Prison System Rehabilitation: Does Current System Require Change?

To add to this regimen, the prison system could offer options for inmates to choose from to enjoy as part of their social lives: movies? church? bowling? Any and all of these options should also be paid for by the inmate using the salary received from their job.

What I’m suggesting would not only serve the purpose of conditioning the inmates to the normal life that is lived on a daily basis by the people within our societies, but it would also pay for itself by giving back to the system when the inmates pay for the services they use. What’s equally important is the prisoners would be learning how to live responsibly by working for a living and actually paying their way instead of taking from others.

I believe this would place inmates on the path to civilization again. Once there, they could then be introduced (or re-introduced) to the life giving source of all humanity: God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. There have been many terrible consequences of removing God from our lives: the ever-growing prison population is definitely one of these consequences. Indeed, like most things in our world, the prison system is probably in such a confused state at this time that ONLY the intervention of God our Father through our Lord Jesus Christ will be able to resolve this problem.

I strongly believe that the idea behind prison has been executed under a grave misconception. It would appear that the overall way that prisons have been run has been to exert threats and physical force with the goal of keeping inmates in line. Inmates are human beings, NOT animals so punishment in and of itself will not work. There MUST be respect and each person must be treated as though they are just as worthy as any other person. Of course, there must also be discipline which could be issued through the set up of a work week. This in mind, a plan that incorporates the mending and reshaping of the whole person must be conceived and put into action.

I’ve read that it can take up to $28,000 a year to care for one inmate. If we can pay this much and only end up with an inmate that returns to the prison system a worse person than they were when they first arrived, then I’m sure that much better uses can be found for this money. I realize that my suggestions here are not new. But I feel that if these suggestions could be put into place as a standard routine for prison systems, we just might begin to see a significant change within the inmates. At the very least, what could it hurt to give it a try?