74 thoughts on “Blog #84 – Convict Leasing and the New Jim Crow”

1. David Kent March 8, 2016 at 5:18 pm

   I think we should reform our prison system to make it more responsive to those who have mental health issues or are petty criminals. As mentioned in the article, mental illness will make it more likely that you end up behind bars. It is unfair to put someone who committed a crime due to their disorder (that they didn’t choose to have) in the same conditions with a criminal who choose to commit felonies. These people with mental illnesses deserve to be treated in an environment that is built to rehabilitate, not one used to punish people for breaking the law. After people are sentenced, they should be extensively examined for any signs of mental illness. That way, the people get the treatment that will actually help them be reintegrated into society. As for the petty criminals, there should be a fine line drawn that separates vicious felons like murderers and rapists from people convicted of tax fraud and purse snatching. While I appreciate that there are some prisons like Angola where all of the people would have committed serious crimes are put together, I feel this is not always the case for every prison. There should be separate prison types, each designed differently to suit the needs of the kind of inmates they have. A murderer doesn’t need to be taught why it’s not right to commit tax fraud, and vice versa.
   I feel that prison has really changed from what we saw in “Slavery by Another Name.” The prisoners trapped in the convict leasing system were treated much lower than a human. The wardens and landowners who hired them didn’t care about their health or rehabilitation, just the profits that the prisoners would bring them. This is no longer the case. While some will argue that it is justified to treat criminals subhuman since they broke the law, most prisons have changed from slave labor camps to places of recovery. As seen in the Angola video, convicts are encouraged to find sanctuary in God and to try to make an effort to be prepared for release into the real world. While inmates still go out and work, they are checked by a doctor in order to be deemed fit for work, and they aren’t worked to death like back in the day. Most prisons now can truthfully call themselves places of rehabilitation due to the reforms that have taken place since the days of convict leasing.
2. Chance Stephenson March 8, 2016 at 9:46 pm

   1. Yes. There is little room for argument here. John Oliver has issued well over a dozen episodes about prison in America, all of which I recommend. You asked us to watch a video, and I ask the same. https://youtu.be/_Pz3syET3DY, definitely worth the watch. Above all else, the prison system in America is broken beyond belief. Our prison population is greater than the population of some countries. In fact in October 2013, the incarceration rate of the United States of America was the highest in the world, at 716 per 100,000 of the national population. While the United States represents about 4.4 percent of the world’s population, it houses around 22 percent of the world’s prisoners. In addition, there is another severe problem: minimum sentencing. As the video on Angola penitentiary states, the prisoners only receive help and assistance after they hurt somebody. Another key problem in America is prison overpopulation, which would be less likely to happen if we had better education and metal health treatment beforehand. Other key reasons why we should educate more and forgive petty criminals more are simple economics. According to federalregister.gov, The fee to cover the average cost of incarceration for Federal inmates in Fiscal Year 2011 was $28,893.40. The average annual cost to confine an inmate in a Community Corrections Center for Fiscal Year 2011 was $26,163. If we educate more and simply don’t keep people in prisons for as long, we should be able to save money, and spend it on education to prevent further crimes.

   2. Prison has changed. Has it changed enough? Not quite, but it certainly has changed. In the time period following the civil war, convict leasing was a huge problem. Inmates were subjected to brutal, dehumanizing work, which could often be fatal or debilitating. Now, the work that inmates do is significantly less. In some prisons, such as California, there are opportunities for inmates to work as firefighters or other jobs. In return, the inmates receive pay and their sentence is lessened. Likewise, their work is less dangerous and not very fatal. Sadly, not every prison is in California. There are many prisons who do lease out their convicts for labor, but even still, our justice system has changed. First, there is slightly less racism in this type of convict leasing. When convict leasing originated, upwards of 80-90% of prisoners were black, and the legal codes were explicitly against blacks. While there still is institutional racism today that disproportionately targets African Americans, it has been lessened. According to AmericanProgress.org, now 60% of inmates are black, which is still way too disproportionate, but is slightly better.
3. Callie B March 9, 2016 at 12:10 pm

   Our prison system is in dire need to be reformed in order to make it more responsive to those who are subject to mental health issues and to those who committed petty crime. Our society’s intolerance for people with behavioral disabilities needs to be re-thought as well in order to change the amount of people with such issues wrongly sent to prisons. Most misconceptions lead us to believe that those with mental issues are a danger to the public, and either way dumping them in jail is not the help these people need. Someone who is not aware or can’t understand why they committed a crime is different from someone who consciously chose to break the law. An important step in correcting the current prison system would be to provide the imprisoned with mental disorders with a specified program to help them find a way to manage or overcome their disorder. For those put in prison who committed petty crime, that’s another problem with society entirely. Today it is more likely for a black man to go to prison than a white man over a crime such as shoplifting. Racial stereotypes that have been around for centuries in American history effect criminalization of groups of people that ends in unjustly with being thrown into prison. A system set up to favor the white and the privileged needs to be changed. Petty crimes, while depending on the situation, should not be punished with a long sentence to prison. Even if the convict is sent to jail, there should be separate facilities or at least a difference in systems for the petty criminals. There is a clear difference between a shoplifter and a rapist that isn’t always clearly defined in prisons. Prisons such as Angola in Louisiana have changed; there are programs in place and people involved who truly want to improve the lives of the inmates and give them a sense of purpose in jail. From what I have seen of convict leasing, motives for forcing the men to work were driven only by greed. When it comes down to labor in the fields, however, I don’t think there is as much as a difference as there should be compared to convict leasing. If those forced into the system refused to work there were no consequences if you punished by whipping or even killing the man. While I hope Angola would not go as far as killing a man unwilling to work, the video did state that punishments included being in solitary confinement for more than a few days. This is a side of the prison the Warden clearly didn’t want to go into detail about, and the part where he was casually talking about the man who wanted a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for his last meal creeped me out. Even when one of the men in the fields pointed out a group who despised being forced to work, the crew never asked for their input on their life at Angola. They just talked to a man happy to be riding around the fields. Some important steps have been taken in making the prison systems such as Angola different from what is seen in “Slavery by Another Name”, but there are still conditions in modern prisons reminiscent of what convicts had to go through after the Civil War that need to be reformed.
4. Christian Zeitvogel (2nd Hour) March 9, 2016 at 12:21 pm

   Today, our country’s prison system has the highest number of incarcerated people on record, roughly 2.2 million people. This over-crowing of prisons has become ridiculous, and something must be done to reform this. First of all, the issue of mental health must be revised. Too many people are actually receiving better treatment or lessened sentences, hiding behind the excuse of mental illness. In 1986, in the case of Ford v. Wainwright, the accused was convicted of murder and sentenced to death. However, as time progressed as he was awaiting his execution, he showed gradual behavior changes, showing mental disorder. After a psychological evaluation, it was concluded that he didn’t have the mental capacity to understand that the crime he committed was wrong. Due to his inability to understand, after it went to the Supreme Court, SCOTUS ruled that someone can’t be executed or severely punished if they suffer from mental ailments. Now, we see that many people have hidden behind this clause in order to reduce their punishments for severe infractions. There are cases where mental illness has been concluded as a factor for violence, such as the Sandy Hooker killer who suffered from Schizophrenia, or the gunman found dead after shooting ten victims at Oregon’s Umpqua Community College. These people do deserve some form of help or therapy. However, for some of these killers, as they’re in the middle of their trials, they plead for forgiveness in the name of some incurable mental illness that compelled them to kill. For some of these people, there may have been a mental illness; it’s called psychopathy. In the original case of Ford v. Wainwright, the result of this case was to provide help for the mentally disabled who couldn’t understand the consequences of their actions. However, psychopaths understand what they’re doing is wrong, but they still carry out these despicable acts due to their mental manifestation of amoral or criminal thoughts and desires. Yet, with the manipulation of the Supreme Court protection, these sociopaths are able to avoid the process of death row and harsher punishment because of their claims to mental disability.
   Also, in regards to petty crime, this must also be revisited. A petty offense is defined as “a minor crime and for which the punishment is usually just a small fine or short term of imprisonment; a misdemeanor; minor felony, as defined by Oxford dictionary. Among these crimes includes minor theft, traffic violations, and drug abuse. Drug abuse specifically should be the focus of this reform. Instead of being locked up in prison, where they’re not taught any new skills, they should be receiving rehab. Unless their addiction led to violence towards someone else, instead of wasting taxpayer money on grown-up timeout that only sets these addicts up for failure, they should be introduced to twelve-step programs that set them up for success by the time their sentence is up. In the Angola prison system, Warden Cain adopted this philosophy by providing some sort of moral into these peoples’ lives that straightened them out in the form of religion, and helped transform them into better fathers, husbands, and human beings. For those suffering from addiction, it’s redundant to simply separate the person from the substance by locking them up in a cell and forgetting about them; they should go through education experiences to train them to cope and slowly rid themselves of addiction, and help evolve them into beneficial members of society. In addition, people ruin their lives by making stupid mistakes that wind them up at prison at young ages. Very frequently, these people were set up, or put themselves into high risk situations that wind up in some sort of felony. A prison sentence doesn’t look good on these young peoples’ personal records, and it often ruins their lives going forward once they’re released from prison. It sabotages their chances at achieving decent jobs as well as other opportunities, all because of a foolish mistake. Once again, while they’re in prison, they don’t learn any life skills, nor are they straightened out. Prison education/ adult annexes should be implemented in order to assist these people get back on their feet, so that they do bring something greater to the table when they’re looking to renew their lives once they leave prison.
   When compared to the class video, “Slavery by Another Name”, it should be concluded that our prison system has changed in the U.S. While there are still accounts of involuntary servitude going on in the country’s prison systems, they’re nowhere nearly as cruel or unusual as what it was in the class video. Beatings, lashings, and other forms of disciplinary actions have been reduced or eliminated. However, the use of involuntary servitude might be considered a healthy practice, so long as it doesn’t greatly endanger the inmate. Valuable taxpayer dollars are going to fund these people who have committed horrible acts, so that they may eat, be fed, have a place to sleep, and even have access to TV, exercise, and basic healthcare. They shouldn’t simply be sitting in a cell all day reflecting upon their actions, but they should pitch in and give back to society by completing mundane labor.
   One aspect that hasn’t changed however is the ratio of African-Americans to white incarceration. Roughly one in four black males born today can expect to be imprisoned during their lifetime. The Department of Justice released the statistic that roughly 69% of American-American males that dropout of high school will end up in jail. Furthermore, blacks are about three times more likely than whites to be searched during a traffic stop. Similarly, blacks are twice as likely to be arrested, and almost four times more likely to experience the use of force during their experiences with the police. Some sort of cultural revolution must take place in order to reform this imbalance and upset this Jim Crow apple-cart.
   One of the largest reforms that should take place in our country’s prison reform process should be the total eradication of private for-profit prisons. These private, third party prisons are owned by individuals who are contracted inmates, and make a profit off of locking people up. These prisons make a profit partially by cutting the benefits and even basic rights of some of their inmates and pocketing the tax and government money. For instance, in one Michigan for-profit prison, it was reported that prisoners were fed food that had been broken into by rats, and had contaminated the food. A juvenile hall down in Florida used intimidation tactics similar to those used in North Korean prison labor camps. They coerced and rewarded their inmates to beat and spy on each other for rewards. One of these prisons’ tactics is to target minorities and arrest them on minor charges in order to jail them in these for-profit prisons, increasing their revenue. The larger scandal that goes into this is that these private prison owners then use their revenue to lobby in congress, and gain protection against regulations, searches, or any threat of them being shut down. The Washington Post reported that the two largest for-profit prison corporations “have funneled more than $10 million to candidates since 1989 and have spent nearly $25 million on lobbying efforts.” These prisons have exploited minorities, immigrants, and minors, and have skyrocketed the rate of incarceration for a profit. Even worse, they’ve protected themselves by “legally bribing” politicians through lobbying so that they have our nation’s “pure leaders” in their pockets defending these for-profit prisons and their despicable mistreatment. We must put an end to for-profit prisons, and it starts with America standing up to this not commonly known corporation.
5. Max C March 9, 2016 at 4:14 pm

