who needs slavery when you have prison?

It is commonly known in our society that the prison system is inept. We all know the stories of minor theives who emerge from minor sentences as murderers and professional criminals. Often I've heard it commented on that jail is a good place to learn better skills by which to commit crimes. The funny thing is that this being common knowledge, nothing really changes. Surely we don't think this is just an unfortunate coincidence. After all, we pour billions of dollars yearly into the prison system. So, how is it then, that our society tolerates such inadequacy on the part of institutions which we put so much money into? The prison system as it stands, in spite of its impotence to "better" society, continually fails to improve. And the point is that there must be some reason for this.

People get out of prison and are followed by their criminal record. This record haunts them, preventing them from equal opportunity for employment, excluding them from certain social scenes and opportunities. So, let's consider this in light of the supposed purpose of the prison: to reform. If a man leaves a prison, a reforming institution, and enters a society where he is now at a serious disadvantage in terms of opportunity, he is thus precariously placed to continue on in a lifestyle of criminal activity. Reform the individual and then stigmatize them so that the reformed individual is naturally funneled back into the system which they are supposedly escaping . . . odd don't you think? It seems in this way that crime forms a sort of Sisyphean task for individuals who are trapped in a society that does not want them to reform, only to endlessly attempt to prove they have reformed. This is the setting in which the term 'delinquency' is born.

Delinquency is the idea of a certain "class" of people who perpetually perform crime in spite of the good graces of the ruling classes. Delinquents are the dogs who are genetically predisposed to biting the hands that feed them. Society incarcerates them with the 'good Christian intent' of reforming them to find a symbiotic role in society, and upon release they return to their old ways. Yet, let's return to the fact that delinquents are conveniently disadvantaged in many ways. Most well-paying jobs in society are closed off to them. After all, we wouldn't want convicts taking jobs from 'good up-standing citizens'. So, for instance, anyone convicted of a felony is barred from nursing and most other medical professions. These "convicts" (say it with disdain people . . ) are thus commited to the lower social classes, and even there are placed at disadvantage. So, naturally they are prime candidates to commit further crimes.

Another factor contributing to this is additional surveillance. Now, with the stigma of delinquency following them, it is likely that they will be monitored. They will be watched carefully by parole officers and social workers of various degree. So, if they commit a crime, even a small one, the likelihood of being caught is even higher. Their fingerprints are known. It is known where they live and the circles they probably run it. Thus we know that those who are released from prison have astronomically high chances of returning withing a year.

So, our prisons are running out of room. We build more. Those run out of room. Fewer and fewer are 'reformed', and more and more are entrapped in cycles of delinquency. We start noticing that the 'vicious circles' of our society carry with them an amazing centrifugal force that is growing to encompass more and more of our population.

One thing to keep in mind in regard to delinquency is that it seldom if ever effects the highest ranks of our society . . . convenient. Those billionaires in America might lose a few abstract numbers in relation to the value of their third trust fund in Geneva, but is their any chance they will suffer from a petty theft or mugging? So we find that the lower one's status the greater the chance is that they will be effected by delinquency. So delinquency becomes a cycle of the poor commiting crimes against the poor, and these crimes are generally commited due to the state of poverty the poor live in. Ahhh poverty . . that horrible plague that never gets cured since none of us are responsible for it.

There are lots of misconceptions about prison in our society. The most common is that prison exists for the sake of retribution. In truth our society (thankfully) is very opposed to the idea of punishment for the sake of justice. While this is commonly the plea on the part of those who have been wronged or their families, our culture as a whole has little tolerance for such stern justice. We cringe at the idea of torture, which was so common until 200 years ago. Large sectors of our society firmly oppose the death penalty, which is a prime indicator that our system of justice has left behind the idea of expiation. Beyond this, the largest misconception that is generally held is that the continual failure of our prisons to reform (as they are theoretically supposed to do) criminals is simply an accident. In fact, though it may not be an intentional flaw, it is nonetheless a opportune one for ruling classes to further their domination. To say it better: I don't believe in a conspiracy by rich people, only that since rich people have the opportunity and the political favorability, delinquency becomes a convenient tool to oppress the poor. When prisons turn out individuals who have adopted a thorough criminal intent, it is a matter of time before they act out. After all, prison was not intended to deter such crime by means of fear of just punishment. Nor does it appear that prison was truly indended to cure them of their criminal behavior (despite all the rhetoric otherwise). Rather is seems that prison is a station for the control and prepetuation of delinquency.

Upon parole or release, criminals are followed by their reputation, not to mention various officers. They are on many levels watched. Chances are that when they commit their next crime, other friends and acquaintances will also be involved. More are tried, more are sentenced, more are branded. Our culture has sufficiently managed to create a social class of delinquents; we have fabricated a caste which some are born into, and more and more are resigned to by our judiciary. We have found a way for justice to be perverted into a means of oppression, a court-ordered poverty. It is a system that keeps us safe, but would readily consume us for stepping out of line. Slavery is always in the shadow of safety.