Challenges and costs of mass incarceration

Write a six to nine-page (1500-2250 words) essay that relates and applies the course material found in Module Six to two of the online videos.
Videos:
● Behind the Wall; 2010 (video; 49:00 CC) https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/2675576109
● Life Inside Out; 2005 (video, 1:13:29 CC) https://www.nfb.ca/film/life_inside_out/

Module 6, Section 6.3:
Judge John Creuzot of the Dallas County Court, told Harper, “You will spend billions and billions and billions on locking people up. And there will come a point in time where the public says, ‘Enough!’ And you’ll wind up letting them out.” Creuzot says prison just doesn’t work as well as the less expensive methods he uses — because, one way or another, drugs and alcohol lie at the root of 80 per cent of crimes.” (Milewski, 2011) (Module 6, Section 6.3, Warehouse, Privatization, and Super-Jails)
Canada cannot compare with the US scale of incarceration – the rate of sentenced prisoners in Canada is 114 per 100,000; the US rate is 471 – although Canada’s rate is higher than every Western Europe country except Britain. (Module 6, Section 6.3, Warehouse, Privatization, and Super-Jails)
In 2019, it cost Correctional Service Canada an average of $110,000 annually to federally incarcerate one man (and twice as much to incarcerate one woman due to the lack of a ‘bulk rate’ discount). Provincial offenders cost $85,000 annually due to their large numbers and temporary nature. Three-quarters of cost goes to correctional employees; less than $3000 of that total is spent on education per prisoner. The cost of keeping offenders in their community is 70% less. The John Howard Society of Canada estimates the total spending on criminals in Canada (at all levels of government) is about $20 billion annually with corrections getting $5 billion, with Correctional Services Canada (CSC) getting about half that budget ($2.6 billion) making it the 15th largest department or agency by spending and the sixth largest department by staff numbers. Custodial services expenditures account for 80% of operating expenditures. ( Module 6, Section 6.3, The Great Warehousing)
“fundamental absence of purpose or direction creates a corrosive ambivalence that subverts from the outset the efforts, policies, plans and operations of the administrators of the Canadian Penitentiary service, saps the confidence and seriously impairs the morale and sense of professional purpose of the correction, classificational and program officers, and ensures, from the inmates perspective, that imprisonment in Canada, where it is not simply inhumane, is the most individually destructive, psychologically crippling and socially alienating experience that could conceivably exist within the borders of a country.” (MacGuigan, 1977) (Module 6, Section 6.3, The Great Warehousing)
During the first seven years of Harper’s government, the incarceration of visible minority groups increased by almost 75% – including a 43% increase in the Indigenous prison population (Office of Correctional Investigator, 2013; Ljunggren, 2013). (Module 6, Section 6.3, The Cost of Mass Incarceration in Canada)
“The prison-industrial complex is not a conspiracy guiding the nation’s criminal-justice policy behind closed doors. It is a confluence of special interests that has given prison construction in the United States a seemingly unstoppable momentum. It is composed of politicians, both liberal and conservative, who have used the fear of crime to gain votes; impoverished rural areas where prisons have become a cornerstone of economic development; private companies that regard the roughly $35 billion spent each year on corrections not as a burden on American taxpayers but as a lucrative market; and government officials whose fiefdoms have expanded along with the inmate population. Where correctional officials see danger in prison overcrowding; they see opportunity.
The prison-industrial complex (PIC) is not only a set of interest groups and institutions; it is also a state of mind. The lure of big money is corrupting the nation’s criminal-justice system, replacing notions of safety and public service with a drive for higher profits. The eagerness of elected officials to pass tough-on-crime legislation—combined with their unwillingness to disclose the external and social costs of these laws—has encouraged all sorts of financial improprieties.
The deterioration of public education, including prioritizing discipline and security over learning in public schools located in poor communities, is directly related to the prison “solution.” As prisons proliferate in U.S. society, private capital has become enmeshed in the punishment industry. And precisely because of their profit potential, prisons are becoming increasingly important to the U.S. economy. The nearly two million Americans behind bars—the majority of them nonviolent offenders—mean jobs for depressed regions and windfalls for profiteers.”(Schlosser, 1998)(Module 6, Section 6.3, The Prison industrial Complex)
“Private prisons are an abomination. The idea of putting people in cages for profit is ridiculous. Once you put people in a private prison, where’s the incentive to get them out again, or rehabilitate them? Private prisons will do what it takes to make a profit. They’ll skimp on food, on health care, on programs. They’ll skimp on anything they can and they’ll keep people in for as long as possible.”(Nathan, 2000)(Module 6, Section 6.3, Penetanguishene: Ontario’s Private Jail Experiment)
A John Howard Society investigation (2014) into Ontario’s super-jails found a “punitive environment contrary to human rights standards,” including
● missing basic needs – such as clean laundry, haircuts for court appointments, and winter clothing upon release;
● poor lighting, too little food, high noise level, and frequent cancelling of yard time;
● long delays to see a doctor or receive medication;
● released without basic personal property like I.D. cards and the difficulty of retrieving it due to the distance from home communities;
● complete lack of programs and services for the remand population. (Module 6,
Section 6.3, Mega-Prisons and Super-Jails) (Module 6, Section 6.3, Toronto South Detention Centre)

Sample Solution

The videos “Behind the Wall” and “Life Inside Out” provide a glimpse into the lives of prisoners at Kingston Penitentiary, one of Canada’s oldest and most infamous prisons.