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.
"Having worked at the Louisiana Department of Corrections for decades, retiring as state education director after 33 years, I've seen firsthand the dramatic changes that better education can bring for those who are incarcerated. Through the Correctional Education Association and American Correctional Association, I was made well aware that recidivism is one of the biggest challenges facing our local, state and federal prison systems."
The Advocate
August 29, 2018
Read More"'I’m not saying jails should be overly comfortable, but they should at the very least be humane,' Franks said. 'These young men that have died are human beings, and for whatever reason we lose sight of that once someone enters the jail. They were sons and daughters, mothers and fathers. They have people who miss them. They were worth something'."
The Appeal
August 15, 2018
Read More"While the mental health industry has the luxury of turning away people it doesn’t want the corrections system must accept whoever arrives at the door. If we "normalize" mental health jails for individuals with mental illness, we accept the shift from programs that help manage symptoms in the community, with or without supervision, to treatment in jail or prison as a first stop."
The Advocate
July 11, 2018
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