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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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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What jail does is isolate the prisoners from the general population. Inside, they can't commit crimes, except on each other. Since a large majority of serious crime is committed by a (relatively) small number of repeat offenders or people likely to repeat, this is a major plus.
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