Privatized Mass Incarceration
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The purpose of Prison is 1) rehabilitation, 2) justice, and 3) the removal of those unable or unwilling to rehabilitate back in to society. Those in the first and second group should not be in the same building as those in the third. And it should not be the sole purpose of containing the incarcerated for free labor.
It is easier to break down prisons if we see the incarcerated in these three groups: those trying to rehabilitate, those unable to rehabilitate, and those unwilling to rehabilitate. These three groups should be kept separate within the prison system.
Third-Party Reviews
All prisons should be required to have constant third-party reviews of all jails and prisons (from juvenile to adult). The concern here is how often is "constant?" Yearly is too far apart, and weekly is too often. Once a quarter should be enough to cover simple inspections, and this can be adjusted as it becomes part of the process. If the prison fails the inspection, the prison should be on notice with another inspection scheduled in the near future. If they fail again, then either the prison itself or their inmates should be removed from their private custody if conditions are inconsistent with humane levels of life and treatment.
Prison Labor
A study has shown that for every dollar spent helping prisoners find work while they are incarcerated provides $2.40 to $3.16 back to society at large. Technology has reached a point where there are many activities and programs a prisoner can participate in to receive payment while also attempting to rehabilitate themselves. Performing this labor allows prisoners an opportunity to find work that can continue when they move outside the prison system again, It will allow prisoners to pay child support when not otherwise or previously able to do so, it allows restitution to those they have harmed, and reduces the burden on the prisoners families. Finally, this work can assist in paying for the prison itself possibly to the point a prison can become self-sustaining or at least more affordable to society at large.
OSHA and other labor protections should include prisoners even though a prison may see the prisoners as their own assets. The prisoners are still committing labor. Likewise, the money received should be allowed to go towards the prisoners social security, etc for when they leave the prison. Currently none of this is occurring.
Requiring work should be disallowed within a prison system, though this also means they should not be allowed the same perks having a job within the prison would give them.
Juvenile Justice
Juvenile Justice Process: Children / juveniles should be required to have a lawyer through every step of their Justice process, and they may only waive their right to an attorney after a discussion with one not representing the other side. If they have a guardian or parent, they should also be made aware, and any testimony given by the juvenile prior to this notification should be inadmissible. The exception to this would be if the case is against the guardian/parent, but the juvenile should still be required to have a lawyer present unless they have a discussion with an attorney not represented by the other side.
Consistent third-party reviews will check if the juvenile jail / prison system is overly focused pm penalizing every mistake versus a reward/incentivizing good behavior. Current studies advise that focusing only on the mistakes/negatives of a juvenile leads to a more negative mindset of the child.
Potential Rehabilitation Processes
To look in to: Family-focused multi-dimensional therapy models, mentorship programs, investing in community-based interventions. One of the most comprehensive studies in this field suggests that these diversion tactics (non-jail time responses) are better for kids and promotes public safety through reducing violence. Fund these programs. The goal is not to end all juvenile centers as they are needed in certain instances, but the goal is to focus on reform, not just mimic adult incarceration. Likewise, this offers an opportunity to start a study if these programs could also apply to adults for long term rehabilitation.
Deferred Prosecution Agreements and Non-Prosecution Agreements were once used to encourage rehabilitation efforts. It is time to use them for individuals once more rather than the companies and organizations that abuse them.
Privatized Incarceration
Liberty is already an unalienable right the government should be providing to all its people, so having prisons and jails that belong to private organizations should make citizens take an extra minute to think about. Private, for-profit prisons is counter-intuitive as it implies that these prisons want to hold more individuals, for longer time limits, to earn a greater profit, rather than a focus on rehabilitation for release to society once more. These private prisons are making justice punitive, not rehabilitative. This process is broken and needs to be refocused. Rather than paying private prisons to pack their buildings wall to wall, Payment should be given at-cost with extra provided for those successfully rehabilitated and released. Although this makes the second and third group (those unable or unwilling to rehabilitate) less profitable, through these two groups becoming more able to self-sustain themselves, these two groups are also more likely to be a consistent base income as the people inside are still less likely to ever leave. Nevertheless, much like if a bank fails, the government should be ready, willing, and able to step in to resume control of private prisons unable to meet these new standards and goals.