According to Megan O’Matz’s article in the March 15 WomanNews section, prison officials agree that “simply modeling a women’s prison after a male prison . . . doesn’t work . . . “
Of course it doesn’t work. But such a model should not work for men either. No prison should have overcrowding, lack of privacy for bathroom use, requirements that inmates show their bodies while showering, no sunlight or ability for inmates to ever see the sky, absence of facilities for education and counseling, and impossible conditions in which to forge or maintain some kind of relationship with family.
As distasteful as it may be to some to treat convicted criminals humanely, just such treatment is necessary for two reasons. One, the vast majority of criminals are released and return to society. If nothing is done during their incarceration to help them be better people, and if, in fact, their time in prison exacerbates their anti-social characteristics, the families and communities to which they return suffer.
And second, when we as a society treat others cruelly, regardless of their crimes, it only serves to diminish or eliminate our own humanity.
