honestly, aside from the institutional racism, creeping fascism, cronyism, cruelty, lack of accountability and violence, I think a major problem with policing is that we consider solving murders, responding to domestic crises and mediating on-the-spot disputes to be one job.
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what the fuck does jail do? it takes a bunch of ppl whose crimes vary from serial rape & murder to petty theft & fraud, and puts them all in a big cage under the control of people and corporations who are, let's be real here, almost cartoonishly sadistic and evil. that's it.
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long term, this accomplishes literally nothing but a) more violence and abuse; b) a high rate of recidivism, because almost nothing is done to help reform or rehab even the mildest offenders, who are then pushed out of most jobs on release; c) a market for prison labour -
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- which, best case scenario, means prison corps can undercut companies that could provide real work & wages by "paying" their workers a pittance & thus saving $$, and worst case is actual, literal slavery, which is still legal in the US if in punishment for a crime. seriously.
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it wasn't that long ago that US prisons were "volunteering" their inmates to fight wildfires in california, some of them juvenile institutions; no inmates were paid, nor did they earn any credits/training that would help them become firefighters on release.
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and lest you think "ah, but I'm not American, my prison system doesn't work like that, we're fine!" please be aware that many of the other issues I'm outlining with What Policing Is still apply! yes, even in your progressive country! because it's STILL A LOCKED-IN SYSTEM.
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anyway, it's late and I'm cranky, but there is literally no good goddamned reason for policing & prisons to function as they do except that we've always done it kinda that way, and now it all looks Too Hard to change without admitting the degree to which We Really Fucked Up.
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but, as the saying goes, the best time to change was yesterday; the second-best time is now. just remember that progress with a locked-in system won't always be linear or flawless, and that sometimes, ripping the whole goddamn thing out by the roots might just be your best bet.
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End of conversation
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Without the threat of power, why do you think anyone much will listen to the social worker? As G.K. Chesterton said, all religious dogmas have to be taken on faith... except for Original Sin, for which there's abundant empirical evidence.
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Also, 'rehabilitation' is largely a farce. Adult human beings don't change much as far as I can see, absent something utterly traumatic. Happens occasionally, but it isn't the way to bet, and in any case takes enormous resources.
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