   I think that the fact of the matter is that we simply have too many people in prison. Not only do they cost taxpayer money to feed and shelter, they aren’t making money and paying taxes to the government. In essence, prisons are a massive sink of taxpayer money, other people’s money in particular, and they need to change. One potential way to change the system and help petty criminals or nonviolent offenders would be to make the requirement for incarceration much stricter. Why do we need to lock up people who aren’t a direct danger to those around them? Not only is it a waste of money and effort, it can lead to a downward spiral for an otherwise law-abiding citizen. I propose that prison sentences for most nonviolent crimes should be removed, possibly being replaced by fines or community service. Instead of costing taxpayer money to hold a prisoner, why not have them work or pay the country back?
   I would say that prisons have changed from how they were in Slavery by Another Name. While the populations of prisons remain disproportionate both now and then, the conditions have gotten much better. For one, prisoners are not used for extremely dangerous jobs like coal mining. Also, abuses of power in prisons can be reported much easier with the advent of the Internet. However, it’s not all good. There are still thousands of prisoners that shouldn’t be there, falsely accused blacks in the 1800s, and nonviolent offenders in 2016. Also, there are still people with an interest in keeping people imprisoned. Back in the 1800s, it was coal mine owners, but today its for-profit prisons that get money from the government based on their number of prisoners. The prison system today has far too much in common with that of the 1800s, and has a ways to go before it can be considered effective.
6. Michael Homer March 9, 2016 at 4:14 pm

   1. I personally believe that we should reform our prison system to make it more responsive to those who have mental health issues or are petty criminals. The article had claimed that, mental illness will make it more likely that you end up behind bars. I believe that it is unjust to put a person who committed a crime because to their recollection they might have not seen it as a bed thing because they have a disorder. The people that contain these mental illnesses should be treated better in an environment that is more beneficial towards them, as opposed to one for the punishment of convicts. When people get sentenced, they should be tested to see if there was anything mentally defective causing them to commit a crime. By doing so, these mentally ill people will receive a treatment that could benefit and maybe solve the problem; opposed to punishing them for something they might have had no control over doing. Now focusing on the petty crimes done, there should be a barrier between the punishment for them and the punishment done to murderers and rapists. The difference in the crime should cause a prison sentence, for example the person who murders someone should not be helped and taught not to do that again he should stay in prison for the rest of his life, where as the person who steals a phone should get some punishment, but only enough until he/ her understands the consciences of committing a crime. Although I believe that if the same person steals again after being set free there should be much harsher punishments on that individual.

   2. Prison has definitely changed in a huge way from what we saw in “Slavery by Another Name.” The whole idea of convict leasing is not and will never be a possibility again. These convicts were treated even worse than slaves were because there was no reason to keep them alive they have committed a crime and were not bought where as the slaver were bought and owned and were not killed because that would be unbeneficial towards the owner. The people in charge of the prison wouldn’t even convict black people for fair reasons; they could get arrested for just looking at a white girl in a way they viewed wrong. They also didn’t care about the healing of the prisoners. Even if prisoners are worked now a day they wouldn’t be worked to death, not like back than where it was a normal to be worked to death and forgotten about.
7. Camille Rochaix March 9, 2016 at 4:18 pm

   Like they said in the video, I feel that the underlying problem of why we have this many criminals today is because we don’t take charge in helping or conversing with people with mental issues or felons of petty crimes before they do the terrible deed’s that cause them to land in a federal prison. The thought process is that, if we tackle the problem before the problem arises. The problem will never occur. Of course the problem will never go away, that is the end goal, but the sad fact is that it most likely wont disappear. If the people with these mental illnesses were given sufficient treatment, or were regulated, I feel that the crime rate would go down. If a person has a mental disability that causes them to think irrationally or murderous thoughts, it should not be ignored. That person should be worked with, even if it is a first time thing. Saving a person’s life that could have been taken away because people decided to allow a mental illness or petty crime pass is not okay. I feel that the prison system in Angola is kind of fair. If you committed murder, I for one have no sympathy. If a person stole a person’s life, the person who did this crime should have to suffer for it. Though it’s kind of like Slavery by Another Name, because racism and false accusations is still prominent. Like that man who rides in the wagon in the video, he is suffering a life sentence for a crime that he says he did not commit. Did he really commit murder? I have no idea that was up to the judge or the jury for his case. But it’s sad that he had to give up his whole life for a murder that he did not commit while the actual murderer is free. Racism is still prominent in many people today, even though many will tell you they aren’t racist, there are many who actually are racist. So I have no idea if racism had a factor in that man’s case. The ratio of how many African Americans go to jail compared to the White ratio is appalling. I wonder how many cases of where to jury or the judge were racist, and gave false verdicts because of it, up to the point of this ratio, and how the ratio would actually be if absolutely no racism was involved.
8. Yuval K. March 9, 2016 at 4:24 pm

   1. I do believe that the people that have mental health issues and people who have done petty theft should go to a different prison system. With the people with mental health issues, as the article stated, they are more likely to go into prison. Those people should not go into the same prison system as others because they are mentally ill. They should go somewhere where they are rehabilitated to get them on the right track to see what they have done. Some people that are in prison probably do not have a mental illness, they are people who created a horrible crime that they should be punished for. People with a disorder have to be helped in a way where they are cared for differently than “regular” people because putting them in a regular prison might not help them realize what they have their mistake. A person can’t punish a person with a disorder like a person without one because they are different people, they comprehend information differently. People with a mental illness committed their crime because of their disorder, and it can’t be fair to punish a person with a mental illness like a person who did the crime on purpose. A person with a mental health issue did not choose to have an issue, they did not choose to be in the situation that they are, where as a person who doesn’t have a mental issue, might have put themselves in their situation on purpose. People who have done a petty crime should not be in the same prison system either. For instance, shoplifting and a murder isn’t the same thing. Something that was shoplifted can be returned or paid for, a person’s life cannot. I think that it’s silly to put a murder and a shoplifter in the same prison system because each case should be handled differently. A punishment that is fit for a murder would be too harsh for a person who did a petty crime because they didn’t take another person’s life. And vice versa, a punishment for petty crime would not be harsh enough for a murder because they have taken someone’s life.
   2. I think prison has changed from the movie Slavery by Another Name and the prison now. In the movie that we watched, prison was like slavery, people, mostly African Americans, were tortured, beaten, and or sold. People bought prisoners because they could get them at a low price and the prisoners would have no choice but to work for them. They couldn’t really get out of the convict leasing, they were trapped. Also, some of the people who were prisoners had to work in mines for most of the day, they couldn’t see the sun. Now, it isn’t like that. People aren’t bought, whipped, or killed. The prison keepers, unlike the people who controlled the prisons then, cared more about the prisoner’s health. In addition the Angola video shows how the prison in Louisiana has changed. It does make people work hard, but it rehabilitates them. It brings Christianity so that the people in the prison can make their life a little more spiritual.
9. Emma L March 9, 2016 at 4:29 pm

   Yes, I believe that we should reform our prison system to make it more responsive to those who have mental health issues or for those that committed petty crimes. For those who have not had any contact with mental health issues, the things that it does to a person’s brain are hard to comprehend. It is not a small disability and the fact that the third leading cause of death for ages 15 to 24 is suicide is the only evidence needed to show that mental illnesses are serious (American Association of Suicidology). Approximately 20 percent of state prisoners have had “a recent history” of a mental health condition and 70 percent of youth in juvenile justice systems have had at least one health condition and at least 20 percent live with a severe mental illness (The National Center for Mental Health and Juvenile Justice). These rates are so high that I find it hard to believe that we don’t need reform. Prisons are slowly becoming mental health facilities as more and more criminals are identified with illnesses such as schizophrenia, major depression, and bipolar disorder. Those working at the prisons where these criminals are kept do not have the proper training to deal with people who have serious mental disabilities. Besides the fact that prison guards are not equipped to administer care to those affected, prisons are often not built to cater to the needs of mental health patients. Although those in question are criminals who have, in many cases, committed heinous crimes, the cost of not caring for these people is too high. An article published by USA Today, entitled “Cost of Not Caring: Nowhere to Go,” describes the plight of one women, Karen Kelley, who has battled depression for 15 years. Two years ago, she was experiencing such hopelessness that she almost succumbed to her disease. Kelley described her experience as feeling “…hopeless, as if the world would be a better place without her,” just one look at the terror depression and mental illness can bring. Karen’s psychiatrist tried to have her admitted to the hospital so she could receive treatment. The hospital, the city, and the state had no available beds anywhere. Her condition became so serious that she swallowed an entire bottle of pills so the hospital would be forced to admit her and help her deal with her illness. This story exemplifies the plight of many who are dealing with depression while incarcerated. Because of the deteriorating economy, more and more we see the hospital bed being replaced with the prison bed; those with mental illnesses are unable to cope and end up committing crimes that involve them in the criminal justice system. If we don’t reform our prison system to deal with these additions, we aren’t providing basic medical treatment to those who desperately require it. We wouldn’t deny a person treatment for a broken leg or cancer, how can we deny it for someone with bipolar disorder or depression?
   I believe that prison has changed from what we saw in class with Slavery by Another Name. The amount of inmates in prison for petty charges has drastically dropped; most of the men interviewed in Angola for Life are there for second-degree murder, sometimes multiple accounts. Before, it was commonplace to find people, all if not the majority of them were African-Americans, in jail for vagrancy and debt. Prison has also improved in terms of the living conditions. The men in Angola have so many opportunities to learn new things, join ministries, and create clubs. The prison warden was committed to making sure these men had ample amounts of activities to spend their days. There closest connection to Slavery by Another Name was the fieldwork but these men were convicted of serious crimes and the work they are doing isn’t as terrible as the mining and brick laying and field work that inmates were subjected to after Reconstruction. Although there are comparisons between what we saw in the video, the conditions are so much better, so much more is offered for inmates, and the majority of those working are convicted criminals so I believe that prison has definitely improved, just going off of the example in Angola for Life.
10. Alexis Arbaugh March 9, 2016 at 4:40 pm

    1. I think that we should reform our prison system to make it accommodate people with mental health issues but not for those who committed petty crimes. Those who are born with mental health issues can’t help if they were born that way, sure they can try to get help but there are just some mental illnesses that cannot be fixed. I am in no way pardoning crimes committed by people with mental illnesses but those people are more sensitive to things like the harsh prison system that we have today. Some mental issues are so bad that the person can’t control themselves or what they do or maybe they forgot that they killed someone. There is no reason why these people with mental illnesses should be at the same prisons as the regular people because it might be too much for them to handle and they might get even more violent. Not saying that the prison they go to will be and nicer or caring but just being out of the harsh environment with all the bad criminals could benefit people with mental illnesses. These who committed a petty crime should not be taken out of the harsh prison system with all the really bad criminals. If the harsh system can help murderers get their head back on straight then it should be easy for a thief to do it too. People who do smaller crimes already get a shorter sentence then those who committed murder and have to stay for life so why make prison any easier for them just because their crime was something small.
    2. Yes prison has changed since the time after the civil war. During that time the prisoners were not cared for as well as they are today. They would have to do hard work from before the sun came up until after the sun went down six days a week. They would be whipped, beat or starved if they didn’t do something right. They were treated as less then human, some even call it another form of slavery or slavery by a different name. Prisons have gotten so much better since those times. Prisoners now still work but it is in much better conditions and they don’t get beat every time they do something wrong. They are working for money to go into their prison account so they can buy things. Back then prisoners would work just because they were told and got nothing out of it.
11. London McMurray March 9, 2016 at 4:53 pm

