Going to prison and getting “educated” and becoming “rehabilitated” is a commendable achievement. However, what we as a society must focus on is confronting those social causes that make prison and its rehabilitative programs necessary in the first place. Society’s goal should not be on making prisons better. It should be about making society better. We should not solely focus on those prison rehabilitative programs that fix the problem while neglecting the causes.
There’s a great deal of talk about the failed and broken prison system. And, in the same breath, we hear stories about how wonderful San Quentin is as the model for rehabilitation. Self-deprecating words such as, “I’m so glad I came to prison. If I hadn’t gotten caught and come to San Quentin, I’d probably be dead.” Does this really justify a need for “good” prisons and mass incarceration? Now don’t misunderstand me, I don’t want to dismiss all the good that has been accomplished by those who have gotten help, made amends and transformed their lives after being filtered through the prison pipeline. I just don’t think we should lose sight of the causal social problem. The problem, like the solution, has both a personal as well as a social dimension, demanding transformation on both levels.
You often hear people say things like, “Well, MY father didn’t have any government assistance and HE made it just fine,” or “Look at someone like Barack Obama; he’s African American, was raised without a father, and he made something of himself. In fact, he became president of the United States. What’s wrong with these young people?” I don’t think it’s fair that we should judge what most people are capable of by comparing them to the accomplishments of an extraordinary few. That applies to prison rehabilitation, too. Just because some people are able to come out of prison transformed against terrible odds doesn’t mean that prisons are good and necessarily helped them do that. Some people will endure any horrific circumstance and find a way to grow. If there is a woman who was raped by her father, and she manages to grow up into a kind, forgiving person able to accomplish much, you wouldn’t say, “Well, maybe being raped by her father was good for her, because look how well she turned out.”
We should be mindful that there are societal forces at play influencing our lack of community. Human interactions are being interrupted and eroded due to an array of factors, including chronic addiction to drugs and technology. These social factors destroy human relationships and alienate us from any sense of responsibility. People see the one side: Criminals lack care for their impact on others, are selfish and are willing to be destructive or greedy without considering the effect on society. But there is not an equivalent recognition of the values in society that promote such a mindset. Valuing human life, valuing honesty, looking out for others—those need to be woven into the core fabric of our vision as a nation in order for them to be lived out by most people most of the time.