Just Watched Survivors Guide to Prison

Woke up at 2AM and couldn't fall back asleep so I watched this. I've avoided prison shows like the plague for the last 5 years, but was compelled to check this out for some reason. Don't know what to make of it or what my take-aways are but wanted to write through it. The documentary explores how fucked-up the American prison system is. Some bullets off the top of my head: -1/3 of all women incarcerated in the world are in the U.S. -It's estimated ~100,000 innocent people are in prison. -The 13th Amendment excluded prisoners and tons of prisoners are currently working for pennies per hour for Fortune-500 corporations. -80% recidivism rate. -U.S. sentencing times are several fold higher than average. -We have more prisons than college campuses in this country

I'm not 100% behind the movie's message. I do not think all people are inherently good and we definitely do need to eliminate a lot of people from society. But there is zero argument that prison is accomplishing a modicum of reform. The amount of suffering going on behind bars is astounding. A younger me, clutching a copy of The Fountainhead, would have said with conviction that we have enough people and people reap what they sow and everything is fine. I'm still only 26 but I seem to become more OK with nuanced views as I age, which is cool, but also frustrating because it's difficult to come to conclusions. I just sit back and think, "Fuck if I know." But there are certain things that are unquestionably wrong and a lot of them are going on in the American prison system. I'm afraid I'll be fulll-Bernie by like 35, but oh well..

A lot of people in prison are bad people. But a lot are victims of circumstance to some degree. Everyone is if you extrapolate far enough. People are born to shitty parents who didn't want them, their mom smoked while she was pregnant, they have shitty genetics, they have been given shitty nutrition from the womb, they're lacking physical and intellectual stimulation... they're just thrust into a society which humans weren't designed for. A lot of them are brought up in terrible environments. They don't see anyone around them succeed and have no concept of applying for scholarships and getting a job and all that shit. Humans are driven to survive in the moment and people do what they have to do to survive.

I could have easily been one of these guys serving 25 years because he got 5 years for drugs and was forced into violence in prison and was convicted of additional charges. I've been arrested 4 times. The first 3 times were before the age of 16 - two different DWIs in the same night, drug charges, evading arrest, and some other shit I forgot. I was arrested when I was 22 and fresh out of college, working my first FT job, for 2X felony possession of weed and 2X felony intent to distribute. I sold a half pound to undercovers and my apartment was raided simultaneously. I was arrested on a Friday night, spent 3 nights in jail, posted bond Monday morning, and was released Monday night.

I completed two years probation, making my felonies expungeable, paid some fines, and did 75 hours community service (well I actually did like 6). That was the last time I saw a jail cell. While on probation, I kept my job, started several businesses, got married, bought my first house and my first investment property, and was able to quit my job. It was almost a year between my arrest and my sentencing. People with no money and no family sat in there for that time. And they showed up to court in an orange jumpsuit. I showed up in a regular suit. I'm a clean-cut white male who hired a very good attorney and basically got a slap on the wrist and had time to build his life back up immediately after the arrest. I wasn't even in the court room at the same time as the guys who didn't make bond. People with attorneys are in and out before they are even brought in. But I do know that there's a plethora of guys sitting in prisons right now who did the same shit I did but didn't have money for bond or a lawyer. The prosecutor looked at him like he's every other poor black kid sitting in prison, saw it's an easy win for his record, threw the book at him, and went home to eat steak. It's kind of fucked up how we're calling that justice.

And if someone is innocent, the chances of being let go are almost zero. 95% of trials end in a plea bargain. That's the prosecution's game plan. They throw the book at you - shit they know you didn't do. And they make you plea down to a lesser crime to avoid prison time. I was threatened with 15 years, theoretically. You can always go to trial by jury if you want to sit in jail for 6 more months and have 12 fucking unemployed do-gooders (I've had jury duty twice - this is an accurate demographic - anyone who valeus their time gets out of jury duty - these fucking lameos are not your peers) who see you just like the prosecutor convict you. I understand the concept of two sides battling it out (defense & prosecution). It does not work like that in practice. Prosecutors have an incredible informational and resource asymmetry. They are routinely dirty. And they are incentivized for generating convictions and nothing else.

There are 10X more people with mental illnesses in indefinite solitary confinement than in hospitals. That's torture. If you don't want someone in society, kill them; don't torture them for their entire lives. And if you weren't crazy before solitary, you will be after. I understand there are people who are not fit to be around other humans. Most of the people in solitary probably fit the bill. But the fact of the matter is that our current solution is to torture them indefinitely with tax dollars. I don't know the right answer, but that's a wrong one.

I suspect this is bigger than just prisons. Society is growing increasingly ill. We're growing fatter, lazier, and sicker. Almost everything that people die from is, to some degree, self-inflicted. We live in artificial environments surrounded by strangers yet feeling isolated. We lack physical and intellectual challenge. We medicate our children for acting like children with drugs we do not fully understand. We lack purpose. Climate, politics, agriculture, factory farming... fuck, we were never intended to live like this. Some people get lucky and they're born with high-RAM brains and/or good families. But if you just follow the defaults in this society, you're likely to end up miserable - in a cell or in a cubicle. People act out. And we have nowhere to put them. Lots of money floating around. Corporations are just acting in their own best interests in the environment they find themselves in. We've built all this and I have no idea what the answer is. Is human suffering quantifiable? Does it even matter? Some chemical reactions and electrical signals bouncing around in people's heads in certain fashions should be of concern to us or no? Compassion makes sense evolutionarily to preserve your family and tribe and because of the principle of reciprocity. But what's the logical benefit in compassion for strangers in other countries? I don't know. Feels right though.

I don't know the answer nor do I even have an argument. Just wanted to write all that down.