Suggest that the way to end recidivism is to reform the prison system, and you might be accused of caring more about criminals than the crimes they commit.
It's happened to me. Often when I write or give a talk about my work with minors in adult prison, I describe the deplorable conditions in which inmates live, and advocate for reform of those conditions. Inevitably someone comments (and not always politely) that I'm "soft on crime," that I don't care about victims. But this is how I see it.
Given our present prison system with its emphasis on punishment and retribution, everybody suffers. Inmates, correctional officers, victims, the average citizen and taxpayer.
Prisons are violent, toxic places. They are often overcrowded and smelly with the soup of open toilets, the effluence of crammed together bodies under stress with little or no physical or personal space. The noise is deafening. TVs blare (in English and Spanish); metal gates clang; the overused PA system squawks, and inmates and correctional staff shout over it all trying to be heard.
[For more of this story, written by David Chura, go to http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...?utm_hp_ref=politics]
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