The Prison Problem
The weakness of the West
“They’ll get what’s coming to them in prison!”
“You know what they do to guys like that in prison!”
“Don’t drop the soap!”
These comments often follow whenever a dastardly individual is given a prison sentence for heinous crimes, particularly where the obviously just punishment would be death. With the general rarity of the death penalty, and the ghastly gap of time between crime and punishment, the American population takes the possibility of prison rape as a consolation prize. This is clearly contrary to justice by any understanding of the term. Criminals must be punished, but recourse to other horrific crimes as the punishment (rape) is inherently evil. It is a satanic abuse of justice to give over the criminal to other criminals to exact the punishment. The right to punish belongs to the state as it is supposed to maintain and justly use its monopoly on violence. Those who accept the ‘consolation prize’ should repent of this and acknowledge that they have willed evil.
These thoughts forced me to return to the oft debated subject of number 2267 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. You will find the full quote below.
2267 Recourse to the death penalty on the part of legitimate authority, following a fair trial, was long considered an appropriate response to the gravity of certain crimes and an acceptable, albeit extreme, means of safeguarding the common good.
Today, however, there is an increasing awareness that the dignity of the person is not lost even after the commission of very serious crimes. In addition, a new understanding has emerged of the significance of penal sanctions imposed by the state. Lastly, more effective systems of detention have been developed, which ensure the due protection of citizens but, at the same time, do not definitively deprive the guilty of the possibility of redemption.
Consequently, the Church teaches, in the light of the Gospel, that “the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person” (Francis, Discourse, Oct. 11, 2017), and she works with determination for its abolition worldwide.
I contend that if prisoners are to be considered citizens, prisons do not adequately protect those citizens who are in prison from other criminals, at least in the United States. The likely underreported Bureau of Justice statistics on these matters state that “[t]he overall rate of sexual victimization reported by adult prison inmates in 2023–24 was 4.1%.”1 and that in local jails “[t]he overall rate of sexual victimization reported by adult inmates . . .[was] 4.0% in 2023–24.”2 Furthermore, it seems that sex-offenders will often use prisons as an opportunity to commit more of their favorite crime.
Approximately 14% of FBOP inmates are serving a sentence for a sex-related offense; however, these individuals represent 38% of perpetrators (an increase from 32% in CY2023) and 47% of victims in substantiated cases. Prior sex offense behavior increases the risk of both victimization and perpetration during incarceration; therefore, it is not surprising to see greater number of individuals with a sex-related offense involved in PREA allegations.3
One must also ask what crime the of the other 53% of victims landed them in prison? Is rape a just punishment for embezzlement or tax fraud? What solutions exist for this problem? The criminals are already in prison! There is an answer which lies in between death and an extended stay in the concrete block homicide hotel. We used to use corporal punishment and public shaming, often in combination.
One of our founding fathers is largely responsible for the modern form of punishment. He was a founder of the Pennsylvania Prison Society and argued that private confinement, labor, solitude, and religious instruction for criminals was superior to corporal and public punishment. This is obviously absurd, and we suffer the consequences. One of the most important aspects of punishment is that it is educational to the public. Furthermore, public punishment gives the public the necessary satisfaction to restore the sense of justice to them. Instead, we place our criminals out of sight and out of mind, and await their inevitable return to society.
And it seems ever more frequent that mindless violent criminals make their way out of prison only to commit more horrific crimes and then return to prison again. We must confront the modern state of Prisons with Iryna Zarutska at the forefront of our minds. While not all of the crimes which recidivists commit are as horrific as the murder of Iryna, each crime committed after incarceration is an additional crime against justice. If these beasts on the fringes of our society were kept in their cow-pens or were painfully punished, the following statistics would certainly be lower.
The 401,288 state prisoners released in 2005 had 1,994,000 arrests during the 9-year period, an average of 5 arrests per released prisoner. Sixty percent of these arrests occurred during years 4 through 9.
An estimated 68% of released prisoners were arrested within 3 years, 79% within 6 years, and 83% within 9 years.
Eighty-two percent of prisoners arrested during the 9-year period were arrested within the first 3 years.
Almost half (47%) of prisoners who did not have an arrest within 3 years of release were arrested during years 4 through 9.
Forty-four percent of released prisoners were arrested during the first year following release, while 24% were arrested during year-9.4
Released sex offenders were more than three times as likely as other released prisoners to be arrested for rape or sexual assault (7.7% versus 2.3%).
About two-thirds (67%) of released sex offenders were arrested for any crime, compared to about five-sixths (84%) of other released prisoners.
Half of released sex offenders had a subsequent arrest that led to a conviction.
Released sex offenders accounted for 5% of releases in 2005 and 16% of arrests for rape or sexual assault during the 9-year follow-up period.5
The above statistics are unconscionable. Criminals are not reformed by prisons. I do not say this out of any mistaken sympathy for violent criminals, but because it is not a sustainable state of affairs. The criminal portion of society lives only because our tax dollars support their existence. It restores nothing to the citizenry to pay for their meagre way of life. Clearly, they must be punished. That punishment must be more ruthless. Even if we do not liberally abuse the death penalty, we ought to sentence these individuals to corporal education. Work camps, at a minimum, can help to better American infrastructure.
Locking men in a box to be subjected to other crimes does not respect the dignity inherent to mankind. Corporal punishment treats man with respect. He was the agent of his crime. He may be able to learn from the punishment. Fear and pain are great teachers. Permitting a criminal to be violently sodomized teaches him only to be more violent and more anti-social.
Sexual Victimization in Prisons Reported by Inmates, 2023-24 | Bureau of Justice Statistics
Sexual Victimization in Local Jails Reported by Inmates, 2023–24 | Bureau of Justice Statistics
https://www.bop.gov/inmates/custody_and_care/docs/prea_report_2024.pdf
2018 Update on Prisoner Recidivism: A 9-Year Follow-up Period (2005-2014) | Bureau of Justice Statistics
Recidivism of Sex Offenders Released from State Prison: A 9-Year Follow-Up (2005-14) | Bureau of Justice Statistics