piece.

Can We Do Better Than Our Present Prison System?

The primary work of Human Kindness Foundation is to offer spiritual support to people regardless of their circumstances. However, because we have been in so many prisons - I personally have visited over 600 institutions - we feel a responsibility to offer this brief statement into the widespread debate over crime and punishment, especially in the U.S.A. (most of the following can be applied to other countries as well).

The Mess We're In Now

America locks up more of its population than any other nation on Earth, a rate five times greater than most industrialized nations. In 1970 there were fewer than 200,000 prisoners in the U.S.A. Now, less than thirty years later, California alone has nearly that many. There are nearly two million across the country. The states are spending an average of $100 million per year on new prisons. Prisoners currently sleep on floors, in tents, in converted broom closets and gymnasiums, or in double or triple bunks in cells that were designed for one inmate. For the most part, prisons are barbaric, terrifying places. Crime victims derive no benefit from this misery. We offer convicts no opportunities to learn compassion or take responsibility for what they have done, nor make restitution or offer atonement to their victims in any practical ways.

Approximately 240,000 brutal rapes occur in our prison system each year. Most of the victims are young, nonviolent male inmates, many of them teenaged first offenders. They are traumatized beyond imagination. Michael Fay's caning in Singapore was child's play compared to the reception he would have had in nearly any state prison in America. Contrary to political sloganeering, we are not soft on criminals. We are irresponsibly vicious.

HKF Prison-Ashram Project

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