#7 - Prisons

We have prisons to lock away violent people of our society.  Yet, our prison system has become a mechanism to lock up the poor, hide away the forgotten, and turn non-violent people into violent ones.   Between our federal, state, local, territorial, and immigration prison systems, there are just over 2.3 million people locked up.  Plus, there are 4.7 million on probation.  The U.S. has the highest incarcerated population in the world.  Is America really the land of criminals?  Is it really that dangerous of a place to live?  The disproportionate population of Blacks and Hispanics in our prison system compared to the general population only highlights a growing crisis in our society.  This will continue to degrade the health and wellbeing of our culture.  One in five prisoners are incarcerated for drug offences, most of which are minor possessions.  Let's face reality.  If you are rich and white and well connected, then you and your family will likely never go to prison for whatever you do.  On top of that, private prisons have turned inmates into a commodity.  A commodity to be used as profit margins.  Our own Congressman, John Carter, has been a champion of private prisons.  The system of prison workers at ridiculous low or no wages has resulted in a legalized form of slavery.  Prisons have now become a system of dehumanizing and disempowering people.  This dehumanizing system affects the prison administrators and guards, as well as, the inmates.  Carter wants to continue the big business of prisons.  Mike Clark wants to shutdown private prisons and thoroughly reform our mass incarceration system.  Inmates are not a commodity and prisons are not to be tools for profit margins!