Jails. Prisons. Correctional Facilities. Places to keep the dangerous away from the innocent. Fundamentally prisons and similar institutions have been around for a very, very long time. Historically they haven't been used as a long term holding cell for punishment like modern jails, but instead they were holding cells for people awaiting punishment or their trial. This stance will address both the modern jail, past instances and a glimpse into how jails may occur in an ideal society1.
Stance Summary
Historically the jail was useful for it's time. In the modern era however the jail has warped into something deviant and encourages criminal behavior. Rather then evolving with culture and technology, it has devolved with the state. We are at a time now - technologically and culturally - where the jail system is not necessary, especially in it's current diabolical nature. As it exists today, the jail needs to disappear. For crimes with victims, the perpetrator can be made accountable to compensate the victim. For crimes without victims, see the suggested reading section.
Personal Actions Based on Stance
None at this time. Luckily I've had little experience with the modern jail system, and I prefer to keep it that way.
Expansion
Past Jail Systems
According to Wikipedia2 and my own understanding of history, the jail system has always been a temporary place to hold people. It's intent was to hold people prior to their prescribed punishment or trial. Punishments may have included penal colonies, indentured servitude or even galley slaves3. All of which weren't directly costly to the tax payers. This excludes Debtors prisons who were designed to hold people, at least until the debtor, his family, or someone coughed up the necessary funds to release him; and also excludes the wars that galleys were used in as war always costs the citizens something whether financial or moral. The use of indentured servitude, debtors prisons, forced penal colonies or galley slaves are not morally adequate alternatives to prisons, but financially it is a a better option when compared to the modern system.
Modern Jail Systems
Unfortunately in the early 1800's the modern jail, who's intent was also to hold people as part - or all - of their punishment, started to come into being.
Modern jail systems punish the perpetrator by removing him from society at the expense of the people in society. One of the fundamental flaws I see in this system is that the victim gets little financial compensation while the perpetrator gets his liberty removed. How is that Just? Should not the perpetrator compensate the victim for their loss? Why should the victim have to be forced (via taxes) to pay for the incarceration of the perpetrator and then be forced to deal with the difficulties imposed by the actions the perpetrator did to the victim? At least in the past Jail systems the victims weren't taxed an average of over $22,000 per year, per innmate4, (in California it was over $47k5or the equivalent of $38 Billion dollars a year.6 This number could be much higher due to unseen costs (forced removal of 1%-3% of the US population from the work force, bigger workforce = more wealth creation possible) as well as many of these numbers were calculated with a 1.6 Million inmate population size7, more than 7 million people at end of 2009 were in Jail, Prison, or on probation8. Nor does it include potential savings in Judges and trials and related things that could be reduced.
So financially the modern jail systems is abhorrent. Nor does it do much in the way of actually "correcting" the deviant behavior. Isolating perpetrators away from "good" and productive citizens, and forcing them to be in an intimate setting with people of potentially much more deviant behavior. Let's face it, it is not customary for people to leave jail being of purer heart & better intentions. So not only is the modern jail system financially costly, but culturally and morally costly as well, especially to those directly affected.
Future Jail Systems?
What do people (non-inmates) desire most from Jails? Ideally it is out of a sense of justice and desire for protection (rather than revenge or hate). If someone does something bad the thought goes, he should be punished, it should be made sure he can't do it again, and hopefully the victim gets compensated for undue suffering. Often the priority is in that order, but that isn't morally proper. It should only be about trying to 'right the wrong' - which is impossible to truly do because that would be to undo the past. The best thing known to the author that the justice system can do to attempt to right the wrong is to help the victim, primarily through victim compensation, and from that stems any "punishment" or "protection". So if the primary method society has available to 'right the wrong' is victim compensation, why do we need jails at all? Protection for the populace and Holding Cells are general concerns.