    1. I think we should reform our prison system and make it more responsive for convicts with mental health illness. There should be a series of test given to diagnose any possible illness. If a convict is found with an illness they should be sent to a alternate prison or even a mental asylum where they will still be restricted an held there for the same amount of time they would if they didn’t have an illness. They should also be offered helped since the purpose of prison is to rehabilitate convicts in hope for a change in character. The prison system should also reform to be more petty criminals. I feel as though if the prisoners must work there should be categorized jobs based off how bad your crime was. For an example if you stole a car your job would be to sow garments or kitchen duty but if you murdered 3 people you would have to do heavier and harder labor.
    Personally I don’t feel like having to work while you’re in prison is a bad thing because prison is still a punishment. If all you had to do was sit in a cell all day, people would commit more crimes because criminals see it’s not really a punishment you basically just pick how long you sit in there. Yet the labor you do shouldn’t be unbearable and the working conditions should be good enough for a “free” person to work in. Working is good because it makes you dread prison just a little bit more so, therefore fits the criteria of being punishment but not cruel, and it also makes you think twice about committing a crime. I also don’t feel like it matters how much you get paid because at the end of the day you aren’t working to make a living or by something you want. Honestly I could see working in prison as more of an opportunity to pay off your prison debt because it does cost to live in prison. So maybe if they created a system to pay off their debts the money they accumulate can be put in an account to pay off their balance.
    2. Prison has changed but hasn’t changed since slavery. It has changed because technically you’re not forced to work unless you get arrested compared to slavery it didn’t matter either way. It hasn’t changed because although all races are subjective to becoming a prisoner coincidentally black people tend to end up in a jail cell more than white people, even though both races are doing the same crimes. Even as we see with recent stories like Trayvon Martin, that neighborhood watchman was 100% wrong and guilty for killing him, all evidence proves that it was his fault, yet he didn’t spend a day in jail. But let a black man kill a 17 year old white boy, he would’ve been convicted with a maximum sentence. So in that instance, it really hasn’t changed because there is still racial injustice.
12. Allison Miller March 9, 2016 at 5:06 pm

    Watching the video Slavery by Another Name, reading the article, alongside with additional outside research and information, I believe our penitentiary system is thoroughly mixed up. The American prison system should reflect American values and rights. It needs to be responsive to the individual needs of the prisoners, and it needs to do so in a modern way; it isn’t the 1800’s anymore. While every prisoner may be in the penitentiary for the same accounts of either manslaughter, or murder, or otherwise, each crime was different. Each person there has a story, which was played out in front of a jury but perhaps not done full justice. When you come across names of people in prison who are handicapped by mental illness or other mentally disabling health issues you wonder why there are there, and how they were allowed to fall so far and suffer so much. I believe any person who has committed murder did so for one of three general reasons; one, they were caught up in the heat of a moment and immaturity lead them to complete this unplanned act of supreme violence. Two, they got mixed up in something out of their control but they couldn’t find the independence or self-confidence to step away from their gang and the crime. And three they were an underling in the planning of the crime but got caught and was tried as the murder himself. While there are many causes and effects, there are a general three that I have often come across in research and books and I summarized them as so. Slavery isn’t far removed from the penitentiary we saw in Slavery by Another Name. Both displayed large field worked by black hands and black backs sweating in the hot southern sunlight. While people try to take comfort in the thought that these people are here because of dreadful crimes they committed, people should also ponder the reasons why the huge majority of prisoners are black. I believe it all has to do with the beginnings, before any crime has even been committed. We need to start throwing our resources and efforts into preventing crime before it happens. The only way to prevent it thought is not through lectures or posters on middleclass high school walls, change will only occur when something big is made different in the lives of the types of people who end up in prison; poor/lower class blacks from slum neighborhoods with little family support or education. In the video the interviewer spoke with several African Americans who all discussed their crimes of murder and said it was committed when they were merely teenagers, still immature and unable to make proper decisions for themselves. In order to prevent murder and help those at risk to becoming a jailbird we need to go to those at the unwise and immature age and help them to seek another path in life.
13. Josh Klein March 9, 2016 at 5:18 pm

    1. I personally feel that we do not need to reform our prisons. Although, it is clearly not moral to throw someone in jail because of a lack of education or a mental handicap, it is occurring way to often within our borders. If anything, I believe the only reform should be the separation of the mentally distraught and the convicts. While some criminals may plea innocent and claim their reasoning behind any given crime to be due to mental instability, the government should be responsible for separating these people from those convicted of harmful crimes. Besides that, I feel our prisons should remain the way they are now. The people in there were convicted of a crime. Whether they are innocent or guilty, someone felt that they deserved to be in prison and has evidence to secure their claim. Our government is using tax dollars to keep inmates in confinement. Clearly, the feel that there is some point in keeping them alive. Whether it is to use them as a source of labor, or to give them a second chance, what is wrong with it? I feel that nothing is. Many people feel that these men and women owe something back to the community. For the money spent on their room and board, or the crime they “committed”, these convicts do owe us something. In the article, Warden Burl Cain said “prison labor provides a way to pay back society for the costs of incarceration, as well as a pathway to correct deviant behavior and possibly find personal redemption.
    2. After watching Slavery by Another Name, I feel that the prison system in the United Sates has changed. After the Civil War, many southerners were filled with rage after the abolition of slavery. Many Americans were still racists. All that was needed to be done to re-enslave the black population was to get them into a court with a semi-racist judge. However, in the present day, much evidence is needed to incarcerate a human being. There are some innocent men and women occasionally put behind bars however. Also, the prison system tends to focus on allowing the convicts to correct themselves. If needed help is available, even if it might be through physical labor. When participating in involuntary servitude in a modern prison, if inmates are treated nearly as harshly as inmates were over 100 years ago, the guards would face dire consequences.
14. Katie Westerlund March 9, 2016 at 5:25 pm

    Yes, for people who have mental issues the prison should set up rehab centers to help them through their problems. Possibly aiding them with medication and doctors and supports groups. I also think they should reform the prisons sentencing for petty criminals. I think the main thing is to set guidelines on how long a sentence can be for certain crimes. Some petty crimes should have shorter sentences than others; a petty criminal should definitely not have the same sentence as a 2nd degree murderer. Having rehabilitation programs will help make the inmates more equipped for life outside of prison. Also having guidelines for sentences could give inmates hope for improvement and getting out and leaving their criminal self behind. Reforming the prison to cater to criminals needs, will help them so that if they are released they won’t have any want to do what they did again. I think a rehabilitation program should be put in place because many will benefit from it.

    I think yes, because now the prison is helping the criminals to become better people and leave their criminal records behind. Also I think now when the criminals are working it is preparing them for the outside world, or keeping them busy and providing the prison with services. Burl Cain, the warden, has also implemented religion into the prison to help the inmates find God and hopefully start to forgive themselves for what they did. The prisons have been improving through time, as they are not as harsh and inhumane as they used to be. In the begging convict leasing was unsafe, as they treated the inmates as slaves and were allowed to whip them. Today the convicts are treated much better and in the video I learned that some of them are even thankful to be able to work in the fields or auto type shop and not just be locked up the whole day. Burl Cain is still working, after decades, to give inmates hope and improve their time at the Angola Prison.
15. Isabella Levitt March 9, 2016 at 5:27 pm

    I think that our prison system does need to go through reform to fix responsiveness to mental health issues and other unconsidered circumstances. Those who suffer from mental illnesses need a different kind of care than being worked into the ground without any reward of their own. In general, these prisoners are being treated as less than human, which shouldn’t be acceptable in any way. This is especially true for those suffering a mental illness that can impact every aspect of life, even under the very best conditions. A person with a mental illness, when treated as if they aren’t human or worth real respect may begin to accept that as their truth. This is detrimental to their overall well-being, and can leave them in a bad place. Many people with mental illnesses cannot get treatment or are too scared to seek help, and having a mental illness can put a person at more risk to commit a crime. It would be better for our prison system to focus on helping those people get their mental health where it needs to be, to avoid something similar repeating itself when/if they are released from prison.
    I personally don’t think that prison has changed from what we watched in Slavery by Another Name. The conditions are very similar to what we saw, and the lives of prisoners are almost identical. In the year 2016, people might be telling themselves that there’s no possible way things could be like they were after the Civil War happened, but it clearly is. There is nothing that can be claimed is better about the prison system mentioned in the article than the system of convict leasing we’ve learned about. They both work the workers much too hard with too little reward or benefit for the workers themselves. Especially when you factor in the fact that nothing has changed about the ratio of races most commonly taken behind bars to do work like this, you can realize that there’s nothing very different even after all these years.
16. Connor Bradbury March 9, 2016 at 5:36 pm

    1.
    I think we should reform prison systems to be responsive to both petty criminals and those who have mental issues. For those that are petty criminals, prison should be a correctional process that is a punishment for their crime, no matter how big or small. Since the sentences are proportionate to the crime, I think that if you commit a crime, you should automatically be punished. Without prison to punish the criminal, they would just be able to run free and wreak havoc. I think that convict leasing isn’t all bad either. If you commit a crime, you did so knowingly, and broke the law. Like the Atlantic article said, they shouldn’t be treated like normal citizens/human beings if they don’t behave like normal citizens/human beings. I think it is also unfair for prisoners to be fed and housed while they do nothing, so making them work to compensate for their prison expenses and to correct their behavior would be a good thing. It is also possible for this work to allow individuals to find “personal redemption”. It gives them a sense that they matter in the grand scheme of things. So, if someone commits a crime, they should be given the justified punishment after they are duly convicted, even if that means having to work. After all, the 13th Amendment exempts those duly convicted of a crime from the ban on involuntary servitude. But I think there should be an exception for those suffering from a mental sickness. I think that the mentally ill shouldn’t be subjected to the same form of punishment as regular criminals. They have a mental condition that effects their day to day life, and the way they think as well. In some cases, it can force people to commit murder. In these cases, the people deserve help. Mental institutions should be more widely used in the sentencing of those with mental illnesses. They need professional help so they won’t be a danger to themselves and others. If they are sent to prison, their condition may worsen, and they could even kill themselves or cause someone else harm. So I think that while prison should be a correctional process, individuals’ needs and conditions need to be assessed in the sentencing for the right correctional and rehabilitative action to occur.

