Even if an inmate's sentence is not oppressively long, their treatment while incarcerated can still constitute subhuman treatment. Prisons are not medical facilities, but they regularly are forced to deal with mental health problems and care for elderly and terminally ill inmates. Food, if it's even edible, usually lacks enough nutrition for inmates' health to not deteriorate. Plus, with a lack of opportunities to see family, read, or gain skill sets, inmates are placed in buildings which lack any resemblance of the civilized world.
"To make big impacts on jail populations, we need to expand who we think of as good candidates for diversion or release, and we need to speed up case processing for others who must stay in custody for public-safety reasons. This means focusing on individuals seen as higher-risk, such as people who have been charged with nonviolent felonies or who are in jail because they violated the terms of probation or parole."
Governing Institute
July 10, 2018
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