After Being Denied A Visit To A Prisoner, Journalist Reveals How Unfair And Cruel US Prison Rules Are
Many prisons around the world get a bad rep for having (and fostering) a brutal environment inside and further crime outside its confines. I get it, prison shouldn’t be a nice or fun place. However, it doesn’t mean that it should also actively fail in its main goal of correcting criminal behavior by making inmate life—and the lives of their loved ones—a living hell.
A twitter user has recently shared a string of tweets about her experience accompanying a woman to see her loved one in prison. The two ladies made extensive efforts to see this person, only to be rejected and shown how harshly inmates are treated.
The twitter user & her companion travelled for hours to visit an inmate, only to be denied entry by the guards
Image credits: twitter.com
Image credits: twitter.com
Image credits: twitter.com
Image credits: twitter.com
Image credits: twitter.com
Image credits: twitter.com
Image credits: twitter.com
Image credits: twitter.com
Image credits: twitter.com
Image credits: twitter.com
Image credits: twitter.com
Image credits: twitter.com
Image credits: twitter.com
Image credits: twitter.com
Image credits: twitter.com
Image credits: twitter.com
Over 2.3 million inmates are currently sentenced across nearly 7,000 institutions
Image credits: Frank Kinch
The tweets highlight a common problem in many US prisons—cruelty. Sure, there is a system in place that doesn’t look out of the ordinary on paper, but in practice, it is all arbitrary. There was no reason for any of the people in this story to be denied visitation, yet there was and it seems shady.
Besides this incident, there were also reports of prisoners being denied phone calls and letters being returned to the senders with the inmates never knowing that they were delivered in the first place.
Image credits: Prison Policy Initiative
Apart from prisons being a horrible place for inmates to be in, it is also a huge struggle for loved ones. If this continues, families lose touch with their imprisoned kin in the long run.
The tweets stress that this isn’t a one-off situation: it is just one day in a single prison in one of fifty states. The prison system is nothing but a large machine of cruelty disguised as justice.
The US is notorious for its prison system, which currently houses over 2.3 million inmates across 6,843 institutions. It is reported that over 40% of criminals commit another crime within their first year of release. The US is currently number 1 in the whole world in lock-ups per capita—698 per 100,000 residents.
I never comment on the posts here. I love almost everything that is posted. This post infuriates me. I work at a prison in Texas. I work visitation every three months. This is NOT the norm. We encourage families to call the day before they travel to make sure the status of their inmate hasn't changed. Our "allowable items" list is posted very clearly right at the front gate. If you accidentally bring an item that is not allowed, you are absolutely allowed to return it to your car. Returning to your car will result in another pat search, but you can definitely come back in. There is no way I can speak for ALL prisons worldwide, and neither should this person. There are rules in place that free world visitors have trouble understanding, but they are in place for their and their inmate's safety
I get the impression that it all depends on the prison itself, rather than the general laws, rules and sentence of the prisoner. Which leads me to thinking that, just like many (not all, but many) police officers on the street are prone to abusing their authority, same happens with the whole facility of prisons. I might be wrong, but I believe one of the biggest causes is the lack of general transparency regarding the prison system and institutions combined with a lack of knowledge and lack of interest in general. So there is nobody to report a prison when something sketchy is detected, and even so, it's not easy to win against an authoritarian facility. Both your comment and this article are giving us important information and an insight into an important matter. And I wanna say thank you for that.
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I understand the strict rules, but I don't get why these people are not allowed to fix their mistakes or even have a box you can put the things in for safe keeping until you're done talking. This story reminds me of a military guard I had in mandatory service. During visiting days they would look for any reason to decline access to people in addition to threatening recruits with a ban for even the most minor "offenses." Think it all boils down to them just wanting to show their "power. "
Most prisoners will, at some point, get out. Solitary confinement has been found to be dehumanising and can long-term health problems. Punishments for trivial reasons, like the lady withe the keys, won't help anyone. Dostoyevsky once said ""The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons." I get prisons are for punishment but officials shouldn't lose sight of what their long term goals are: To release offenders who have sat their sentence SAFELY back into the community.
I never comment on the posts here. I love almost everything that is posted. This post infuriates me. I work at a prison in Texas. I work visitation every three months. This is NOT the norm. We encourage families to call the day before they travel to make sure the status of their inmate hasn't changed. Our "allowable items" list is posted very clearly right at the front gate. If you accidentally bring an item that is not allowed, you are absolutely allowed to return it to your car. Returning to your car will result in another pat search, but you can definitely come back in. There is no way I can speak for ALL prisons worldwide, and neither should this person. There are rules in place that free world visitors have trouble understanding, but they are in place for their and their inmate's safety
I get the impression that it all depends on the prison itself, rather than the general laws, rules and sentence of the prisoner. Which leads me to thinking that, just like many (not all, but many) police officers on the street are prone to abusing their authority, same happens with the whole facility of prisons. I might be wrong, but I believe one of the biggest causes is the lack of general transparency regarding the prison system and institutions combined with a lack of knowledge and lack of interest in general. So there is nobody to report a prison when something sketchy is detected, and even so, it's not easy to win against an authoritarian facility. Both your comment and this article are giving us important information and an insight into an important matter. And I wanna say thank you for that.
Load More Replies... I understand the strict rules, but I don't get why these people are not allowed to fix their mistakes or even have a box you can put the things in for safe keeping until you're done talking. This story reminds me of a military guard I had in mandatory service. During visiting days they would look for any reason to decline access to people in addition to threatening recruits with a ban for even the most minor "offenses." Think it all boils down to them just wanting to show their "power. "
Most prisoners will, at some point, get out. Solitary confinement has been found to be dehumanising and can long-term health problems. Punishments for trivial reasons, like the lady withe the keys, won't help anyone. Dostoyevsky once said ""The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons." I get prisons are for punishment but officials shouldn't lose sight of what their long term goals are: To release offenders who have sat their sentence SAFELY back into the community.
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