How would your ideal prison system be?

[John Dule]

1) Abolish the death penalty.

2) Abolish solitary confinement as a punishment, but preserve it in cases of severely violent prisoners who may pose a danger to others.

3) Abolish mandatory minimums and eliminate "three strikes" laws.

4) Abolish all forced prison labor. Any work done by prisoners must earn them money and must be entirely voluntary.

5) Abolish all prison sentences for victimless crimes.

6) Provide all prisons with libraries and vocational training.

7) Automatically restore voting rights for felons upon exiting prison.

8) Routine random unscheduled audits of prisons by defense attorneys and state officials. Prisoners would have the opportunity to speak with their attorney to alert them of any mistreatment (beatings, unsanitary living conditions, lack of time outside of their cells, poor food quality, etc).



I would keep life sentences because I do think there is a very narrow subset of individuals who are too dangerous to ever be let out (school shooters, serial killers, etc).

[John Dule]

In an ideal world (probably not possible in the United States today), prisons would be faith-run, and a key focus would be on developing and nurturing Christian faith to allow convicts to be completely changed by Jesus and repentant of the sin that led to their incarceration.

Congrats, you found a way to make the American prison experience even worse.