Florida Prison System Busts...How Bad Is America's Prison System?
 

http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pb.../NEWS/60705001

http://origin.miami.com/mld/miamiher...miherald_state

Those two stories are about Florida's system. Makes you wonder what governor Jeb Bush is doing down there. In one of the stories the state' prison chief pleads guilty to bribery. WTF?

There should be a death sentence for offering a bribe to any official or law enforcement officer or member of the court.

Sometimes you have to take the bribe or the offering party might kill you but aftr that what you do determines your participation. Normally in the old days you turned it over to the priest or reverend.

In California we have a problem with medical condition of prisoners. Yeah they're prisoners but still human beings. The story about the health care in that particular Cali prison is hysterical in it's glaring incompetence and negligence.

What's going on in the prisons?

If they were human beings we'd be trying to do something other than locking them in cells. There's a thing called rehabilitation. It has nothing to do with prison.

So, if we are to continue locking them up let's not pretend we giva a damn about their medical condition. The system would truly like it if they die.

oww unlucky, situation in uk isnt much better

yeah but we have helllla people in jail, rehabillitation is what we need like whoa, and current rehab programs for alcoholics and drug addicts is a fucking joke

Nothing could be worse than 3rd World prisons though. I've seen documentaries here and it's horrendous :( No clean water... check. Erratic feeding schedule... check. Skin diseases due to overcrowding... check. Tuberculosis due to overcrowding... check. Random knifefights... check. Being extorted by other inmates for "protection"... check. Super hot and humid... check. Mosquitoes during night and flies during day... check.

On the upside, your whole family can visit you and they can sleep over if there's space. They can also bring food (but you have to give the guards their cut). Also, if you're wealthy you can pay for protection so you get clean food and water as well as not get beat down. No protection against tuberculosis and fleas/ticks/mosquitos/flies and the heat though.

Sadly no one cares about prisoners or prison systems until a relative or someone close to them goes in.

Prisoners have no political voice so there is no urgency to fix this long broken system.

The only time we worry with them is when they come out more fucked up than when we sent them in and they're standing next to us in line at the store or living in the same town as us. Then we only worry about how fast we can send them back in.

That's about it really.

It's a very strange setup fooo shooo.

:/

Sheesh.. could not agree more PW! :thumbsup

Rehab is not the easy getout - but it does have an effect and plenty examples in a few countries to pick up on.

On the medical side.. what I hear may be biased, mainly because it stems from jails under inquiry, but generally is... damned poor and corrupt as hell. This ranges from.. basically lack or treatment, even in life-threatening situations - to corrupt medical staff theiving the contents of the drugs cabinets and depriving patients of medicines.

PS... The drug cabinet shit.. least in one instance, is pathetic on it's own - with nursing staff basically broke and trying to support their own families who already had massive medical bills building over years. In this instance, both the perps and the inmates are victims in some form or other - sad shit.

Well, prisons in America and our criminal justice system is structured to protect the wrongly accused. During the days before the Revolutionary War, people suffered under the boot of the British Empire and their henchmen. Typical routine, house invasions, confiscation of wealth, rapes, murder the whole nine yards.

People were tossed into the most horrid jails for no more than disagreeing with the king's policies or just because their wife or daughter was pretty or their land or crafts were of value.

After decades of that shit people rose up, kicked ass and ain't looked back yet.

Nowadays however those safeguards to protect the innocent have been constantly used to abuse the system. The priority of protecting the accused until the trial is over is bullshit. Too many guys don't make it to trial. Some are held for years before going to trial. It's a fuckin joke. What matters in our penal system nowadays is how much publicity locking your ass up is going to cause. Are you wealthy enough to buy your way out or influential enough to barter your way out.

The fact we have gangs like the mob and street gangs generations deep is proof of the inefficiency of our law enforcement due to the abuse of the legal system.

So now, you, minding your business gets arrested over some bullshit, you can't make bail or you need medical attention and your life is at risk.

The problem with the U.S. is we don't have enough courage to be efficient. Sometimes that efficiency means you gotta be cruel but not inhumane.

Another story about Florida......no surprise.

Greg:

Ah... missed reading the news articles in your post - but have now :winkwink:

This stuff is exactly what I've been hearing recently. Seems every leaf that is turned over is riddled with corruption from the highest level downwards.

That said.. little doubts there are well-managed facilities and OK management/officers within them.

The flip side is the prison dept can attrack an unwelcome type of personality as a potential employee, and seems some pass thru the vetting process unchecked. This "appears" to be the source of most problems - ranging from rape of female inmates (tho that can also happen in the local Sheriff's dept), management fraud to problems relating to medical conditions and the staffing within these sections.

Hell.. some folks who have a "need" to be incarcerated as part of their job, consider their time in jail is more dangerous than fighting frontline crime outside - the threat is not from other inmates, but from jail staff.