Future Jail Systems - Victim Compensation
If person A steals $100 from Person B, is it just victim compensation if Person A returns $100 dollars to Person B? Using the old Law of Retaliation (an eye for an eye), No. Maximum just compensation would be
person A should not only return the stolen $100, but to then deprive himself of the same (eye for eye) and give it to person B. So Person A should then give an additional maximum amount of $100 dollars. This works even in non-financial issues. If Person A stabs Person B, just victim compensation isn't such that Person B gets to stab Person A in retaliation - though it's possible that both parties would prefer this over financial compensation. In such a situation Person B has had to pay for medical care, maybe loss of work-pay due to the injury, and other such things which say equates to $15,000. Just victim compensation could be treated such that Person A has to pay back to Person B the total cost of these things - $15k, and like above, then deprive himself of the same by paying an additional maximum amount of $15k.
Future Jail Systems - Protection
Actually, negate "protection". That should be in the realm of people and the protection services available, not directly in the Justice system. However, people do want a jail to remove from society known threats. Say, the situation of someone who has repeatedly murdered people (serial killer). Should he be just be forced to pay for all those murders as described above? Should he be thrown in jail for life? What if he doesn't have enough money to pay victim compensation for the number of people he's killed? That is a plausible scenario as the financial compensation for a whole life is probably quite high. In such a scenario the perpetrator would probably end up dead or being forced to move to a different society secretly to avoid creditors and people who want to kill him; at which point the serial killer cycle starts anew or he stops. However, in the international age it's hard to run away from your past. One can't move to China and leave your murderous deeds behind.
The above is a very simplistic approach which doesn't take into account a market approach to how such Justice things could be dealt with; for example how Insurance Companies would contribute. This and other alternatives are discussed in the additional reading, see Bob Murphy's work.
Future Jail Systems - Holding Cells
better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer9William Blackstone, a famous British judge, jurist and politician, discussed that it is of utmost importance not to infringe upon the rights of the innocent, even if the guilty are then free. This author tends to agree, but does not think that it is either One or The Other. If Victim Compensation is done similar to as discussed above then there isn't any reason to hold a guilty perpetrator for his punishment, as any punishment to be received is financial which requires that a perpetrator work to afford his debts to the victim or his estate. If Protection is done similar to as discussed above, in Bob Murphy's works below or based on a similar foundation then there isn't much of a reason to physically hold someone while awaiting a trial. No reason to remove him from his family, friends, and workplace. If the accused doesn't show up to his prescribed trial to defend himself then there is a greatly increased chance of being found guilty. Judgments, when done with financial Victim Compensation as described above, in today's technological age are difficult to avoid or "run away from". To do so would be to severely limit the perpetrators life life style; which - in sense - is just. One either pays the financial penalty or can no longer use a credit card, buy a house, get a loan, due to his huge debts incurred by his violent actions found guilty of. Thus holding cells could be reduced severely if not eliminated over time.
Closing
The Jail system and related systems is too big to cover completely in one stance, nor even in a whole book. If the topic is of interest please refer to the additional reading section below. The listed sources are good and enjoyable reads. In the end however, the modern jail system is broken and few disagree. This stance details how the author feels the jail system could be dramatically improved. What is at stake here is not just the billion dollar price tag the current system has, but also the cultural and spiritual effect. While not discussed, there is a price paid culturally when Justice is perverted into a punishment system, away from focusing on righting the wrong but instead on correct the behavior of deviants. To treating adults as children that need to be brainwashed into good citizens, rather than letting the deviants attain some sense of personal responsibility.
Sources
- Ideal Society - Link
- Wikipedia: Jail - Link
- Wikipedia: Galley Slave - Link
- Bureau of Justice Statistics: Expenditures/Employment - Link
- California's Legislative Analysts Office: Jail Costs - Link
- CNN: Money - Link
- Bureau of Justice Statistics: Prison Inmates 2009 - Link
- Bureau of Justice Statistics: Total Correctional Population - Link
- Wikipedia: Blackstone's Formulation - Link
Suggested Reading
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