United States Prison System: Broken, Violent and Inhumane
The United States Prison System is one of the worst, most violent and inhumane. The above video details New York City’s notorious jail complex, Rikers Island… the second-largest jail facility in the country and one of the most violent. Also discussed is how there’s two justices & prison systems… one where the wealthy can post bail while awaiting trial and another, where the poor remains incarcerated.
60 Minutes visited several German prisons and were amazed how laid back everybody seemed at each of them — prisoners and guards. Heidering Prison outside Berlin is as clean and bright as a Google campus. The prison is surrounded by fences, not walls, so inmates can see the outside world.
There is no death penalty.
Life inside prison mirrors life outside as much as possible. Germans call it “normalization.” It starts with small prison populations. Low-level offenders get fines or probation. Prison is reserved for the worst of the worst — murderers, rapists, career criminals. Cells have doors, not bars. It’s for privacy. Inmates can decorate as they please.
In Germany, 75 percent of lifers are paroled after 20 years or less. This is another example of why the United States is NOT the greatest country on earth.
After 30 years of being Tough on Crime in the U.S., no other nation incarcerates more of its citizens than we do. We have five percent of the world’s population, but 25 percent of its prisoners. The cost of housing all those inmates: $80 billion a year.
United States Prisons should be Humane like Germany’s
