Let us talk about an old classical way of imprisoning the worst of
the worst, an island prison or penal colony. Why have we not brought this
concept back to protect society from the worst of the worst?
Advantages: In an island prison, the worst
elements of society are stuck. They have no escape save by boat. As
such, there is no need for walls, just obstacles to prevent landing by those who
would try to get these people off the island. Also, guards will not be
needed for the prison is an island, there is literally no escape especially if
its location is undisclosed. At most, a patrol boat from a craft
stationed off shore to prevent vessels from approaching would be optimal.
Well, this isolationist version is for condemned prisoners who the State
does not want back into society.
The penal colony version of this is
similar to the aforementioned, save that the prisoners work. In this case,
they will be made to grow their own food, with the excess being sold to
businesses for them to sell. Prisoners would also do factory work that is
typically needed for the State, such as making photo identification, license
plates and other unique tools and equipment that the government requires to be
given out or used. In short, prisoners become cheap labor. On top of
this, it keeps the prisoners busy with work over fighting each other. It
prevents them from banning together into cohesive groups as much as possible
(if well designed) preventing the deepening of the gang and terrorist
recruitment that now happens in jails today.
Negatives: In the island prison version, you are
essentially killing the prisoner off without actually physically killing them.
Instead, if they do not farm/harvest their own food they will die.
Also, they will be subject to the whims of their fellow inmates, which
means many are likely to die harsh deaths.
For the penal colony version, you
essentially have slave labor. Slavery of course is forbidden in the United
States under the Thirteenth Amendment with the sole exception of being a
punishment for a crime (hence community service and prisoners being put to work
in prisons). However, we must be careful to maintain humane treatment, or
we will be as bad as those who once oppressed people on the plantation, or sell
children as sex slaves today.
Conclusion: I want the prisoners to be put to
work. They need job skills in the first place. Teaching them
agriculture, factory work and other jobs can be useful once they finally get
out of prison (depending on their sentence). However, we must not give
way to slavery like in the past. We are supposed to have surpassed our
failings. On the other hand, an island prison to put terrorists, and
condemned prisoners is appealing as we would give them what they need to
survive by having them farm for themselves and slaughter animals, while also
being able to maintain and build shelter. This out of site self-sufficient
island prison is an idea that will only be stopped by the guilty conscience of
those who put them there. So what do you think? Are these classical
forms of prisons updated for modern times worth it?
No comments:
Post a Comment