    2.
    I think that prison has changed since what was shown in Slavery by Another Name. While convict leasing is still apparent today, I don’t think it is as bad today. At first, convict leasing gave landowners the point of view that the convicts were expendable, and had no value, so it didn’t matter if they got hurt or died. Today I think the convicts aren’t put in such dangerous situations where they could die. They just work to compensate for their sentencing, and as punishment. I think our justice system is much better as well. Many blacks would get thrown in jail on trumped up charges, like loitering, and forced to work. Nowadays, I think sentencing is much more fair, so people don’t have to worry about going to jail and being forced to labor for something like loitering. Although, I’d say there is still a certain prejudice when it comes to the likening of blacks to criminals, and the overgeneralization that came with the amount of blacks that were put in jail years after they’d been freed. Even today 1 in every 11 blacks are under correctional control in US facilities that are the most crowded in the world. You can also compare police brutality today to the way blacks were treated back then. Blacks today are getting beaten by police and receiving harsher punishments than some whites that might do the same thing. So I think that while the prison and justice systems have generally improved since then, there is still a certain amount of prejudice that blacks have to deal with when it comes to how the law is carried out, and the image it projects onto blacks as a race.
17. Skye March 9, 2016 at 5:40 pm

    First, the prison system should be more responsive to people with mental health issues. I understand you may have done something awful, but if something is really wrong with you then that needs to be address. Sometimes people with mental illnesses are more prone to do rash things. That’s why you see mainly white people not going to jail or getting a sentence they deserve because they are called depressed because of something that happened when they were a child. Even though you may be depressed or have any type of mental illness that doesn’t give you the right to go on a killing spree. So, yeah I believe that they should be given the same sentence as a person that did what they did who doesn’t have a mental illness, but should receive treatment and medication to maybe help them out because they still are a human being. Onto petty crimes. I don’t think someone should get 10+ years for having a gram of weed on them and another person get only 3 years for rape, which I have seen happen. I t’s just not logical. First, weed isn’t going to kill you or scar someone for life. Sex offenders should not be allowed to walk the streets ever again. This goes to that school to jail pipeline because you see little black kids ending up going into the prison system for something as petty as stealing something and they never make it out of the system. The only way out is death.
    I don’t believe that the prison system has really changed from what we saw in Slavery by Another Name. Yes, there are some changes such as the prison guards can’t beat you with a whip or not feed you, but black people are more likely to be thrown in jail for petty crimes. As we have stated in class the African American race is a minority, meaning we have less people, so why is it that there are more black people in jail than white people when we are the lesser race. Just how it was in the video Slavery by Another Name. Black people are shown as convicts and we see it all the time in pop culture. Is it that white people don’t do drugs or black people are arrested more frequently because they are racially profiled and the police officer comes up with some reason to arrest them. A graph from the Huffington post said that 20% of the white population has tried compared to 10% of the black population in America. People in prison are worked hard and they barely receive any money especially not enough money to try and make a living after they get out of jail. Also, because of these petty crimes that people get arrested for they aren’t able to get a job because they are discriminated against for having a previous run in with the law. Have you ever thought about it someone can’t get a job a job, so they can’t supply the basic needs for their family, so they steal food, then one day they get sent to jail for stealing food for their family and when they get out they can’t get a job so the cycle starts over again.
18. emma gillard March 9, 2016 at 5:42 pm

    1) Yes I do believe we should reform our prison system because as it is right now, its not fair to some people. I feel like it isn’t that bad but the fact that they can put them into solitary confinement if they don’t agree I feel like that is not fair because someone who has a mental problem couldn’t know what’s happening maybe they would just say no and get rights taken away for having a mental problem. Also I don’t believe that petty thiefs or crimes should be punished by working hard like slaves used to. And what happens to the people who can’t be sent to the work places. But I was also wondering that they wouldn’t have to change the fact that they can see their family because that’s good. But in the end this whole prison system resembles slavery and some people might not like it because its not right to bring slavery up again because it wouldn’t make sense to start it over again when in the past so many people worked hard to stop slavery we can’t go back on what our ancestors did to help the U.S. So if John Miller created the system just to industrialize the south wouldn’t it be over by now or have we gotten so used to it that it has brought us back to before like when we still had slavery. Which is a reason why we should change it.
    2) Not really, I mean in the movie it showed they made slaves that were criminals work in the fields to help the south’s industry. Which is exactly what they are doing now, there aren’t only blacks these days but it’s still mostly blacks. In both they made criminals work in the field for the south’s industry. There is no difference really the only really big difference is that today there are more whites that are also working because they are criminals.
19. Heather Flannery March 9, 2016 at 5:56 pm

    Personally, I believe that the prison system should be reformed. I think it is a major problem in having over 2 million people in prison, which is more than that of China which has a much much larger population compared to the United States. Racial discrimination also occurs a great deal among federal and state prisons. In regards to drug users, African Americans are much more likely to be targeted over Whites for no apparent reason. This is a major problem. The prisons’ are becoming so populated and that may be preventable simply with education or mental health treatment offered. With less people in prison the cost of maintaining the prisons would slowly decrease. The prison system has been around for hundreds of years, with only a small amount of change. In prior years, convict leasing was a large problem primarily targeting African Americans. The work was extremely harsh and the people were treated horribly. Now, some prisoners are still forced to work, but do not have to endure quite the horrendous conditions those back during the reconstruction time period did. Some are forced to work under a threat of punishment. Some of these punishments go as severe as solitary confinement. Payment is offered though compared to how convict leading was run. I think that the prison system has changed in how the racial discrimination is not as severe in getting prisoners to work, but there has not been enough change in treating people in the way they should be treated. I am torn on my answer to this question because those in charge are not as harsh and severe as in the past, but people still have to work and may receive horrible consequences along with the disproportionate percentage of different races. The prison system has changed, but the country still has a long way to go.
20. Claire B March 9, 2016 at 6:02 pm

    I think that we should make our prison system more responsive to those that have mental health issues and petty criminals. I think that for these types of criminals only, a better system could be put into place to help educate, inform, and rehabilitate. For mental health convicts, I believe a better medical facility should be in place in prisons across the country to help those with mental health issues recognize what they have, help treat it, and help the inmate understand what they are dealing with. It is not enough to just declare someone criminally insane and stuff them into a box for the rest of their lives, they at least deserve to be treated properly. It would also help to lower the rate that those with mental health issue go to prison if our society changed our views on that topic. It should be discussed more in the open, and be made a more comfortable situation for those that have it to deal with. As for petty criminals, ultimately they need to be recognized and clearly separated from serial murderers and rapists. Someone who stole a pair of sunglasses from a convenience store and a rapist should not be in prison for the same amount of time and then after released, receive the same treatment as those murderers and rapists. And when it comes to petty criminals, there should not be as much racial stereotyping as there is right now. Just because one of your suspects for shoplifting is black, definitely does not mean he did it. There needs to be a better system to get petty criminals out of the prison system fast, rehabilitated quickly, and back on their feet in the outside world. When they get our of the prison system, I think it should be more acceptable in the American workforce to employ a person who committed a small crime than putting them in the same hole as arsonists and murderers. As for comparing the video to the movie, “Slavery by Another Name,” I did not see the movie because I was absent so I can’t compare them.
21. Justin Sherman March 9, 2016 at 6:31 pm

    1. I think that we should reform our prison system to make it more responsive for convicts who have mental heath illnesses. Before anything is done it must be made sure that the convict has an illness and he goes through a short testing for it. I then think that there should be a separate prison or metal asylum for these convicts. Having them in the same prison depending on the mental illness might not be a good thing. Having a separate place would help to separate them from other issues. Here they could also get help in order to help them when they get released, however they should be in the prison or asylum for the same amount of time. I don’t feel that a prison should be more reform towards more petty criminals. A crime is a crime and to get to the point in which you were put in prison you would have had to put someone else life in danger or done something terrible. No matter for what reason you get put in prison you should have the same treatment as others just for a shorter amount of time.

    2. I do believe that slavery has changed from what we saw in Slavery by Another Name. In the film convicts were to me seen as cheaper slaves. It was easy to get hold of them and when one of them died you would just lease another one no problem. These people that were put into convict leasing to me seemed trapped. There was really no way fro them to avoid it. These blacks were convicted for little reason if any, leased away, and then when there day for release came they were lucky to be released and if they were they would just be convicted again. Now it is no were near this. People are not treated like this at all and people are released when they are supposed to be. The worst it gets for these prisoners is having to work and even then they are not being treated poorly. Sure they are forced to do the job, but they are not treated anywhere near how slaves or leased convicts were. I believe that our prisons have dramatically changed because of the way prisoners were treated then compare to now.
22. Sean Bonner March 9, 2016 at 6:39 pm

    1.) I do believe that we need to reform our prisons to rehabilitate those who suffer from mental illnesses and petty crimes. Locking up all of these prisoners for committing crimes that aren’t entirely their fault not only harms them and the social system of the country, but it also hurts out economy. Paying taxes to house these prisoners that serve long terms for crimes that aren’t completely their fault only adds to the large amount of taxes that the nation’s taxpayers have to fork over. Also, locking up people who are insane or who suffer various illnesses isn’t helping them change their lives for the better. If you look at it, prisons in a way are depriving these prisoners’ chances of making amends to their wrongs. At the same time though, I agree with warden Cain’s plan of rehabilitation for those who do not suffer from mental illness; those who have committed a felony with no mental issues. Working these inmates in jobs that give them feelings of self-worth and boost their self-esteem is a great way to mentally rehabilitate these criminals. Teaching them skills like mechanics gives them responsibility, as well as life skills that they can use to better themselves once freed from their sentences. I guess what I’m saying, in a nutshell, is that we need to change the qualifications for prisoners to be deemed appropriate for prison labor.

    2.) There is no doubt that prison today still has ways in which it can be improved. However, it has definitely gone through change from what we saw in the video Slavery by Another Name. In the Reconstruction era, we saw that countless blacks, men especially, were victimized by being forced into convict leasing. These prisoners worked for 15 hours a day with absolutely no regulations or safety precautions. They often didn’t see the light of day for months at a time when working in coal mines. Their working conditions were completely inhumane, and convict leasers had no desire to treat them better, mainly because if they lost a prisoner due to overworking or death, they could simply replace the worker. Today, there are regulations set that properly feed, clothe, and care for the prisoners. While their work may not be desired, they at least enjoy livable working conditions, as well as learning skills and values that give them chances to redeem their lives once out of prison.
23. Giovanni Romano March 9, 2016 at 6:44 pm

    I believe that there are certain aspects of prison that we do need to reform, such as mandatory minimum sentences, mental heath, and pay for the work prisoners do. The first part of the US prison system that needs reform is the mandatory minimum sentences for crimes. These mandatory minimums can make it possible for someone in Oklahoma with 25 pounds or less marijuana in their possession will have to serve 2 years to life in prison. (Criminaldefencelawyer.com) The fact that having less than an ounce of a substance that is legal in 23 states in some form, could go to prison for the rest of their life is insane. I could go on and on about ridiculous mandatory minimums but I feel like Oklahoma’s 3 year mandatory minimum for stealing a cow, pig, or any implement of husbandry sums up how badly these laws need changing.
    Mental illness is another issue that is being glossed over in the prison system. There are certain mental illnesses that make people lash out at people, such as sociopathy, phsycopathy, and borderline personality disorder. If these illnesses are caught earlier and treated better, this could put a large dent in the 45% of federal prisoners that have mental illnesses.(NAMI.com)
    The prison system has changed since the introduction of convict leasing. First of all the treatment of prisoners is much better than those shown in the video. There is now little to no physical punishment for crimes in the prison system. The opportunities that are offered to prisoners today is a drastic change that the prison system needed. The idea behind prison is to punish people but not destroy their lives, the systems that were shown in the Angola video display that these prisoners have the opportunities in being trained in automotive repair and other career areas.
24. Alanna Rosenthal March 9, 2016 at 7:08 pm

