According to the front page of this morning’s Star Tribune (politicians), the best way to solve the overcrowding problem in prisons is to open another one, Appleton, which has been closed since 2010. Well, I must ask why it was closed down in the first place if prisons were showing signs of overcrowding?
The shadows on the wall: An eerie callback to the tool shed at C.I.P. Our walls were filled with tools like mauls and saws. As you can see here, Appleton had the same safety feature in their kitchen. Missing tools are obvious, if you can see the paint, the tool is gone.
Appleton is different in one major way from the other facilities under the control of the Minnesota Department of Corrections, it's a for profit business. Well, it was. In many ways we (ex-prisoners) would argue that our jobs in industry in Moose Lake and other institutions were making a lot of profit for the state, or whomever the checks went to. If you recall, I worked in the garments section for three months at Moose Lake prison for 50 cents per hour sewing 200 pair or more of men's briefs every day. They then offered them on our canteen list for a whopping $3.35 a pair. Granted, many of the briefs are given to new arrivals, and many more are sold to institutions for cheaper, it still seems like somebody has to be making a little money there. But I digress, this isn't what this post is about. I have a theory.
First off, and I think this would take care of a good 20% of the prison population, let's get the D.U.I. guys out of there and put them on home monitoring or something similar to what I'm on and get them to work, paying taxes, and working on doing positive things out in the community. There are way too many guys inside doing far too many years for drinking and driving, many of which weren’t actually even driving at the time of their arrest. But that’s another issue. Second, let's open Appleton and house all of the sex offenders there where they can go through their icky special treatment, make things for profit which, some of can then be turned over to their victims, and if treatment deems it necessary, house them there for the rest of their lives, at a reduced cost to society because of the for-profit nature of the facility.
I thought of the idea for this post looking at yesterday’s front page in which it proclaimed that, yet another priest’s home was searched for child porn. Why? Well, because four times in the previous two years, police had been called to his residence by neighbors who claimed they had heard sounds of distress coming from a child from his home. Four fucking times! What horrible people the neighbors are for not kicking down his door and dishing out some actual justice. In his file with the archdiocese were listed several concerns which included giving bear hugs to “grade-school aged boys” and “encouraging older altar boys to step down so younger ones could serve.”
The truth is, even if this guy is actually convicted, it will be his first conviction, and in Minnesota, they seem to let you touch up a couple-few before any serious action is taken, with reference to: this. Minnesota needs desperately to address the issue of prison overcrowding, and I believe I have made a good case for a solution in under 500 words. But how do we put it into action? No clue, politics aren’t my strong suit.
Does any of what I’m saying make any sense to you people? I’d like to hear your theories and comments on this, whether on Facebook or right here on this blog down below in the comments section. Maybe someday, somewhere, somebody important will read it and know what to do. Until then, the front page will keep looking the same every day.
