Waupun Correctional Institution mission statement:
""To provide for the public, the staff and inmates incarcerated at the Waupun Correctional Institution, a safe institution and for inmates, a constructive environment which encourages positive growth and enables them to reenter and cope with an ever changing society, thereby, enhancing their probability of success.""
A ""constructive environment intended to increase an inmate's probability of success"" sounds like an appropriate goal for a prison that calls itself a correctional institution. However, in light of a recently settled lawsuit by Waupun's prisoners, it has become clear that its mission statement is a sham. The inmates' grievance regarded their treatment in Waupun's maximum-security segregation area, created to hold prisoners who violate rules or are considered a danger to others. The two prisoners and their attorneys were awarded $113,000 and forced Waupun to spend $60,000 to renovate facilities and improve quality of life there.
The conditions in Waupun make it clear why it has the highest rate of suicide of any state prison in the country. Inmates were not allowed to have pictures of loved ones, read, communicate with other prisoners or buy basic supplies. Lights were kept on twenty-four hours a day, and prisoners were not allowed to cover their eyes to sleep. They also spent their entire day within their cells, allowed only four hours a week of recreation in tiny outdoor cages with no cover during the winter.
Is this the constructive environment Waupun strives to create? Is this how they plan to increase an inmate's probability of success? To be fair, their mission statement does not define what ""success"" means. If the conditions of their prison are any sign, then success must mean retaining prisoners, further dehumanizing them and guaranteeing their return if released. It's no surprise that over half of all inmates in the United States return to prison. Our correctional facilities are failing to produce results by making little effort to aid those incarcerated. This ultimately leads to releasing criminals into a real-world environment that sends them right back behind bars.
The inhumane conditions of Waupun can be seen in state systems all around the country. And the debate over how to properly hold inmates raises complicated moral dilemmas. Perhaps the first step is to define what the role of a prison should be. The Federal Bureau of Prisons website states first and foremost that the goal is to protect society, but also claims to assist offenders into becoming law-abiding citizens. Criminals, especially those who have committed violent crimes, are a danger to society and need to be kept separated. But without rehabilitation or any attempt to educate and assist inmates, their imprisonment is dead weight morally and economically.
The biggest challenge facing change in the prison system is a lack of sympathy. Much of the public feels that criminals deserve punishment, but this lack of sympathy puts improvements in prison life and rehabilitation far down on the political agenda. Even more importantly, prisoners and felons, who constitute approximately 5.3 million Americans, are unable to vote. Many Republican politicians value this fact and strive to maintain it out of fear that the prison population would lean left.
So how should we rehabilitate? Locking prisoners in cages and forcing an unhealthy environment is not the answer. When so many inmates have little to no education and suffer from a variety of mental illnesses, how are we helping their recovery when we treat them like animals?
If we truly want our prisoners to change their ways and become law-abiding citizens, they need help, not punishment. The problem is that we don't care if they do change, and those in charge of making such decisions profit greatly from the way things are now.
Inmates provide an extremely cheap source of labor, and companies that profit from this inexpensive work lobby intensely to increase sentences to maintain this growing population of workers. When inmates are given the choice of working for 25 cents an hour or spending time in solitary confinement, as so many prison systems do, rehabilitation has been sacrificed for profit. So for now, let's call it by its true name: a growing industry free from the pesky restraints of human rights.
Autonomy and flexibility from the state allow correctional facilities to make the vision of ""high quality at good value"" a reality in the present economy.This demands us to rethink and debate the business model that underpins the university.
I am pleased that our chancellor is leading that conversation and that our students are listening, thinking, and debating. It is the most important applied learning project we will undertake this year.
Miles Kellerman is a sophomore with an undeclared major. Please send all feedback to opinion@dailycardinal.com.