    There is always room for a change in America, and usually the reason for that change is to better our country. I think that we should reform our prison system to give a convict the correct punishment for their crime. This reform should also speak to the convicts whom are living with a mental disability, and deserve less of the wrath from our government. The prison system has also wrongly convicted their prisoners, and must declare officially that the suspect is guilty, rather than labelling with a wrongful doing and not giving them a chance to prove their innocence. The Reform should also include a change of the environment inside these jails or prisons. I think that the violent crimes, where people are harmed, should not be combined with the people who have performed fraud or any other crime not including people. This should happen because these two types of crimes are performed by two entirely different people. The people who perform these violent crimes are often born with birth defects or raised in a violent home, and deserve the right to therapy and the ability to get better, but they also deserve punishment. This punishment should not be in the form of solitary confinement, in which has been proven to lead to insanity, but through working hard and not sitting in prison doing nothing. They should not be treated like slaves or with the privileges that free people have, but something in-between. Not only should there be a separation of people, but less force and authority given to the officers who are responsible for the punishment. These officers should not be allowed to physically harm a convict to the point of being hospitalized. This is a long list, but the reform should lay out specifics of what should be changed and go from there.
    I think that prison has completely change from what is portrayed in Slavery By Another name. This is because the unfair treatment of African Americans has decreased very much, yes there are still things to change, but we have come a long way. The main change in the prison systems is the era of which convict leasing was allowed, during the time of Slavery By Another Name there was no Civil Rights Movement, and we were fresh out of the Civil War; angry and racist Confederates didn’t just disappear after the war was won. I agree, there is still abuse throughout this system, and even some corruption, but nothing near to what it was. There is always room for improvement in many controversial topics according to our system of government and policy.
25. Stephanie J March 9, 2016 at 7:25 pm

    1. I think that we should reform our prison system to make it more responsive to those who have mental health issues or are petty criminals because I don’t think that all prisoners should be forced to work under the threat of severe punishment such as servitude in an inhumane workplace. There are different crimes that are committed, should they all be punished the same under forced servitude? “Petty” crimes shouldn’t necessarily be punished as hard as really bad ones. As talked about in the article “American Slavery, Reinvented”, we know that there are some people that are in prison who are even innocent because they were wrongly accused. However, we don’t know who exactly is innocent. People could be mentally ill as well and should get help. People should have to face what they’ve done, try to correct their behavior, and try to find personal redemption. But, this should all be based on the crime. Why should one man convicted of murder be punished the same as someone whose crime wasn’t as bad? It doesn’t seem fair for the harsh punishments given to all of them.
    2. Prison hasn’t really changed from what we saw in Slavery by Another name. In Slavery by Another name, we had seen how convict leasing was cheaper than slavery because farm owners and companies didn’t have to worry about the workers’ health since they weren’t investments (like slaves had been). Now, since prisoners aren’t considered employees, they still don’t get the protection they would have if they were employees. These prisoners have less than equal treatment, now and in Slavery by Another Name, because they are considered to be indecent human beings that are getting what people consider to be what they deserved after the crimes (no matter how big or small) they committed.
26. Janae G. March 9, 2016 at 7:27 pm

    1. I do believe it is necessary for us to reform our prison system, to make it more responsive to those who have mental health issues. Those who have mental illness should receive the help they need instead of being put to work and “give back to the world what they took”. Help should be given to these incarcerated people to not only show them discipline but to also show them what they could do better in order for them to be a more humane individual. By discipline I mean spending whatever amount of time in prison that is necessary for whatever crime they have committed, but also helping them to grow into someone who is fit for the outside world at the same time. There is a difference between ordinary healthy people who commit crimes, and people who suffer from an illness which in some cases they might have a hard time controlling. This does not in any way pardon a person with a disorder from their wrong doings, but I believe their punishment shouldn’t be taken to the same extent as the people who commit these crimes purposefully. As far as petty crimes, I believe however harsh your punishment is, it should be based off of what crimes you committed. The worse the crime the longer time is needed to be spent and/ or the more work you should be given.
    2. Prison has changed over the period of time, but not enough. In the Atlantic article it was stated that yes the 13TH Amendment brought an end to slavery but in the first section of the Amendment you will find that it says “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as punishment for crime whereof the party shall be given duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction”. This means Incarcerated people have no constitutional rights when it comes to imprisonment as the result of committing crimes. This gives prisons the right to enforce work as punishment for their crimes. If the incarcerated people were to refuse to work they were punished, that includes solitary confinement, loss of earned good time, and revocation of family visitation. In the article it is said people who do not behave like decent human beings do not merit being treated like one. I guess this makes sense but it doesn’t have to come down to that. I’m not saying these people deserve sympathy, but better tactics could be used to teach them to do the right things.
27. Courtney D March 9, 2016 at 7:28 pm

    1. I am going by the assumption that the prison system is not responsive enough to those who have mental health issues or are petty criminals. I think it is important to keep the different types of criminals separate from one another based on the severity of the crime he or she committed. People who committed crimes due to their mental illness should not be treated the same as those who willingly did so. Those who are mentally ill should be treated—see professionals or are given access to the necessary medication for their condition. For those who commit petty crimes, they should not be put together with people who commit felonies. Felons should be put in maximum security prisons so they can’t harm others around them. The people who commit crimes because they are mentally ill and the people who commit petty crimes are the people that are the best option for reintegrating into society. The people who are ill should be treated and receive medication and the petty criminals should be taught a skill or trade so they can have a chance at getting a job when they are released from jail; these ideas are not unheard of and I think they are a good idea.

    2. I think prison has changed since the time of Reconstruction. Back in those times, mainly black prisoners were put to work in coal mines and other means of hard labor. The conditions were terrible and many prisoners died while they worked. Nowadays, people in prison are still put to work for low pay but the conditions are far better than those of the Reconstruction era. The amount of blacks that are still part of this new form of convict leasing is still a large percentage that should be dealt with but it is less than it was before.
28. Lizzie Kompus March 9, 2016 at 8:01 pm

    1. In my opinion I believe that we should reform our prisons to be more responsive to those who have a mental illness or are petty criminals. Now don’t get me wrong, I think that people in prison should work while they are serving their sentence but the work load can be a lot to handle and the punishments are very cruel. Solitary confinement is absolutely scary and can mess with you mental and physical state. Being locked up like that for days, weeks or months without little to no human contact or something to keep your mind working can make a person go crazy. For somebody to suffer from a mental illness to go through that can make things a lot worse. As the article said half of the inmates serving time in prison suffer from a mental illness. Obviously these people have the disadvantage so why should they be treated the same. And for petty criminals, I also don’t think that they should be given the same treatment than those are in for more serious time. There is a difference from people who steal money than a murder. Yes, they don’t serve as long of a time and not all prisons put both of those categories together but it still happens. Things like getting your family visitation right taken away can make you lose your motivation and hope. In the video the warren was discussing how all they want to do is make this place as a rehabilitation but how do you become a better person with no motivation? Now I know that not all prisons are this extreme and use these punishments, but I think for people who have a disadvantages, they should not be treated the same.
    2. I think in many ways prison now has changed from Slavery by Another Name. I have never been to a prison, I don’t know someone who has gone to jail, so I don’t know what really goes down in prison. However I did watch the video and read the article and from my knowledge, many things have changed. In Slavery by Another Name, it shows us all the horrors and corruption going on during that time. Blacks were falsely convicted, and their sentences were extremely long. I think that the work conditions are not as slave like as they were then, which is great. However at certain facilities, as Mr. Wickersham mentioned, still use criminal leasing and people can get seriously injured. One thing that still lines up with Slavery by Another Name is the ratio of black and whites in prison. According to the naacp.org, in 2008 blacks and Hispanics made up 58% of prisons population. They also stated that five times as many whites are doing drugs than blacks but blacks are sent to prison ten times the rate of whites for drug usage. Now most jails treat their prisoners with more respect and freedom than they did back then, but I think that racism still exists in certain scenarios which needs to be fixed.
29. Paige Stearn March 9, 2016 at 8:09 pm

    1. Prisons all over the world, especially in America need to be more responsive to criminals with mental illnesses. Trying to understand and cope with mentally disabled criminals has to be a very tough subject to deal with, but is a very important one. There should be a certain amount of tests to determine whether a certain criminal has a mental ailment or not. Criminals with certain mental ailments should not be imprisoned alongside those without mental ailments. This is for a few different reasons. First, mentally ill individuals sometimes do not mean to commit a crime. Their actions may be completely accidental or caused by the mental illness in itself. This shows that the criminal should not be punished in the same way that completely sane criminals are punished for their actions. Second, the mentally ill criminal may place harm upon other criminals or themselves if held in a small area for punishment. This would cause many issues and would set up reasons for many trials against the government or whoever runs the certain prison. This being said, mentally ill individuals that commit crimes should be placed in separate prisons than criminals without mental illnesses. Clearly, prisoners with mental ailments should be treated differently than criminals without said ailments.

    2. Although prisons today are still not up to the highest standards, they have changed a ton from the prisons we saw in the video we watched in class. The prisons from the video had convict leasing (mostly with African American convicts). Prisons today are still overcrowded, have little sanitation, and sometimes are segregated based on small things like race or gender, but the prisons from the convict leasing time were much much worse. Convict leasing was basically slavery, not to also mention the fact that the actual prisons themselves were terribly dirty and overcrowded. Today prisons may also be a little harsh on some criminals behalves, but they treat the criminals much better than they did during the times of convict leasing. Convict leasing consisted of what was basically slavery, working for hours on end, barely having enough food, and living in awful conditions. Today, some prisons even try to better the criminal’s life and help them learn things that will further help them on the outside world. Such as, prepping them for jobs or educating them, basically trying to make their lives better and not meaningless. While in the convict leasing days, criminal life was meaningless. If a criminal died, they would just pick a new criminal to lease out or enslave. As you see, the prison system (though still not perfected) is much different and better than the convict leasing prison system we learned about in class.
30. Harvey R. March 9, 2016 at 8:09 pm

    1. Yes, we should reform our prison system to make it more responsive to those who have mental health issues or are petty criminals. Having people who committed small crimes, like shoplifting or underage drinking, share prisons and sentences with those who commit murder or rape is illogical. As long as the people who are committing small crimes are not harming other people’s lives, I don’t think that they should be punished as harshly for what they have done. Their sentences in prison should not be as large as there’s no reason to destroy these people’s lives over something they did if it was not that big. As for those with mental health issues, there should be more resources available instead of throwing them in prison with all of the other people. Those with addictions should be put into rehab and those that need serious medical attention for their problems should receive the proper medical care to help them. The people with mental health issues did not choose to be genetically predisposed with these issues and the only way to help them is to give them the proper care they need rather than treating them as outcast criminals and abandoning them.

    2. I believe that prison has changed slightly from what we saw in Slavery by Another Name. From the video, we saw how inhumane the prisoners were treated. They were abused and worked to death, as they no longer had any economic value since they could easily be replaced if they were slaughtered on the job. The prisoners were kept in mines were they were forced to work all hours of the day. They would barely be paid and sentences would be extended so they could never escape. If they had been arrested for debt, they would never be able to pay it back and would be kept incarcerated for the rest of their days. In this aspect, the expendability of the prisoners and lack of dignity they were given has been improved upon dramatically from this. From the Angola video, we can clearly see this. The prisoners are treated as though they are able of recovery and rehabilitation with opportunities such as learning to become a mechanic or a Christian minister. This furthers their chances of making it once they get out, rather than abandoning them and leaving them to their own devices. But in the case of racial injustice, the same things that happened with Slavery by Another Name is occurring today. As we learned in class, African Americans were frequently persecuted and forced back into the slavery-like system of imprisonment that was peonage for frivolous charges. The same is occurring with imprisonment today as 1 in 11 black people are in prison, while only 1 in 45 white people are. Even though white and black people are committing the same number of crimes, blacks and whites are being prosecuted differently, which stems back to the racial prejudice that came from the time just after Emancipation, showing that change, in that aspect, has not been great.
31. Francesca B. March 9, 2016 at 8:17 pm

