I hope this channel fosters a community for our incarcerated loved ones and their families. The U.S. has enough people in prison that the incarcerated population would make itself the 4th largest city in America. There is a high probability you have a loved one in prison or you know someone who does.
I also want to expose just how emergent the need to reform our justice system really is. People need to know exactly what happens behind prison walls. Tax payers, like you and me, finance EVERYTHING that is the Justice system as we know it. With its cash flow, our justice system should be spectacular. In actuality, the justice system is beyond broken. Here are a few facts:
- Illinois has a recidivism rate of 47%. That means 47% of inmates released end up back in prison.
- In Illinois, it is constitutional to deny inmates 1 out of every 9 meals.
- Felons lose the right to vote and possess firearms once they are released. Felons are the exact people that can tell you whether or not current policies are working. Yet, we silence that voice when we take away their right to vote. Voting is the right of a citizen. Spending time in America’s prisons does not void your citizenship.
- Freshly released fathers who were delinquent on child support are often reincarcerated. Prison Legal News explains, “The threat of going to jail might be useful in persuading reluctant parents to pay child support, but actually doing so does not achieve the desired result… If one only considers the substantial cost of incarceration, it becomes a very expensive option for enforcing child support orders. Nonetheless, according to one estimate 50,000 people are incarcerated in U.S. prisons and jails for nonpayment of child support. Parents who are truly destitute go to jail over and over again for child support debt simply because they’re poor,” stated Sarah Geraghty, an attorney with the Southern Center for Human Rights who represented a class of Georgia prisoners who were jailed for nonpayment of child support without legal representation. “We see many cases in which the person is released, they’re given three months to pay a large amount of money, and then if they can’t do that they’re tossed right back into county jail."
Lastly, I want to motivate all citizens to action. I want people to write letters or emails to their Legislators, Congressmen, Governors, and to the inmates themselves. I want concerned constituents to call their offices. You have the right to know how your officials are acting while in office and where your tax dollars are really going. If you viewed every crime committed as a person saying they needed something, you would want to point that person in the right direction. If someone was arrested for stealing food, you would want to point that hungry person to a food bank. If someone was arrested for drugs- and let’s be honest, most drug users are self-medicating for something, you would want to point that depressed person to a therapist or that injured person to the right doctor. If someone stole your car, would you have rather that person just asked you and you took them for a ride
America is the wealthiest, most educated country in the world. We have got to do better when it comes to mass incarceration. When we send people to correctional centers, they should receive correction in the form of rehabilitation. All prison sentences come to an end, period. What kind of prisoner are we releasing into society? I want society to be better, because former inmates are participating in it- not because they are locked away from it.
