education

The Jan/Feb 2010 issue of Mother Jones has two stories that give me some hope for the future of our prison system. When it costs some $45,000 a year to lock someone up for a year in a time of budget crunches, it seems that we should be more frugal with how many people we send to prison (i.e., not non-violent drug addicts) and we should have programs that help them to mend their ways. This is not a matter of coddling prisoners but doing what it takes to prevent them from returning to a life of crime.

Too many conservatives want to cut off their noses to spite their face -- focusing on punishing the imprisoned in ways that all too often guarantee they will emerge as worse criminals with no opportunity to rejoin society. A system that focuses entirely on punishing rather than educating may appeal emotionally but almost certainly creates more problems than it solves.

The Mustang Redemption was interesting both for looking at how working with wild horses has helped several prisoners (who had committed violent crimes, sometimes against minors) to develop a sense that there was a wider world beyond themselves. The Bureau of Land Management runs a program that teaches certain prisoners to tame wild horses (they have to manage the wild horse populations on Federal lands, primarily in Wyoming). I've always been fascinated by wild horses; others might not be as interested.

The Green Mile looks at prisons that have started to teach some prisoners environmental skills - using their abundance of time to cultivate living things that are both endangered and require a lot of attention in raising. Prisons with these programs, including gardens, have seen budgetary savings while teaching prisoners skills that may help them in life outside of prison, lessening their chances of returning to crime.