Historical Context: Prisoners as “Slaves of the State”
It is hard to believe that in the first part of the 20th century, prisoners were considered “slaves of the state.” Until the 1930s, most state and federal prisons used convicts’ unpaid labor to produce necessary goods for the jail and even sell extra on the market (Woods, 2021). This situation continued until the prisoner’s rights movement began developing in the 1960s-1980s (Jacobs, 2017).
The Prisoners’ Rights Movement and Legislative Reform
The campaign included ex-prisoners, human rights activists, lawyers, and free citizens who tried to convey to the public the inhumane treatment of prisoners (Jacobs, 2017). This movement has changed the prison system, showing that legislative reform is needed to monitor human rights in prisons (Jacobs, 2017). After that, public opinion about the status of convicts and the process of their rehabilitation in prison changed.
Balancing Humanization and Rehabilitation in Modern Prisons
Previously, the idea of the penitentiary system was to limit the criminal from society, humiliate and deprive them of all their rights. The modern approach focuses on helping prisoners understand why they committed a crime and further integrate into society (Woods, 2021). Many believe that this is why prisoners began to have too many rights and privileges – their stay in prison became too comfortable. Thus, prisoners lose the motivation to leave prison and return to the real world (Woods, 2021). The system, in which a delinquent person receives three meals a day, comfortable accommodation, cable TV and the Internet, equipment for recreation and hobbies, and jobs, actually encourages criminals who fall into it.
The truth, as always, lies in the middle because humanizing the system and changing priorities is a good process. However, a system in which it is beneficial for the criminal to be in prison and not beneficial for them to return to a society that does not accept them is also doomed to failure. We should not create too comfortable conditions, but we must focus on combating the fundamental violation of rights within the penitentiary system and the adaptation of former prisoners outside it.
References
Jacobs, J. B. (2017). The Prisoners’ rights movement and its impacts, 1960–80. In Prisoners’ Rights (pp. 3-44). Routledge.
Woods, T. (2021). Slavery and the U.S. prison system. Global policy. Web.