4 P's of Punishment

I am a master of none. And there is a high probability I will never be an expert at anything. Despite this, there are some things I am well versed on based on personal experience. This list is limited to things such as cake decorating, dance(ish), fashion history, and prisons. 

I am not quite sure when I first began my interest in prisons, and specifically the death penalty, but at some point, I chose to focus on a niche of inhumanity and stumbled upon the prison system. Today, I have completed many essays, capstone projects, interviews, mentorships from professionals in the industry, and thorough research on the American prison system, and have crafted a solution. This solution is highly flawed (as I said before, I am definitely not an expert) but I want to present it to you. Further, I welcome all forms of criticism to my resolution; this is more than a first draft as I have spent countless hours crafting it, but it is not a final draft. Let's begin.

Why does the prison system matter to us, readers of The Elliott, high school students, who most likely will not end up in prison. Well, the reason is numbers. America has the highest incarceration rate in the world, with an increase from 300,000 prisoners in 1970 to 2.3 million people today, not including the 6 million people actively on parole. One in every fifteen US citizens are expected to go to prison, and one in every three Black males in the US. Nearly 3,000 juveniles have been sentenced to life in prison without parole. So yeah, that's why it matters. To explain my argument precisely, effectively, and efficiently, I have created “The 4 P’s”; four terms that encapsulate the areas of the prison system which mandate change in the journey towards a humane incarceration system:

Preventative: Working to Prevent Crime Before It Occurs. 

One of the keys to decreasing prison rates is to limit the crimes before they can even take place, as the simplest way to increase the humanity of prisons is to limit humans in prison. This problem does not lie directly on the convicts themselves, but the unjust systems that set people up for failure. Thus, we must attack the root of the issue, not the people. This necessitates governmental action such as localising family and children programs by building comprehensive programs, local frameworks, gun-free zones, and civic culture to reduce violence, specifically in crime hotspots. Furthermore, avoiding repressive policies to constrict and replacing them with policies that contribute to community health and education with be more productive in reducing future crime; instead of aiming to deal with crime from a punishment and security angle, try to look at the root cause of the violence and aim to fix or begin to fix that. Where there are no guns, there are no gun-caused deaths, so make sure guns are only accessible to those who can handle them appropriately and only sell guns that are not war rifles. Focus on ending the school to prison pipeline through working with police departments and court systems to limit arrests at school, explain infractions and the prescribed punishments to student bodies, train teachers to use positive behavior modification for at-risk students, and use home and family interventions designed to create behavior modifications for both students and families. Implementation of these policies will prevent people stepping into a courtroom in the first place, and hopefully making the other step irrelevant one day.

Productive: Improving and Learning While In Prison.

 While individuals in jail may deserve time, this does not make them any less human or any less deserving of growth. To support this, the government must implement programs to support mental, physical, and intellectual growth even behind bars. These programs should be available in all prisons, and be accessible to all inmates, despite the crime committed. This will not only retain the humanity of the prisoners but will further prepare them for the real world, consequently helping remove the risk of recidivism. In terms of education, programs for inmates could include general education preparation, job application practice, GED/High School completion courses, and English as a second language class. Life skills classes such as parental skills, computer skills, keeping and finding employment techniques, and problem-solving skills will help make the reintegration into society process much more achievable. Prevention groups such as alcohol and drug prevention groups, anger management courses, and domestic violence prevention groups will increase safety outside of prison. 

Proportional: Ensuring Severity of Punishment  = Severity of the Felony. 

While punishment is necessary to ensure a civil society, over-punishing is just as unjust as the original felony. To keep punishment proportional and fair, the US government should improve living conditions and sentencing lengths. It is important that living conditions in prisons are fit for that of humans, not animals being tested in a lab; people should not be locked in a 6 x 8 ft. box with bars for the rest of their lives. If we treat people like animals, they are more likely to behave that way. Making punishment proportional also mandates removal of strict recidivism laws. Laws like “three strikes and you're out” are extreme sentences for nonviolent convictions such as drug handling and impose extreme punishments for un-extreme crimes. Take Ewing v. California for example. Ewing was given a sentence of life in prison in California for stealing some golf clubs under the three strikes law because he had future convictions. Does that make sense? 

Progressive: Helping Convicts Become Re-integrated into Society Following Imprisonment. 

Once an individual has done their time, they deserve to thrive in the next stages of their life with the support of the government through access to voting and increased job and housing opportunity help. Allowing people to restore virtue and dignity—the state of being worthy of respect— following incarceration will also prevent reincarceration and the pattern of imprisonment through generations. In terms of punishment, it is important we remember that even though someone may have committed a crime, that does not negate their right to respect or human rights.

Though as a general rule of thumb I believe no individual should rot in jail forever, one case makes me question all of my anti-rough on crime beliefs. Nikolas Cruz is the mass shooter from Parkland Stoneman Douglas, the killer of 17 teachers and students, including a past friend of mine, Alyssa Alhadeff. In any other situation, I would probably believe that this person deserves a second chance as Cruz struggled with mental illness, severe bullying, and was a minor at the time of the shooting. But in this one, when the person hurt me and people I know, I do not feel this way. All this to say, I understand opposition to this progressive take on punishment. I understand that if someone has hurt you or a loved one, it is human to want them to feel that same pain you did. And this is why my solution is flawed and still in progress. What is the solution to both retain humanity and comfort those harmed? I do not know. 

So why is this problem so hard to fix? Why can we not just stop putting millions of people in jail cells and treating them as less than human? The answer I have come up with is history. It is inherently American to oppress people. Until society learns to function successfully without putting down others, this problem will remain robust and growing.