Let's go to prison

Earlier this year, I had the chance to spend some time with incarcerated people at the Putnamville Correctional Facility in Putnamville, Ind.

Speaking with, having discussions with and becoming friendly with these people made me realize just that: They are people.

Inmates are not monsters, no matter how heinous the crimes they have committed, and they can be very heinous in some instances.

Regardless, people in prison — I dislike using “prisoners” or “felons” or other loaded terms — are people with children, parents, talents, ideas, hopes and aspirations.
I do not mean to minimize the effects of crime on the victim, but we must realize that, sometimes, the perpetrator is a victim as well.

I am not advocating an end to consequences for breaking the laws of our society, but we must realize the punishments handed down can be unjust.

Despite the possibly apocryphal stories of people committing crimes to receive better health care and standard of living in prisons than they do on the outside, prison is really not an easy place to be.

People are isolated from their families and friends, do work for far less than minimum wage and are often not optimistic about their futures.

Moreover, their punishments do not end once they are released.  Many states have laws discouraging people with felonies from voting, and they often are discriminated against in employment and housing.

Besides, even if the stories are true, isn’t that an indictment of our profit-based approach to health care and our gutted social safety net, not an indictment about the cushiness of correctional facilities?

When someone is raised in an environment of lawlessness and poverty, it is difficult to break out of that mold. Breaking more families apart with unnecessarily harsh sentences, limiting access to contraception and abortion and encouraging poverty by favoring big business instead of needy people all contribute to this harmful culture from which many inmates come.

We must realize that the purpose of prisons should not be to punish for the sake of punishment. It is not to inflict pain on the lives of these men and women, despite the pain they have inflicted on others. Revenge is not noble, but forgiveness is.

Prisons should be about two things: incapacitation and rehabilitation. People are kept in prison so they cannot commit more crimes against innocent citizens.

This is incapacitation.

More importantly, it is our duty to our fellow citizens to help them improve their lives in the future so they do not commit more crimes and have the learned skills necessary to contribute to and make a living in our society.

In a time when our own state is limiting the educational opportunities of inmates with indiscriminate budget cuts, we need to be mindful of these people.

We cannot think of them as abstractions that can be exploited or as monsters that require brutal punishment.

We must think of them as people and members of our own society, with ideas and talents that can benefit all of us.

In short, we should all visit a prison.

­— estahr@indiana.edu