Rather than hijack the thread about whether there is a working penal system , I thought I would ask a seperate question.
What would be the pros and cons of establishing a common prison area somewhere in each state and placing all prisoners therein? Maybe have three: minimum, medium and maximum security. Possibly do the same thing at the Federal level.
The area would be a large section of ground surrounded by fencing and guard stations. There would be an admin building where new prisoners are processed, given a tent and a sleeping bag and sent out into the compound. There would be open-air toilets/latrines/showers at specific intervals. There would be open-air eating facilities at specific intervals. There would be a medical building. And that’s it. Nothing more, kinda sorta like Sheriff Joe’s tent jail in Arizona. It would be like being “sent to Conventry”, in a way.
I can see several points on both sides: reduced costs, but less control on the inside, that sort of thing. What say you?
Sort of like a system of internal exile? I don’t think it would pass constitutional review - conditions inside the enclosed area would almost certainly be cruel and unusual.
How would you keep the prisoners inside? The Mexican border shows how permeable a fence can be. A bunch of unsupervised prisoners would be able to figure out ways to get out.
Brilliant, economizing move – in the five or so states with the climate to permit an open-air compound of this sort. One assumes you have some means for them and their possessions to be moved out of the rain, changes of jail garb, a place to do laundry, medical care, etc. – Notice the costs started mounting up? And what about petty offenders, the ones who committed some minor crime deserving jail time but not being sent to prison? Do they go here too? Do you have enough guards on duty to prevent prisoners from ganging up on other prisoners? Or have they lost all their civil rights, including protection from assault and the right to remain alive? And what do the other 45 states without the climate to do your open-air prison camp do? By the way, how do you tell that the guy who presents himself for release at the end of four years is really the guy who got the four-year sentence and not the man sentenced to life without parole impersonating him? I am sure there are other problems with the idea, but those are ones that suggest themselves on initial reaction.
Hmm… how much order would the guards be able to keep at the toilets/food yard/sickhall?
In general, it does seem to magnify the sense of the prisons becoming ‘law of the jungle’. Criminals strong and ruthless enough would be able to do what they liked far enough away from the guards. Anyone who’s on the ‘low end’ of brutality (for whichever prison section they ended up in, if it’s seperated by level of offender) would have to struggle very hard to avoid being a victim.
And then there’s the possibility that with so little oversight, the inmates would be able to come up with some sort of plan to seriously break through the perimeter. Whether they’d be able to succeed or not I’m not so sure.
In general, I think I’m against anything like this. No matter how bad crime gets or how costly prisons are to maintain, I draw the line at pushing people who’ve made some bad choices, or those few who might have been convicted in error, into a situation like that.
You could just shoot them.
Ship in Phillipinos on 6 month visas to cover the low end job market.
Job done.
Criminals do not get the message en-masse.
One or two might, the rest see it as outrageous offront to there personal liberty … and the guy deserved it.
Back in the day we shipped fellas to Austrailia, maybe you could pitch your open sands prison down in Gitmo. That idea could have legs.