    I do think that we should reform the prison system to be more responsive to those with mental illness and petty crimes. I do think that people should get a second shot at things, and if the crime wasn’t putting anyone in danger, then I think that there should be programs in place to help that person reintegrate into the community. Also, people with metal illness maybe committed a crime because they were ill or they weren’t on the proper medication and in that case, the situation is not entry their fault. I do feel that if a person works towards it, and shows promise, then they deserve at leafs the chance to redeem themselves.
    Prison has and hasn’t changed from what we saw in Slavery by Another Name. I saw this because in some ways it has not changed in regards to what seems like race bias. It used to be 30% of those incarcerated were black, but the general population only contained 12% african americans. Today 1 in 11 of blacks are in jail but only 1 in 45 of white people are in prison. Also, the people jailed at the Angola prison in Louisiana have to participate in prison labor. Most people in this prison are serving life sentences with no chance of parole. The people are forced to work and lob or like plantation workers from time of slavery. On the other hand, prisons have changed because although the convicts at Angola prison have to work, they are not whipped or living in inhumane conditions. The labour is not designed to make profit for others, but to give inmates a chance to work and pay for incarceration; just like normal people have to pay to put a roof over their heads. Warden Cain, from Angola prison, states that work is an important part of the rehabilitative process and labor provides a way to pay society back for the costs of incarceration. I do think that prisons have tried to supply redeemable inmates with programs to give them a chance at salvation. People who want to work for a chance, are the people that prisons give a chance to and help. May be I’m naive, but i think that some people deserve second chances and I think that prisons today se that too, People want to help people who help themselves.
32. Jackie Sullivan March 9, 2016 at 8:27 pm

    1. We should reform our prison systems to make it more responsive to those who have mental health issues and are petty criminals. Mental health patients are not being treated the way they should be in prisons. Those who do struggle with a mental health issues should not be in the same environment as those who don’t. Instead they should have a more suitable environment that helps their special needs. But mental health patients should not receive more sympathy for being in a different environment because they still did something bad that got them into prison. We should also reform our prison systems to make it more responsive to petty criminals. Petty criminals are not treated fairy in the prison system because the amount of time assigned is sometimes excessive. Petty theft can earn you up to about a year in prison. Although they did commit a crime, a year in prison for petty theft, depending on the item, is intense.

    2. Prison has changed for what we have seen in Slavery by Another Name. In the film, we saw workers in the convict leasing system being treated very similar to slaves. These workers had worked in very hard conditions and since they were up to 50-80% cheaper than paid labor, they were leased convicts. They also were paid very little and couldn’t get out of the job unless they paid off their leaser. Convict leasing was unfair, similar to the prison system today. Racism has put in “more black people involved in the criminal justice system than were enslaved in 1850.” Although some of the blacks in the prison system did commit a crime, many have been arrested by racist police officers just because of the color of their skin. Prison systems have improved since the convict leasing system, but are still not good enough.
33. jacob smith March 9, 2016 at 8:30 pm

    I believe that the prison system should be rehabilitative rather than punishing towards people with smaller offenses. People with petty offenses or mental illnesses should be assessed both on the state of their mind and the severity of the crime. When a first offender is imprisoned there should be every effort made to rehabilitate the individual to avoid possible more serious crimes upon release. People with larger offenses that are sentenced to life with offenses like murder and rape should not be allowed to re-enter society, rather there should be a rehabilitation inside of the prison rather than risk another incident after release.
    Prison has changed since slavery by another names a great deal because the system has become much less severe. I personally do not disagree with inmate labor however I believe that it should be a choice and all pay should be sent to the people or persons of an inmates choosing. The wages that are shown in Angola For Life should not be allowed however there should be some amount of money given back to the prison. While the use of prison labor is still alive and well it is not completely the same as it was in the nineteenth century. It is not the same conditions for one, the prisoners are not subject to constant danger and they are not beaten if they cannot fulfill their quota for the day. The fact that many if not the majority of inmates has mostly to do with the “school to prison pipeline” and the unfortunate way that minorities tend to be separated in todays society. The most disturbingly similar thing in the prison work system right now to the deadly workplaces of the late eighteen hundreds is the fact that there is not a choice to work, instead it is forced labor.
34. Mary Kauffman March 9, 2016 at 8:58 pm

    1) I think that we should reform our prison systems to those who have mental health issues. I believe that if we make it so that people with mental illnesses can recover in a safer environment, than they can heal faster than they would be able to in a prison along with people who have committed crimes just because they wanted to. However, I feel like people who commit serious crimes should be punished in some way or another, even if they do have a mental disorder. We shouldn’t let someone get away with rape or murder, with just the excuse that they are not mentally stable. If someone dies, and the person who kills them has a mental illness I wouldn’t feel right sending them away to a mental institution where they take walks in the park in their freedom, or go to group therapy, in fear that they would try to hurt someone else. I think we need to find a middle ground somewhere where people who have mental health issues who commit serious crimes can be rehabilitated but also feel like they are being punished, because they did commit a felony. As far as petty criminals, I believe that we should not put them in jail unless they show continues signs of crimes. For example if a person breaks and enters into a house and then a month later does it again, and then 2 months after that shoplifts, we should put them in jail. But if they only commit such a small crime like this once, we should not waste our prison space. We have way too many people held in our prisons and the pricing is outrageous, we should at least try to save our space for people who commit larger crimes including rape, or murder.
    2) I believe that there is a big difference, but also some similarities between the prison systems between now and after the civil war. After the civil war people would lease convicts, and literally work them to death. Convict Leasing was much cheaper than hiring paid workers, so owners of Southern Coal mines and industries would “lease” the people who were in jail, because they liked the idea of cheap and fast labor. This system was very similar to slavery, because of the harsh treatment, the people who leased the convicts were also allowed to whip them if they were not following orders or being productive. I also believe that there are some similarities between prison systems today, and back in the late 1800s, the biggest one being the much higher percentage of blacks than whites being arrested and being thrown into jail, even though records show that they are committing the same crimes at the same rates. Back in the late 1800s in the video- “Slavery by Another Name”, we see white southerners claiming that blacks owed them money, and since there was no contract or written proof of that, the court would always side with the white man, resulting from this 9 out of every 10 convicts were black. Today the ratio isn’t as high. But there are still many instances of blacks being treated differently by the court systems or by police officers.
35. Vincent Jackson March 9, 2016 at 9:13 pm

    I personally believe every person is imprisoned for their own purpose. If everyone id imprisoned for different purposes, then along with that then each prisoner should have their own designated sentences, and should not all have to experience the same amounts of cruelty. Prison is a time for reassessment, and rehabilitation. Prison is a system implemented with tough mental condition, with tough work hours, and plenty of punishment according to the seriousness, and effect of your crime. There are people in prison for completely different reasons. For example, if a man got caught dealing drugs, he shouldn’t have to face the same cruelty as a man who committed a series of murders. It isn’t very fair to have two people, very different in the seriousness of their crime, who must face the same circumstances day in and day out. Although it is imperative that we continue to enforce our legal system, and maintain a very negative cruel image of jail in order to lower our crime rates, and get people to understand that prison is a bad place to be, I don’t believe that an individual serving a sentence on something petty should have to undergo the same cruelty and immensely harsh conditions as someone on a term for something like rape or murder. I believe that the rules should be put in place so that a person with aa crime deemed more “petty” shouldn’t have to undergo the intense working conditions, and the cell mate issue. Criminals of “petty” crimes should be left to solitary confinement, and still must pay for their course of action with maybe a longer sentence, but less work so that they understand the seriousness of committing a crime in general. I personally believe that prison has not changed that much since Slavery by Another name. Prison is still used to jailhouse criminals, and used to exploit members of society that are viewed as minorities. Things have changed significantly less than one might believe, however things are just altered slightly so that things appear to be seen other than how they really are. In today’s society, there are different tactics used to imprison minorities. We have seen scandals various times in which a minority is accused of being caught up in a crime, and because of their race they are incarcerated, without ever being proven guilty. I know that in today’s society there are still many forms of racism strongly existent in the world, and there are many examples that show that there are still people that will use different tactics to jail minorities. I am not saying that Prison is exactly how it use to be, it just has changed very little from how it would appear.
36. Vanessa H March 9, 2016 at 9:22 pm

    1) I feel like we should reform our prison system to make it more responsive to those who have mental health issues or are petty criminals. In modern society, when someone has a real, disabling psychological problem, it’s ignored in hopes that it will somehow magically disappear. The people don’t want to know about a person’s mental issues, they just want them put away with no help. If those with mental health issues are repeatedly sent to prison without being given the proper care, then they’ll never get better, and the cycle would be endless. They shouldn’t be sent to prison with those who actively knew they were committing a crime. If we send these mentally ill people to jail without proper care, we are essentially denying them a right to be treated medically. If someone were to have schizophrenia, they shouldn’t be locked up in solitary confinement for a crime they may or may not have realized they were doing. They deserve to be treated so they can try and get better. Petty criminals, as well, should not be locked up for as long as they sometimes are. There are certain petty crimes that can land someone in jail for multiple years, which is not only a waste of tax payer money, but it also doesn’t make sense that someone who committed a petty crime could land in a prison holding someone who committed premeditated murder.
    2) There are certain prisons that have really changed from what we saw in Slavery by Another Name. Obviously not all of them have really reformed themselves, but there are some out there that have brought themselves up to better standards. In fact, in the U.S. there are about 39 prisons that bring in cats and dogs as forms of therapy for their inmates. The Indiana State Prison is one of these prisons that brings in cats. According to a public information officer at Indiana State Prison, inmates who have cats must have jobs (within the prison, of course). This system is not only a form of therapy for the inmates, but it creates a sense of dutiful purpose, which is something that they continue on once/if they get out. But the Indiana State Prison is one of few throughout the US, though. Racial stereotyping is a very real thing, and it’s led to a high amount of blacks in prison compared to the number of whites in prison. Things have gotten better in the sense that a black man won’t be thrown in jail for being loud around a group of women, but a black man could still easily be pinned with a crime he did not commit, and the jury wouldn’t bat an eyelash because “if he’s black, then he must be a criminal, right?” (This is not true by any standards.)
37. Dahvi Lupovitch March 9, 2016 at 9:24 pm

    1. It is important that when people are put into jail that they are rehabilitated. What good is jail going to do if the criminals are not taught how to make better decisions and get what they want in a legal way? It not taught, the criminals would pay their time in prison, get out, and act in the same way and get into trouble all over again. It is especially important to reform those who have mental illnesses. Jails should also be reformed to fit the needs of the prisoners. Criminals should not be treated as if they had murdered someone if they had gone to jail for stealing something. There should be different forms of rehabilitation to properly help and teach those who were arrested. Also, I think that it is a good idea for prisoners of all races to work while in jail because it helps with reformation and it provides service to the community. Perhaps if someone where to better the community, whether it be from picking up trash or helping out at an animal shelter their time in prison could be shortened slightly with the exception of course of a life sentence.
    2. Slavery has definitely changed since the time of Slavery by Another Name. In Slavery By Another Name, prisoners were being forced to work as cheap labor in order to help repair the bad southern economy. However, according to the Angola video, nowadays prisoners work in order to seek redemption and rehabilitation, which is a very smart idea. Prisoners in the 19th century were punished for wrongdoings for example by whippings. This was not okay in my opinion because it is just like slavery and violence of any kind is never allowed in any situation. Nowadays criminals are not whipped because that can be considered cruel and unusual punishment, which violates the 8th Amendment of the Constitution. Prison is a place for teaching those who did wrong how to do the right thing, which is very important in our society today.
38. Matthew B. March 9, 2016 at 9:25 pm

    I strongly believe that our prison system is in dire need of reform to make it more responsive to those who have mental health issues of are petty criminals. I believe this because of the simple fact that our prisons all across the nation are becoming overcrowded, and conditions are purely awful. Yes, these men and women have done terrible things and deserve to spend their time in prison, but should not be subjected to living conditions as bad as they are being forced to today. I also believe that criminals who commit crimes as a result of severe mental illness should be treated with more care than they receive today. When someone with mental illness appears in court, if they win their hearing they will be ruled not guilty due to mental illness, and as soon as they are deemed to be responsible and safe enough to rejoin society, they shall be released. Too often this does not happen, and these men and women suffering from illnesses are driven further into the depths of insanity by the conditions in which they live. Even if they are successfully treated, they may not always be released. If a man kills his family but is ruled not guilty by insanity, even if he is successfully treated its almost certain he will not be let out. I believe that this law should be altered in some way to avoid this circumstance from occurring, whether it be a minimum term or something else.

