The catch-22 of our prison system

I've always been a fan of watching documentaries about prison life... the ones you find on National Geographic and MSNBC. One of the recent shows mentioned something that I had not really considered before. Based on my own views on the general public, they want people convicted of serious crimes to go to jail, serve length jail sentences, and not have any avenues to better themselves in prison. With many people complaining about the current level of taxes, who would advocate for more taxpayer money to be sent to our jails and prisons to aid inmates in bettering themselves (learning technical skills; finishing high school; getting college degrees, etc). Remember the movie The Shawshank Redemption? Tim Robbins' character asks the warden if he will assist in getting more money for the prison so a library can be built. The warden's response was that the taxpayers only want to see their money help pay for three things in the prison system: more bars, more walls, and more guards.

For inmates not convicted of rape, murder, and other very serious crimes, they will one day be released from prison. They'll be forced to reintegrate into society. For those convicted of felonies, there are already a number of laws on the boooks that prevent them from certain types of employment and assistance that could more easily help them reintegrate. We're pretty much branding them with their own "Scarlet Letter." But, if they come out of prison no better then when they entered, do you think they're all going to just magically seek a better life? If we give them no additional skills, no additional education, no additional coping mechanisms with dealing with the outside world, what do you think is going to happen? They're going to get mixed in with the same crowds they were part of before; get right back into gang life; restart their drug-addiction habits; commit the same crimes they were committing before being locked up. A lot of these behaviors directly impact John Q. Public living in his house with the white-picket fence in his suburban neighborhood. If these recently-released parolees aren't robbing John Q. Public's house or assaulting John Q. Public on the sidewalk, they're selling drugs to John Q. Public's neighbors and relatives. I could belabor this, but I think you get the point. Let's help inmates better themselves so they are less likely to return to old habits once they're released.

Obviously, in times of economic hardship, we need to prioritize where taxpayer money goes. Maybe enhanced prisoner education and skills training opportunities is not at the top of the list. I don't really know what the right answer is. I don't really know if there is a right answer. But I'm certain taxpayer money can not only be directed to the prison system in three ways. It's got to be comprehensive than "more bars, more walls, and more guards."