On Prisons

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Before the advent of agriculture and cities, humans lived together in small groups of mostly related individuals, not staying in one place for long periods of time.  Minor offenses against the group like assault or theft were typically treated with corporal punishment and public shame.  The most serious offenders and those exhibiting incorrigible bad behavior were often banished from the group.  Expulsion, condemned to living alone in the wilderness, usually resulted in the death of the offender, from starvation or predators.  In this manner the group was able to eliminate the threat of harm from the miscreant, without the repercussions of outright capital punishment, e.g., revenge on the executioner.

Modern societies do not have that luxury, they needs prisons, if not capital punishment.  By prisons, I mean correctional institutions where the minimum sentence is one year.  Evil doers of every description are among us.  The human race provides a fresh crop of criminals at every turn.  Depending on how strict a society’s laws are, at any given time we can expect a certain proportion of the population to be incarcerated for common crimes, sometimes for many years.  The objective of modern prisons is to a) separate dangerous criminals from civil society; and b) where possible, rehabilitate the criminal to normal citizenship status.

What has changed in recent times, and will continue to change in future centuries, are the methods society uses house prisoners and prepare them for re-integration into civil society.  Even with all the humane advancements of the past, prisons for criminals are still primarily treated as warehouses, a place to incarcerate dangerous people for long periods of time. 

To varying degrees, attempts to rehabilitate the inmates are made, with some success.  Unfortunately, most inmates in prisons are housed together with other inmates in a “general population”.  This give rise to the rule of gangs, at least in men’s prisons, typically organized along ethnic or religious lines.  Women’s prisons may not suffer from the full effects of gang rule, but hardened inmates are still free to influence first offenders.

Needless to say, many young lives are ruined in these places. First offenders are corrupted by older gang members, pressured into committing more crimes and lengthening their sentences.  Some of these gangs have considerable power outside of their prisons, through gang members who have been released and young adherents who have not yet arrived. 

Most people would agree modern prison systems in the US and around the world are, for the most part, abject failures at their assigned tasks - the only exception being their ability to temporarily separate evildoers from the general public.  Given the high cost of even today’s rudimentary prison housing and rehabilitation efforts, it is unlikely we’ll see much reform in the near term.  General overcrowding of prisons, largely due in the US to the “war on drugs”, makes matters even worse.  Operational costs are higher and the living conditions for inmates in the general population are horrific.  To be thrown into one of these hellholes is a fate no one deserves.

Accordingly, society cannot expect things to change anytime soon.  A gradual end to hostilities in the so-call war on drugs will ease overcrowding, but the snake-pit conditions will continue for many years to come.  What we can do is to start thinking and talking about what prisons of the future ought to be like.  What methods can be used by a more capable society to house prisoners so they do not fall prey to gang rule?  What methods can be used to effectively rehabilitate inmates and ensure that those who will not, or cannot, reform are not released from incarceration?

Fortunately, psychologists and neuro-scientists are continually improving our abilities to modify thinking and behavior through operant conditioning.  A willing subject can (theoretically) be conditioned to permanently shun criminal behavior and actively conform to societal norms.  Clearly, modern civilization is not ready to embark on what we rightfully call “brainwashing” criminals, but sooner or later, public attitudes will change. 

We associate such behavior modification practices with the “re-education” of political prisoners in tyrannical societies.  But fast-forward several hundred years to a future society that no longer has such qualms.  Once the ice has been broken about advanced conditioning methods, prisons will reform, largely driven by economic considerations.  Fewer inmates, who don’t require high walls and don’t re-offend after release, will result in smaller, more efficient prisons requiring fewer, more highly paid staff positions. 

Crime in this future society will be recast as aberrant behavior, something to be corrected, if possible.  The punishment aspect of several years of operant conditioning will still be there, and useful for deterring citizens from offending in the first place.  I believe Fyodor Dostoevsky would approve of the new arrangement.

To illustrate this future prison paradigm, imagine you are a young offender in the year 2313:  You have a history of anger management problems, fighting and drunkenness.  You got into an argument in a bar, picked a fight, invited the victim outside and inadvertently killed him in the following brawl.  Since you were the aggressor and the other party is dead, after a trial by a jury of your peers, you are convicted of the crime of second-degree murder and sentenced to an indefinite term in the state penitentiary.

After you pass from the county jail to the state prison bus, the first thing you notice is how nice the attendants are; calling you sir and asking if you are comfortable.  Each prisoner is isolated in a separate cubicle and blanketed with “white noise”, so they can’t hear anything from outside except occasional voice contact with the attendants via a squawk box. 

Upon arrival at the state prison, you are ushered by burly attendants into a hospital-like environment.  Everything is clean and clinical.  You are still confined, with locked doors and occasional shackles, but everyone seems to be interested in you and your well-being.  The food is good, the rooms are comfortable, but there are no other inmates in sight.  You are starting to wonder if this prison facility exists only for you, which is precisely the intended effect.

From day one, treatment begins with extensive psychological examination and carefully prescribed conditioning, often without the inmate being aware of it.  Psychoactive drugs are applied and sensory deprivation sessions are used to focus the mind on prescribed words and thoughts.

Contact or correspondence with other inmates is entirely absent, therefore no gangs or unwanted influences.  Visits or correspondence with persons outside the prison are infrequent and carefully controlled.  Access to public communications is carefully controlled to fit each inmate’s rehabilitation program.  The staff becomes your only society, a comfortable surrogate family and support group. 

As we should expect when dealing with humans, some inmates will respond positively to this enlightened and coercive environment.  After two or three years, a typical first-time murderer comes out a different man or woman, anger management issues under control and deeply sorry for his or her previous crime. 

Some inmates, however, will prove to be incorrigible, or mentally ill to an extent that poses a permanent threat to society, ergo the indeterminate sentences.  If my hypothesis is correct, these dead-enders will be in the minority.  Nevertheless, they must be treated humanely, helped to cope as much as possible and by all means kept separate from other inmates.  By definition, these people are a danger to others, including other dead-end inmates.

We may not see much movement towards this new kind of prison in our lifetimes.  Current societal norms weigh against adoption of methods we consider cruel and unusual.  However, in the long run (several centuries) public attitudes will change, concomitant with a gradual increase in state controls on individual behavior – think of it as creeping socialism. 

Barring some environmental disaster like severe global cooling, the advanced civilization of 2313 will be very different from the daily existence we are familiar with.  Many aspects of individual life will be tightly controlled by society.  For example, women will not be allowed to give birth to children without permission from the state, in order to control population levels and eliminate birth defects.  In that sort of highly socialized environment, operant conditioning of serious offenders will be considered enlightened application of scientific knowledge.  Citizens of the 24^th Century will rightfully look back on today’s penitentiaries as barbaric institutions.

“O wonder!
How many goodly creatures there are here!
How beauteous mankind is!
O brave new world, that has such people in it”

- Shakespeare’s Tempest