    I definitely believe that the whole idea of prison has changed since the era of convict leasing. No longer are these men and women put off and subjected to immense amount of hard labor, now they at least are supplied with, in most cases, what is necessary in order to live. I think that the practice of convict leasing was way to close to the practice of slavery, and never should a man or women have to fall under total control of one individual. These people used to be forced to serve someone over the smallest of crimes, which seems to be very unfair, and at least deserve the not so fun conditions present in our prison systems today.
39. Olivia S. March 9, 2016 at 9:32 pm

    1. Personally, I think that we should reform our current prison system to make it more responsive to the mentally unstable and those who have committed subordinate crimes. Based on purely statistics, there are far too many people incarcerated in the United States. With a whopping 2.2 million people currently doing time, the United States hosts a gross amount of citizens in it’s prisons. Although not mentioned, the cost to keep a prisoner confined is more than one would think. I do not have exact numbers (please excuse my neglect to do the research), but I believe that it costs over $20,000 per year to house an inmate. If even some of the people in these prisons committed small, somewhat forgivable crimes such as shoplifting or theft, they should certainly not be kept in prison with the cost it takes to keep them and the current problem over overcrowding. The courts need to get their records straight and only sentence those who have committed heinous crimes, and save the cells for others. I am not necessarily trying to tell someone how to do his or her job, but the overcrowding in prisons and the lack of necessity for some inmates to be incarcerated are two of the major things wrong with the prison system that need to be reformed.

    2. Prison has changed in many ways since the days we saw in Slavery by Another Name, but it is not necessarily the change we all wish to see. Blacks are still being incarcerated at a considerably higher rate than members of any other race, and convict leasing is still present in some prisons and penitentiaries. On the bright side, the convict leasing that still exists today seems to be somewhat more enjoyable than the convict leasing we saw in Slavery by Another Name. Obviously I have not witnessed it myself, but judged on the inmates speaking about it in the video I can make that inference. In many prisons, convict leasing is not even an option. Those serving time in jail do not even have an opportunity to earn money or learn essential working skills. Again, I have not experienced this, so this is just an educated guess. Overall, the prison system has not progressed in ways that were predicted. The incarceration rates for different races and genders clearly show the blatant racism and sexism that still exists today. Although slavery is long gone and the country is “equal”, the prison systems are the biggest demonstration of outright bigotry.
40. Kristen Harvey March 9, 2016 at 9:33 pm

    I believe people with mental health issues should be taken care of in prisons. Before conviction people with possible mental health disorders should be evaluated so that during the trial and their time in prison they can be properly taken care of. Many times these people could not control their actions or can’t know right from wrong. Though these people broke the law, they should be looked after and threatened for their illness will in prison. After their release the government should still attempt to help these people, for if they were unable to know what they were doing was wrong the first time. What is stopping them from doing something illegal again, without knowing the consequences. People with petty crimes should after to pay the consequences for their actions. However they should not have to pay the same amount of time in prison as someone who is a murder. It also depends on the number of times the person has been convicted. A first time offender for a petty crime should receive leniency not a life sentence.
    I believe that the prison system has changed in some ways, while others have remained unchanged. While in the beginning of this cruel system prison workers were not paid, they also were not feed enough, or given enough water. These workers were expendable, so there was no regard when it came to their well being as they were pushed past their limits to death. While today prisoners can be still used as a workforce with minimal pay, they are treated differently. Like back then they did not have a choice if they worked or not and were punished for not working. Though today the punishment is much less severe and does not cause possible death. Today prisoners are treated better, with plenty of food, water and a proper shelter. However, no matter how the prisoners are treated they should not be forced into labor. But it might be a good idea to give prisoners an option to work, for a minimum wage job. Allowing them to gain skill to gain a job when they get out and give money to their families.
41. Victoria Auten March 9, 2016 at 9:42 pm

    1. Before reading this article I was blind to the harsh reality of the racism in prisons. As the article states some men in prison were wrongly convicted but there is no way to tell who, and they must live their lives in the degrading walls of the prisons. I believe that the prison system should be made more responsive to those who have mental health issues but not those who have committed petty crimes. If a man can be medically diagnosed with a mental disability or problem they shouldn’t be condemned to work off a crime that they most likely didn’t mean to commit. On the side of petty crimes a crime committed in your right mind is still a crime no matter the size or damage it causes. First degree murder and stealing a pack of cigarettes don’t have the same outcome but the people committing the crimes have similar thoughts running through their minds, mainly revolving around knowing something is wrong but doing it anyways. The punishment for not complying with the prison labor system include revocation of family visitation, loss of earned good time, and solitary confinement and I believe that those should change. The action of forcing the men to labor is so much like slavery that’s scary. Some men in prison after being there for a long time may begin to change and want to work in order to “earn their keep” but by forcing men to do work and by black mailing them is even worse.
    2. Comparing the class video “Slavery by Another Name” and the prison system today I do see a positive change in improvement. As I’m sure there are still cases in prisons were the circumstances are as poor as they were, overall there is improvement. In the South every prison was guilty of convict leasing but mainly only on the blacks and it included extensive forms of physical punishment. The punishment still seems to be there but not in such a physical form anymore more in the way of taking away privileges originally appointed by the prisons. According to the 13th Amendment the actions taken place were never illegal, but the humanity of Americans must have grown in some aspect for the evolving that has taken place to happen. The physical brutality is gone and the overweighing ratio of blacks to whites, weighing more heavily on the blacks, has even decreased. Certain men should be condemned to work because their crimes were too awful for them to just sit on their bums all day as taxpayers pay for the life they live. But others such as the mentally ill need better attention and shouldn’t in any way be forced to do labor in return for a crime they may not have known they committed. There is evidence of improvement but the prison system still has a ways to go.
42. Joan L March 9, 2016 at 9:54 pm

    1) Yes, we should reform our prison systems, those who have mental health issues wouldn’t respond the same way a mentally sane person would and treating them threateningly could trigger them and cause not only to themselves but others as well. We should also fix the bailout system because even if the crime id for petty theft some people can’t afford to pay that bail and some are even advised by an attorney to plead guilty to a crime they didn’t commit if they don’t have the money to pay for a trail and a lawyer. Even though people do have the to an attorney, attorney offices are so underemployed that most attorneys take up to 100 cases per month and have little to no time to prepare a defense let alone able to grasp the gravity of the situation. And even if provided with an attorney some states have put a fine on getting an attorney (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJtYRxH5G2k ). It’s not fair to incarcerate people have private companies come in to save costs for medical, food, and security treatments and causing more people to be abused mentally and physically, and getting away with it; given only 9% of jails in America are privately run like businesses and advertising saving the state money. Especially if the if they’re charged with 5 years and probation but having a failing rehabilitation program that doesn’t help freed prisoners stabilize themselves and stay out of prison. With little money to live off of some are lucky enough to afford a meal. They can be restricted from public buildings, homes, and storm buildings. Probation services in some states have to pay for the program and their officers, ex-prisoners also have to set up meetings with their probation officers but they give unreasonable hours and won’t compromise with the ex-prisoners who may have found a job and work business hours, and if they don’t meet they’d be taken back to jail. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Pz3syET3DY&index=61&list=PLmKbqjSZR8TbfAMV9bLy4beDh4vrze5kc )
    2) Convict leasing is still legal in the 21st century though it derived from forced labor that falsely incarcerated African American men with trumped up charges. Prisoners are given the opportunity to work to lower their sentences’. I feel if they get paid for their service and aren’t put into dangerous situations and not a conveyor belt of people in sweat shop like conditions, but that is unlikely. If anything people who are going to be released from jail, or have been released from jail have difficulty finding jobs because they have, in most cases have been disqualified/ critically judged even if they had made the effort to change and become a functioning member of society. Convict leasing may not be a gruesome as in was in the late 1800’s mid 1900’s but its still labor. Labor that could be done by other blue collar workers that are in need of work.
43. isaac thompson March 9, 2016 at 10:06 pm

    1. I believe that prisons should reevaluate their policies on throwing criminals behind bars, because according to the article, mental illness gives you a higher risk of ending up in jail. I believe it is wrong to throw people in jail that possess mental illnesses, without at least giving them a form of therapy or medication to treat their disease. I believe that people convicted of crimes should be tested to see if anything is wrong with them. Therefore, the people that actually committed crimes with no reason, and they had the decision to do it, they should be the ones thrown in jail, as opposed to the ones that mentally couldn’t interpret the good from the evil. Although, the mentally ill criminals should not necessarily get off on such an easy note. I understand that they are mentally ill, but they still committed the crime, so I believe depending on the severity of their illness, that they should have part time prison time, but also double up inside mental institutions.
    2. I believe that prison has changed from what we saw in class with Slavery by Another Name. The population of prisoners has drastically decreased over time because of the sharp cut off of imprisonment for non-severe charges, such as debt and vagrancy. Not to mention the provisional living conditions that the prisoners are provided with. Prisoners in the past could not get out of convict leasing and their refusal to work always resulted in a more severe punishment. The warden of jail cells always keeps the prisoners occupied, whether it is feeding them, or allowing them to work out and pursue minor recreational activities. Jail members have the option of creating and joining clubs, they are allowed to attending therapy seminars, and they are allowed to begin or maintain their religious views.
44. Ari Mattler March 9, 2016 at 10:12 pm

    1. In my opinion, I think that prison systems should be reformed. People who are arrested for petty crimes or have mental health issues deserve better treatment in prison. Prison is a harsh environment as most of us know, and having a mental health issue should not get one locked away. As stated in the article “American Slavery, Reinvented”, people with mental health issues are at more of a risk to be locked up behind bars. This most certainly has to be reformed. How could beings who should be helped be put in a cell to rot? This is inexcusable and a crime in itself if it happens. People with mental health issues should be receiving help from the state and federal government and not punishment. Along with that, beings who commit petty crimes should no have as severe punishments. An example of a petty crime could range from having a single rock of crack in your house to shoplifting three belts from a department store. And while those crimes sound very specific and seem harmless, those are just two examples of a petty crime that has landed someone in jail for life without parole. There are other crimes committed that are far worse that do not end up in jails. They should be the ones in prison serving time, not these people who made tiny mistakes. Petty crimes should be dealt with accordingly and not with the severity that they are dealt with today.

    2. Prison has most definitely changed from what we viewed in “Slavery By Another Name”. In the film we viewed, we witnessed how innocent blacks were arrested (sometime without reason) and put to work in harsh conditions. These prisoners were not cared for and were easily obtained. This broken prison system is nothing compared to that of today. While I do think today’s prison system could use reform, it has made much progress from those southern prisons in the Reconstruction Era. Today prisons have humanity and do not arrest to arrest, at least to my belief.
45. Chandler A. March 9, 2016 at 10:16 pm

    1) I think that we definitely should reform our prisons to be more sympathetic towards those with mental illnesses or who are petty criminals. In the article it says that if you have a mental illness, drug addiction, or are poor then you have an increased chance to go to prison. I think that it’s unfair for people who have disabilities to go to jail simply because there is something that they probably can’t control wrong with them. Mental illness is a huge problem in America, which is evident because the U.S is the foremost country in prescription pills and depression treatments. A more effective and constructive way to treat those with mental illnesses is rehabilitation. Rehabilitation helps improve the quality of life of the person and can turn them into a functioning and contributing member of society. It will also lower prison rates. For those with petty crimes I think that they should not be treated the same as someone with a much worse crime like murder. One huge problem is minimum sentences, which make it mandatory to serve a certain amount of years if you commit a crime no matter the case. For people who committed petty crimes like theft should get punished but less severely and also go through rehabilitation. Rehabilitation centers can also house inmates for less money than prisons can, so this would benefit the people doubly.

