#7. Revolving door penal system

We in America incarcerate more people than anywhere else on the planet. Now don't think I'm going soft on crime, because I never will. I believe in law and order. What I see as a danger in our country is a virtual revolving door of convicts. I can't tell you how many people I have locked up, put into the penal system only to come face to face with them a few years later doing the same criminal activity or worse.

I understand that some people are just inherently evil. These people can not be helped. They can not change, it's just the way they are. What I am concerned with is how do we, as a great country help those who want to change?

Recently for a college class I was given the task of finding something and changing it from the ground up. I took this as a challenge and dove into our penal system. I read study after study of peer reviewed literature and generally was unsatisfied by what I read. That is until I read a study of a prison program in Kansas where non-violent criminals were allowed to work 8 hour shifts making airplane parts for an airline company. The results were fantastic. The inmates involved in the program performed exceptionally, the quality was off the charts. The company was very pleased and saved millions on labor. The problem came when these trained individuals were released and then took their newly learned job skills to the company they were unwelcomed because of their status as felons. Some went back to a life of crime, some determined individuals were able to gain employment with smaller contractors for the airline company and continue to produce quality parts. This got me thinking, and I came up with a grand scale idea.

Bear with me because this is a long plan, but if you care for the safety and security of this country I think it bears looking at. I will use my home state of Illinois as an example.

1. Find land, preferably a shut down prison to retro fit, in Illinois I am thinking of a certain downstate prison that was recently designated as a place to send all the Gitmo detainees, that quite frankly will never go there.
2. expand on that land to purchase surrounding land making in effect a smallish city, wall it off.
3. Choose the top 5 to at max 10 % of non-violent criminals already in the system who have not committed any crimes or major infractions while incarcerate, I.E. model prisoners, and give them the option to transfer to this "prison city".
4. The terms of the transfer must be met with:
            a. an admission of guilt by the prisoner
            b. a willingness to forgo any parole options, a full sentence must be served.
            c. a guarantee by the prisoner to stay a model prisoner any infractions of the law will get the prisoner sent back to a regular prison with no possible re-acceptance into the program.

5. In exchange for these promises the prisoner will get placed into a much lower level of security situation, his cell will in effect be a small one bedroom apartment to be built on this land. The prisoner will then be given an option of jobs needed to sustain the "prison city." Be it custodial duties, construction, cooking or agricultural. The prisoner will receive training for their new profession. The prisoner will be expected to work with their community to sustain it. There will be everything a normal city can expect to see, including farming. The idea being that eventually this community once up and running properly can maintain itself, costing the taxpayers virtually nothing more than paying the salaries of the guards and other staff. The prisoners will also get anger management classes, drug abuse programs, alcohol abuse counseling medical care, etc. My goal for this project is that within ten years of the first inmates being admitted to the facility they could actually then sell their products to the outside community effectively bringing in money for the "prison city" half the profits would go to staff salaries and half back to inmate accounts.
6. Upon completion of their sentence the inmate will be free to go, with their savings back into the outside world, with job knowledge. Ideally the inmates should be encouraged to go elsewhere other than where they originally were when they were arrested. Part of the program will help find outside affordable housing for the inmates, another part of the program will work closely with local businesses to hire these ex-cons. In return for participating in the program the businesses will receive tax break incentives from the state. Thus when a prisoner comes to his or her release date they are returning to our community with a home, a job, some money in reserve and most of all hope. Also as an added incentive the prisoners felon status will be erased if they have not gotten rearrested in a year period after release.
7. The cities population would remain fairly stagnant, as one convict is released one will take their place.

All too often when I speak to ex-cons their response is "I do it because no one will hire me anyway, no one cares about me." Another factor I see is that the ex-con goes straight back to his gang or previous lifestyle where criminal activity is encouraged, this would end with housing placement.

My goal with this whole rewrite of the penal system would be targeted at the model prisoners, but would also, with the success of the program show borderline prisoners that there is hope and it could pay off for the prisoner to become a model prisoner. I feel that if there is a hope that something good can come from this, there is an incentive to change bad behavior.



Remember this only applies to non-violent prisoners, murderers, rapists or other predatory criminals would never be eligible for this program. My hope is that the program will also help our economy by helping the businesses hiring these reformed criminals grow and produce more. I think it definitely bears taking a look at, I'm sure there can be holes found in my logic, but all in all I feel it is a strong idea.

For the record, my teacher in the class, an activist, questioned me as to are we just creating more "projects" like Cabrini green. I countered that this would not be a band aid approach, we wouldn't just build it and forget it, it would be monitored and regulated with a microscope to make sure that the community within grows and flourishes. She also questioned about the cost, and while I am not an economist by any means, I will admit at the inception of the project it will be costly getting it started. I countered though that with proper administration of the "prison city" within 10 years it will cost the tax payers nothing and start actually making a profit for the tax payers.

I received an A for my overall project.