From: Charles Hixson (charleshixsn@earthlink.net)
Date: Sun Jul 28 2002 - 11:03:50 MDT
On Saturday 27 July 2002 21:03, John K Clark wrote:
> "Samantha Atkins" <samantha@objectent.com> Wrote:
> > "These people" are US. Think about it.
>
> I'm sure there are some splendid fellows in prison who I'd love to marry my
> daughter, but not many. Most would slit my throat for a couple of packs of
> cigarettes.
>
> John K Clark jonkc@att.net
This may be so, I don't know. But how many were so debased before they were
enslaved? Slavery has always made people more violent. (Well, not really.
I causes/caused people to be extremely submissive toward those who wield the
whip. It teaches a bland deameanor that is quite difficult to read. And it
cultivates a blind rage, that is sternly suppressed whenever someone who
might punish you could see it.) So it only results in people breaking into
excessive violence when they feel that they might not be caught, or when,
after lowering their guard for a moment, something that neither of you could
predict sets them off.
This is a more severe form of the effect normally seen that causes lower class
bars to be so much more violent than those patronized by the upper classes.
(You didn't think that the people who went to them were intrinsically
different did you?) This is why armies are so brutal toward those that they
intend to place on the front lines. Make them fighting mad, and give them a
legitimate target. They will act much more visciously toward the enemy than
they would otherwise. Then, after they are "blooded". they will have been
conditioned to attack the enemy instead of their own officers (usually).
This doesn't always work, and first liutenants have a nortoriously short life
expectancy, partially for this reason. But conscripts can be considered to
be essentially choosen at random from society. (Well, not really. Upper
classes are more likely to end up as first Lt. than others, and conversely.)
The reactions to power and dominance in constrained situations is a quite
complex topic, and I'm certainly no expert. But prisons are just one place
on the edge of society, and the people there are basically the same as the
people everywhere else. If they tend to go in a certain direction after you
put them there, then one of the things that you need to consider is that the
environment itself may well be driving them in that direction. In fact, it
is the most probable place to look. The range of human variation isn't that
broad, but the reactions that people have to their environments is quite
broad and the interactions can be quite complex.
FWIW, I consider one of the primary debasing influences on prisoners to be
their interactions with other people. I am personally in favor of a rather
extreme form of solitary, which would even forbid interactions with the
guards. I would place each prisoner in a sound-proof box the size of a large
apartment, and weld the door shut behind him. There would be an exercise
machine available. Probably there should be a cheap computer, but no-TV, no
radio, no e-mail, and no internet, except that pure text messages should be
transmissible between the prisoner and his lawyer. And that to be quite
limited in total bytecount. Still, since this is a prison situation he
should be able to create a secure pgp (or close equivalent) key, and share
his public key with his lawyer, so that he could share a communication
channel with his lawyer. Perhaps a few selected books, but I'm not sure.
Food should be supplied by bellamy tube, and be healthy but uninspiring.
There should be no phone. I would prefer that his computer be both complete
and cheap, so I would recommend a Linux installation. But we don't want to
assume the pre-existance of computer skills, so it should be something both
recent and transparent. Any of the major distributions would work. Just do
an install-everything installation, and leave him a copy of the source CDs.
Note that this proposal would immediately eliminate all prison gangs. It
would eliminate drug smuggling. etc. It would increase the probability of a
life threatening medical crisis, but it would eliminate being beaten up. And
it would make in not profitable in any major way for anyone to cause the
number of prisoners to increase. This is, perhaps, the major benefit, even
if it appears indirect.
I will grant that this system will cause people to feel intense loneliness,
and isolation. The suffering would probably be sufficient that current
sentence lengths would need to be reduced considerably. But isolated islands
are hard to come by these days, so we must improvise. And this would be a
lot cheaper to operate than the current system, no guards (well, minimal,
perhaps 10 per prison, one shift only). No exercise yards. No social areas
of any kind. This would truely be a warehouse for people. Minimal corridor
width between cells, just sufficient for reasonable access by the welders.
Minimal furnishings.
Now there might need to be special provisions made for those with preexisting
medical problems. But generally I feel that their medications could also be
delivered by Bellamy tube. And certainly no tendency toward violence would
be being reinforced during the period of isolation.
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