    2) I think it has changed significantly but there are still some alarming similarities. On one hand the percentage of blacks in prison compared to general population have lowered a lot, but the rate is still much higher for blacks than any other group of people. The punishments and manual labor are much less severe than in the late 1800’s/early 1900s. The work is typically less labor intensive and theres not physical punishment like whipping. Inmates subject to convict leasing a century ago were treated as less than human and their lives were valued very little. Now we don’t allow for brutal treatments similar to back then. As the Angola video showed inmates today are given opportunities to learn about god and become reformed.
46. wallie March 9, 2016 at 10:32 pm

    In my opinion, as someone who struggles with mental health problems, I believe that prison definitely needs to be more accommodating to those who struggle with their mental health. Mental health doesn’t improve on its own; it needs to be treated with intense care and therapy. Putting someone in a cell because of crimes they committed while mentally unstable will not help them understand why breaking the law is bad. Mentally ill people who do crimes and break the law do need to be incarserated, but they also need to be medically treated. Prisons need to have therapy and therapy work and prisons need to teach lessons, not just to mentally ill inmates but to all inmates, on why crime is bad. Prison, in my opinion, is a punishment, but punishments are meant to be learned from. If nothing is gained in prison regarding how to correct their behavior through real life scenarios, no criminal will improve. Forcibly putting criminals to work will not help either. Yes, work needs to get done and there is nothing wrong with prisoners having jobs, but overworking prisoners to help them “correct” their actions is not helping them repent for their wrong doings. Yes, religion can make a difference in learning why their crimes justly out them in jail, but religion also isn’t the answer for every inmate. More resources need to be provided to help the inmates. Like I said earlier, punishments are meant to help you learn hw t do better next time and to realize what you did wrong; they are for solitary confinement and cheap labor. Concerning people serving time for petty crimes, I believe there are other societal ways to have them contribute to society for their crimes. For instance, community service and volunteering can help minor prisons to appreciate their surrounding and the world they live in. This would help more than a four by four cell. In terms of race discrimination within prisons, I one hundred percent believe that prisons are becoming the new “Jim Crow”. Though it hasn’t quite gotten there in my opinion, minorities, especially African Americans, have substantially higher incarceration rates than other races. Crime has nothing to do with the color of your skin or where you come from. I only connects to the crime you have done; the physical crime. If crimes are equal, equal punishment should be served no matter what. It is disgusting to me that blacks are assumed to be more criminalistic because of their skin color. However, I do believe the some prisons have slightly changed from how prisons were depicted in the article and the film. Now, yes, there are most definitely prisons that are just as bad as the post civil war prisons, and those need to be recognized, charged for law breaking (how ironic), and fixed. I do think that the prisons that have made changes for the better do deserved to be recognized. Not all prisons are bad, but those who are disgrace the nation.
47. Ruby Kolender March 9, 2016 at 10:38 pm

    In most cases, prisons should be reformed, when dealing with people who are put under incarceration for being mentally ill. The fact that people are forced to work in prisons for the rest of their lives, especially when they have a mental disability that could be dealt with properly, or shouldn’t have even been convicted of that crime in the first place is ridiculous. Though this is true, I do not think I can ignore the fact that this information does not hold true for the majority of the people at those facilities. Most of the were put there for a reason, and they were actually presented with a choice, and that choice was to commit a crime that I would say leaves no room for forgiveness. Those people, when put into these prisons, are presented with another choice. Option 1 it to be put to work, with the miserable thought that it doesn’t matter what happens since no one is ever going to forgive you again, and option 2 is to be forced to work knowing that there is the slightest bit of hope that one day you might be able to turn your life around. Yes the prison system is awful for keeping people there who have absolutely no reason to be there, let alone be kept for life, but for those who actually deserve to be punished, aren’t they better off actually getting the opportunity to redeem themselves? The question then comes to this. Is it even necessary for these prisoners to be doing this work, when some of it isn’t beneficial? This is where the attention should then be directed, to assisting people who are in greater danger of committing these crimes and harming other people, not directed to the punishment of these people for their entire lives. The overall point is that the country should not have to be dealing with these issues, when the main focus should be on stopping crime at the source. This can be looked at from a greater spectrum for other topics, where an issue can be stopped at the source, rather than having to deal with it when it become a larger problem later.
    The Prison system has changed, under certain circumstances. An example of this change in the slavery system brings us back to before the Civil War, where cotton was in control. The Sothern economy depended on nothing else but the slaves working in the fields, and the planting of cotton. Britain and France, and even the North relied upon this production of cotton, where they would use it as part of their industrialization. When the South tried to get Britain and France to side with them during the war, they stopped their production of cotton. This plan failed, and instead of Britain and France following these bigger Southern plans, they turned to the corn and wheat farmed in the North. Are the jobs being completed in this prison system today really that necessary to our economy, like slavery was to the South?
48. Joe Behrmann March 9, 2016 at 10:44 pm

    1. I do personally believe that we should reform our prisons and jails to be more responsive to the mentally ill and petty criminals. I fundamentally do not believe that the government should have so much power that it is able to simply just throw someone in a jail cell without attempting to heal the person. If someone commits a crime evil enough to be incarcerated for a long period of time, then the person is obviously not right in their head and they need help. If the government is going to incarcerate people, then I believe that they must also be responsible for the people and take care of them. Lives should not be wasted in jail cells, and the government should be doing all it can in order to successfully recycle these criminals back into society where they can live out a meaningful life in one way or another. Also, I believe that petty criminals should be grouped together and away from more violent offenders. These criminals were most likely more desperate for money, and less for blood. It would be dangerous and unfair to group them with murderers.
    2. I do believe that the prison system has substantially changed from what we saw in “Slavery By Another Name”. During that time period the south was simply just looking for a loophole in the law to rehabilitate slavery rather than the actual prisoners. The landowners did not care about the well-being of the prisoners at law and were simply just enjoying the money that the slaves were making them and the free labor. Nowadays, the well-being of prisoners is at least somewhat sought after as there are bibles and weight rooms in prisons now which indicates that the prisons are at least offering the inmates a chance at bettering themselves which contrasts greatly from the old, corrupt prison system.
49. Claire Cassar March 9, 2016 at 11:02 pm

    Prison should be a place of reform where people can better themselves. If they are mentally ill it needs to be taken into account because we do not want them to be damage them by the time they are released. If we do not treat the mentally ill prisoners correctly, they could be released and be a threat. If you have committed a crime, you need to go to prison so that you can learn how to become a better person. Cain uses religion and work to help the prisoners find themselves. If someone was arrested for shoplifting, they should not be punished in the same way a person guilty of murder should be punished. The reform should match the crime. If they are not handled correctly, it makes a huge difference because they are still people being affected by how they are treated. If a prison is overworked or mistreated, they will not learn how to improve. I do not think Prison is completely for the purpose of locking away the worst criminals. I think that after someone commits a crime, they need to realize what they did is wrong and be taught or find out on their own how to become better.
    Today, prisoners still work, but under different circumstances. In the 19th century, convict leasing or debt peonage was used because they wanted cheap work. They wanted workers but didn’t want to hire people. So, many African Americans were arrested and sent to jail for unnecessary reasons. There, they worked under harsh conditions that resembled slavery way too much. Now, in places like Angola, prisoners also work but for a different reason. Cain says he works prisoners so they can hopefully redeem themselves. It is not so he can get work done, but instead for the benefit of the prisoners. Some criminals are still wrongly arrested but that is not the prison’s fault.
50. John Doyle March 9, 2016 at 11:03 pm

    With mental health issues becoming increasingly recognized by our society, one might think that the prison system would adjust itself to meet the needs of the inmates that are suffering from these conditions. I would argue that what we consider “mental illness” in 2016 is laughable, and that the majority of it is literally all in your head. While I acknowledge that there are people that suffer from legitimate mental illnesses, I also belong to the generation of teenagers that like to self-diagnose themselves with a disorder when they can vaguely relate to one of its symptoms. The law and I recognize things such as Schizophrenia, PTSD, Anorexia, Bulimia, and Bipolar disorder as serious mental conditions. However, the law and I also classify Anxiety, Social Phobia, Seasonal Affective Disorder, and Cyclothymic Disorder as non-serious mental conditions. I cannot count how many times I’ve heard someone say they’re having a “panic attack” because of a test, or they had to speak in front of the class. If they are truly so affected by these things, I apologize. I’ve seen so many cases of this within the last six months, even, that I think it is safe to assume not all of them are legitimate, and in fact, a large amount of them are people overthinking things when they should just calm down. I refuse to dig into the SJWs that claim they “suffer” from PTSD because they were “harassed” online. I won’t even dignify it with a rebuttal.
    On to the topic, I believe that we do need reform in the prison systems. However, I do not think that we need to accommodate those with mental illnesses so that they can be properly taken care of. They’re prisoners. It’s not supposed to be accommodating. People do not go to prison for selling cocaine to then be labeled with a mental disorder. The people who plead insanity or have serious mental conditions are most likely in prison for the rest of their lives for serious offenses such as murder, rape, or both. What is the point of spending more of the taxpayer’s money accommodating criminals? Why do we even spend money keeping prisoners with life sentences alive when there is irrefutable evidence that they are guilty? Perhaps I sound inhumane, but since I’m talking about murders and rapists, I’m okay with setting my morals to the side.
    Too often are criminals released for “petty crimes” only for them to commit another – sometimes more serious – offense within days of their release. I believe that we need to implement a technology to classify offenders by their potential to commit another offense. This is completely possible because there is now technology that classifies the threat level of Internet users that is being used by the FBI to help predict potential crimes. If they can do it with millions of Internet users, local and state police should be able to determine whether or not an inmate is truly fit for returning to the public. What of those who still pose a threat to the public? We can establish a place to hold them for designated amounts of time (determined by their offense), and in order to rehabilitate them, we should show them how they took their freedom for granted by restricting them into small areas for 22 hours a day, and only feeding them the basic nutrition that they need.
    Prison has definitely changed from what we saw in Slavery by Another Name because backs then, blacks were being sent to jail to work without due process. Now, they’re found guilty and sent to jail for crimes that they did commit, due process and everything. The complaint is that there are more blacks in jail than whites, even if both individuals committed the same offense. What people fail to realize, is that the majority of blacks live in densely populated, urban areas that are naturally more policed because they are more populated. When’s the last time you saw a traphouse in Glen Arbor? That city is so small that you probably didn’t even know it was in Michigan. Since there are large levels of poverty in these cities, many people turn to the drug trade to earn a living. The United States has some of the toughest drug laws in the world; however, it is a myth that people are sent to prison for having a small amount of marijuana on them for their first offense. It was the Clinton administration that implemented the “Three Strikes and Your Out” policy, which many blacks are still incarcerated from today. In which case, yes, you could be sent to prison for small amounts of drugs, if you were caught a certain amount of times. Now, people are sent to prison for being in possession of large quantities of drugs, typically Class C felonious drugs, with intent to sell. As far as I am concerned, the prison system does not need reforming, but the communities that are supplying these prisoners do. Instead of pouring more money into prisons to help them accommodate criminals, we should invest in the communities to prevent not only crime, but also wasted lives caused by offenses committed in poverty.