Prison Should Include Rehabilitation

Take a moment to think about the most uncomfortable moments in your life. Were you cramped in a space that was far too small for far too long? Did you have to use the bathroom in front of somebody else? Were you all alone, surrounded by silence with no idea when you would next be comforted by the sound of someone else’s voice?

For many of us, these are fleeting moments that happen either infrequently or for short periods of time. For the nearly 100,000 people in Georgia’s jails and prisons, however, these moments are not ephemeral. They are unending.

For me, this isn’t a distant hypothetical. One of my closest family members spent nearly 40 years in prison, being shuffled from facility to facility. He was incarcerated when he was just 19 years old and was released only a few years before he turned 60. He has since emerged and become a productive member of society again despite, not because of, those decades of imprisonment.

While society and technology advanced tremendously in that time, the conditions of his prison facility, like many others, remained stagnant at best and crumbling at worst. The challenging state of Georgia’s correctional facilities is no secret; there are a number of cases of inmates escaping with relative ease, while countless others suffer from serious health conditions and violence.

Tom Blackout

My family member had a stroke in prison, which left him with slurred speech that will never heal. We did what we could for him – taking long trips to visit him on the weekend to provide him with a sense of community and stability – so that he would not be isolated when he returned to a world that left him behind for almost 40 years.

Prison isn’t supposed to just be a punishment; it’s supposed to be an opportunity to rehabilitate individuals so they can have a second chance after their sentence is served. Being sentenced to incarceration should not mean being sentenced to conditions that are inhumane, cruel and in full violation of Constitutional rights. Capital punishment is supposed to be used sparingly and only for the most serious, violent crimes. But when a five-year prison sentence carries the possibility of being a death sentence, what difference does it make to the incarcerated what the legal system decided?

There is no one-size-fits-all solution to our criminal justice challenges,but there are two things we must do in Georgia. First, modernize the prisons where we hold people for months, years and even decades. That means constructing new facilities and upgrading old ones to meet capacity needs. Clean prisons with appropriate levels of staffing, educational resources, fitness opportunities and skills training make it more likely that people will reenter society as functioning human beings.

Focusing on rehabilitation and treating inmates as humans deserving of dignity and respect is not only moral, it also makes people safer and keeps families together.

Norway is renowned for its approach to incarceration, which treats inmates humanely with a focus on rehabilitation rather than punishment. As a result, the BBC reports the country has only a 25% recidivism rate after five years. Compare that to a staggering 71% five-year recidivism rate in the United States, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. In other words, seven out of every 10 inmates end up back in trouble in our country versus only one in four in Norway. Focusing on rehabilitation and treating inmates as humans deserving of dignity and respect is not only moral, it also makes people safer and keeps families together.

The second thing we must do is lower the burden on our criminal justice system. With drug offenses making up almost half of federal prison sentences in the U.S., we are overwhelming our prisons with nonviolent offenders who would benefit more from diversion programs. Things are no better at the state level, where Georgia already spends over $1.3 billion per year in taxpayer money on the Department of Corrections. Its employees cannot keep up with the demands created by high incarceration rates.

Visiting my incarcerated family member was toughest around the holidays. My family and I put together a holiday box for him every year. Each gift was a small light in the darkness that he faced every day. As you do your holiday shopping and enjoy this season, spare a thought for those who will not be with their families and maybe never will be again. Do you believe every incarcerated person deserves that fate? If not, it’s time to take a good, hard look at our state, and think about how we can do better.

Tharon Johnson received a Green Eyeshade award for serious magazine commentary for his December 2022 column, “Making Housing Affordable Again.” He can be seen on Sunday mornings on The Georgia Gang on Fox 5 Atlanta.