Comments on: An Alternative to Us Prison Systems http://socyberty.com/issues/an-alternative-to-us-prison-systems/ Fri, 01 Jun 2012 00:05:08 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Megan http://socyberty.com/issues/an-alternative-to-us-prison-systems/comment-page-1/#comment-201563 Megan Tue, 01 Dec 2009 16:30:37 +0000 http://socyberty.com/issues/an-alternative-to-us-prison-systems/#comment-201563 I work for the Laogai Research Foundation, an organization that is dedicated to raising awareness on China's system of forced-labor prison camps, and I have to say this blog post is sadly misinformed. To begin with, China has no due process, so whether one ends up in prison in China is in fact quite arbitrary, and has much more to do with one's social standing than whether or not that person committed a crime.The idea that such an arbitrary system would prove a deterrent against crime is highly dubious. In fact the only crimes for which one can fully expect imprisonment (and thus the only crimes for which the Laogai is a true deterrent) are political crimes, as even the wealthiest, most well-connected individuals have reason to believe they will be imprisoned for speaking out against the government. That being said, the US already has prison labor in many states, and it has done nothing for our incarceration rates. The five states with the highest incarceration rates as of 2007 (Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, Oklahoma, and Alabama, in that order) all have active prison labor programs. Clearly, this is not a viable solution to the problem. I work for the Laogai Research Foundation, an organization that is dedicated to raising awareness on China’s system of forced-labor prison camps, and I have to say this blog post is sadly misinformed. To begin with, China has no due process, so whether one ends up in prison in China is in fact quite arbitrary, and has much more to do with one’s social standing than whether or not that person committed a crime.The idea that such an arbitrary system would prove a deterrent against crime is highly dubious. In fact the only crimes for which one can fully expect imprisonment (and thus the only crimes for which the Laogai is a true deterrent) are political crimes, as even the wealthiest, most well-connected individuals have reason to believe they will be imprisoned for speaking out against the government.

That being said, the US already has prison labor in many states, and it has done nothing for our incarceration rates. The five states with the highest incarceration rates as of 2007 (Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, Oklahoma, and Alabama, in that order) all have active prison labor programs. Clearly, this is not a viable solution to the problem.

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