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In Maine, prisoners are thriving in remote jobs

(www.mainepublic.org)
245 points voxadam | 10 comments | 22 Sep 25 22:51 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source | bottom
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taurath ◴[22 Sep 25 23:07 UTC] No.45340733[source]▶
If we get serious about actual rehabilitation in prisons instead of punishment there’s never been a better time to be able to learn just about anything on your own time. But we’d have to stop dehumanizing criminals. Dehumanization seems to be the trend that the US is leading on right now.

We can also be concerned about the incentives for prison labor - for profit prisons and all the many service providers that get paid a mint. Phone calls in many prisons are like $10. Labor gangs and the such. It’s just horrible how badly we treat people in the US for some middleman to make money.

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1. coolestguy ◴[22 Sep 25 23:11 UTC] No.45340773[source]▶
>Dehumanization seems to be the trend that the US is leading on right now.

Criminals have to want to stop doing crime before they can be rehabilitated.

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2. tomrod ◴[22 Sep 25 23:14 UTC] No.45340790[source]▶
Les Mis is a great treatment of exactly this, even if fictional. It takes more than justice to reform the soul. It takes making room by society to forgive the repentant. We call this mercy, and it is the higher ideal.
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3. JumpCrisscross ◴[22 Sep 25 23:14 UTC] No.45340794[source]▶
> Criminals have to want to stop doing crime before they can be rehabilitated

This is literally what rehabiliation entails. Convincing criminals that they have better options than crime.

It doesn't work for everyone. There are absolutely bad people who will just violate social contracts, or who can't control their rage turning into violence. Those people need to be incapacitated. But for the vast majority of criminals, particularly non-violent criminals, crime is an economic cost-benefit exercise.

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4. djohnston ◴[22 Sep 25 23:14 UTC] No.45340795[source]▶
That's not entirely fair - there are all walks of life in those prisons. Some are undoubtedly beyond help, but the ones we can actually rehabilitate, or at least give meaningful work to, are not an opportunity worth overlooking.
5. mwambua ◴[22 Sep 25 23:15 UTC] No.45340807[source]▶
I'm not justifying the crimes and I think people should pay for the consequences of their actions, but I don't think it's that simple.

I think some people just haven't been exposed to the benefits of taking a path to life that doesn't involve crime. Some people also need to be convinced that there are viable alternatives to crime. And as someone else said, society needs to give them the chance to redeem themselves and pursue those alternate paths.

6. ryandrake ◴[22 Sep 25 23:20 UTC] No.45340849[source]▶
If it's too much for society to forgive someone who has done their time, the very least society could do is to stop actively fighting their rehabilitation.

Whenever a read a story about someone who's been to prison and then ends up a solid, productive member of society, I can't help but think: "This person must have extraordinary grit and determination!" Because when a criminal gets out of prison, the entire system and the entire society is set up to try to oppose his rehabilitation and get him back into prison. Overcoming this active hostility must take a remarkable person.

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7. none2585 ◴[22 Sep 25 23:22 UTC] No.45340867[source]▶
This is an incredibly naive take and doesn't address what you quoted in your comment. We should not dehumanize anyone - criminal or otherwise.
8. avs733 ◴[22 Sep 25 23:24 UTC] No.45340880[source]▶
This is the result of the dehumanization effort. It highlights OPs point in attempting to refute it
9. BjoernKW ◴[23 Sep 25 00:10 UTC] No.45341287{3}[source]▶
> "This person must have extraordinary grit and determination!" Because when a criminal gets out of prison, the entire system and the entire society is set up to try to oppose his rehabilitation and get him back into prison. Overcoming this active hostility must take a remarkable person.

This is precisely the story of Les Misérables - that remarkable person being Jean Valjean.

10. jakelazaroff ◴[23 Sep 25 01:02 UTC] No.45341648[source]▶
On top of that: the US has ~5% of the world's population but ~25% of the world's prisoners. So when we talk about "criminals", most of the people we're referring to are only incarcerated because they're subject to the US carceral system. If they lived in any other country, they'd considered upstanding citizens.