Speech Corey McMullin

The prison system here in the United States focuses on the incarceration of millions of inmates, rather than focusing on the rehabilitation of inmates into society. Current incentives for prisons include retaining as many inmates as possible. This costs roughly $47,000 per inmate per year to keep in a prison. By keeping them locked away, separated from society, billions of tax dollars are wasted every year.
And these prisoners lose more than just their freedom, they lose their livelihoods. If a person is locked up, for any crime at all, they would lose access to jobs. A fisherman that collects too many fish will serve his time, but never be allowed to fish again. Not only would time be taken from them, their life would be taken.
Prisons, especially those in Texas, use the death penalty to literally take the life of those that commit heinous crimes, such as homicide. It costs, on average, $250 million tax dollars to execute just one prisoner. That same amount of money would pay for the inmate to be held in prison for over 5000 years, much longer than the inmate would live. Besides the financial problems execution brings, there is a clear moral problem. Michael Perry murdered three people for their car back in 2001. This gruesome crime earned Perry the death sentence, and he was murdered by the state of Texas in June of 2010. Did his execution bring back his victims? Did the nine years he spent in prison not change him, not make him into a better man? Did one wrong act merit the loss of his entire life?
These prisons, sometimes called correctional facilities, correct nothing at all. They focus on bettering the lives of those that run them. A former governor in California, Governor Wilson, raised spending on correctional facilities by 60%, and cut educational spending. He did all of this to appear “tough on crime” and improve his ratings. He got photo opportunities while hundreds got 25 to life. The prison system is used to earn money and power while keeping millions of Americans powerless for the rest of their lives.
Sentencing of criminals is extremely disproportionate. If you are arrested with 5 grams of crack cocaine you would receive five years in prison. However, you would need to have 500 grams of powder cocaine to get the same sentence. This makes no sense. Powder cocaine is more potent than crack cocaine, and much more expensive. This rule, the 100 to one clause, was put in place to protect the rich and powerful, that could obtain powder cocaine, while also filling their prisons with the poor.
The three strikes law sends away prisoners for life if they have previously committed two crimes. The prison system chooses to lock up criminals for life because they failed to rehabilitate inmates, and correct their behaviors. Rather than address the problem and help the inmates, the system tosses them to the side to be forgotten. And those that are eligible for parole can be denied parole by the governor. Governor Wilson turned down 1/3 of the requests for parole that a board had already passed. All of these laws have been put in place to appear tough on crime, even though studies have shown that crime rates had no changes with these systems, only approval rating polls changed.
But if prisons used assets to teach inmates, to rehabilitate them, the number of prisoners that return to prison within three years of their release would become radically smaller than the current 65%. An inmate with their GED is less likely to become a repeat offender. By training prisoners to use various trades, they will be able to improve their lives. There are many resources available for use thanks to the internet. Khan Academy is a free online class that covers a variety of school subjects.
If a prison were to train inmates in agriculture, they could work, producing food that could be used inside the prison, or even to help feed the poor. There are a variety of jobs that inmates would be able to do. This would then give them a new skill to use once they are released from prison, and would benefit them financially, helping to keep them out of prison.
By removing the death penalty, and thus removing the moral dilemma, tax dollars would be saved. These inmates would no longer be tossed aside, but instead used to benefit society as a whole. Prisoners spend their days idly locked in a cell. If they were instead put to work society would gain from the fruits of their labor, and the inmates themselves would grow into workers, capable of supporting themselves outside of the prison system.
To correct this inhumane treatment of inmates, it is those in charge that need to change the laws regarding prisons. Contact Mitch McConnell, speak out against the unjust treatment of inmates. Kentucky has 15 correctional facilities, housing over 14000 individuals. Help your fellow Kentuckians by speaking out against the cruel injustices done to them by the greed for money and power of those in office. America needs correctional facilities to focus on rehabilitation rather than punishment. Prisons should not receive benefits for the number of prisoners they keep, but for the number of prisoners that do not return to prison. Officials need to focus on helping inmates, not helping their approval rating.


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Aborn, Jon, Annie Van Den Toorn, John Hockin, Scott Jordon, Man Nayvelt, and Michael Finklestein. "The California Prison and Rehabilitation System." The California Prison and Rehabilitation System. Stanford, 26 July 1999. Web. 13 Dec. 2014.
Ex-top Cop Bernard Kerik: The Prison System Is Flawed. Perf. Matt Lauer and Bernard Kerik. NBC, 2013. Television.