The prison system is screwed up. Canada’s is, if anything, worse. I’ve heard horror stories about our maximum security prisons.
Part of the problem is that our prisons in North America are crowded to overflowing because of the insane war on drugs, which has made it much harder to actually police what goes on in prisons. I’ve heard it said many times that it is just as easy or even easier to get drugs in prison as on the street. This makes no sense to me, unless officials are intentionally looking the other way in order to allow prisoners to have drugs to keep them happier.
I think a bigger problem, which was alluded to earlier, is that we just don’t treat inmates like humans. Guards look the other way when they are beaten or raped.
But another part of the problem has to do with the fact that generally people in prison are untrustworthy, and others are violent. I mean, if you are raped, what are you going to do about it? Press charges? Have fun. If you press charges and then go back into the general population, you’re history. And if the prison offered a safe house or transfer if you press charges, than a lot of the low-lifes in prison would be filing false charges just to get away from a bad situation somewhere. So it’s a real tough nut to crack.