Most Prisons are equipped with rehabilitation programs, higher education assistance, general education assistance, trade schools, counseling, etc...the problem you have is you can force inmates to go to these classes, but you can't force them to want to change their life. I've talked to plenty of people who say the "hustle" is too exciting of a lifestyle to give up. I'd be interested in hearing realistic suggestions from you and Joker as to how to fix the system by forcing hardened criminals to be open to suggestions from couselors.
It's a shame that such a large percentage of our population, per capita (in comparison to other nations), are locked up. However, instead of feeling sorry for them for being locked up I tend to feel more sorry for the victims of their crimes.
First and foremost prison would be the last resort used against people who are dangerous, period. You cannot leave prison if you are still dangerous (sure, it's hard to verify). In my opinion the justification for imprisoning a person can only be to protect the innocent from their harm. The idea that we should cause criminals pain for the sole purpose of making them suffer is not valid, in my opinion.
I would separate the prison population into two groups; those who might be rehabilitated and those who cannot be or are not worth our time to even try (child molesters, people who have gone through the program before). Those who will not be rehabilitated are there for life.
I was impressed with my boot camp experience. Those prisoners who want to earn release begin at the lowest rank. They will be very busy for at a minimum 12 hours a day. They will wake up early. They will make themselves presentable by putting on a uniform in the correct manner. They will stand in formation and be orderly. There will be a strict protocol for damn near everything they do. They will have Sunday as a day in which they can write correspondence, attended religious services, shower at their leisure, read, etc. but it would also be the only day they could iron and fold their clothes (and there would be a line for the iron), study for exams, practice required skills. Other than that their time would be controlled from the moment they woke until they crawled into bed, exhausted and anxiously awaiting their average of 5hrs of sleep a night, not to exceed 6 hrs per night.
These guys would practice drill and formation (marching), how to fold and organize their clothes, handshakes, customary greetings, etc. They’d have to get good at it.
What I’m driving at is there would not be the “you’re gonna get raped” type scene at the rehabilitationary (I don’t care if that’s not a word) prison. It’d be a high discipline environment. Good behavior would be recognized and rewarded, bad behavior would be addressed on the spot and the corrective action would contain a certain level of humiliation for the offender.
Anyone who simply wouldn’t comply spent time in a half-way prison waiting to either re-enter the rehabilitationary prison or go into permanent internment. I’d imagine for the permanent folks it would be a sort of survive or die situation. They, at that point, would be considered to be completely outside of civilization. They could face the jungle law they wished to inflict upon the rest of us. It would not be supervised other than making sure they could not escape and that they had the basic materials needed to provide for their own survival. Short of that I imagine we’d just stick with maximum security prisons. But I think the “prison island” scenario is much more just.
I think the prison boot camp should last no less than 6 months. A prisoner could potentially make it in 6 months, but it would typically take more than a year. They would have to advance through the ranks, first being a recruit, then taking recruit leadership positions and satisfactorily performing the duties of the positions they hold. Then they would have to compete for the top leadership positions among the recruits that require them to outperform other people vying for them. Their success or failure would depend on their ability to get the newest recruits onboard with the program. If they made it through all that they would enter a training program that would take place in confinement. If they did not do well in training they would potentially go back to the boot camp, or if that had been tried too many times they might go to permanent status.
Point being, if you are hurting people you will be removed from society. At that point you can either get on-board with not hurting people or you can go to the ungoverned wasteland (most likely a regular prison).
The motivation to succeed is there, imho.
