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The Commonwealth Party will reform the prison system into an institution of rehabilitation and stern discipline instead of just a flat program of non-constructive incarceration seasoned with irrational or inhumane punishment. Though prisons will still be places of punishment, they will also be endowed with programs of discipline to rebuild and reinstate inmates - making them able to function in a civil society if released. Allowing convicts to perform criminal acts upon one another in prison is less a form of punishment for the inmate victim but more of a criminal reward for the jailhouse perpetrator(s) and relegates the taxpayer and society at large as co-conspirators. This flawed system can make convicts more criminal in nature when they leave it than when they came in, thus endangering society more in the future. Prisons should be a place of further enforcement of societal law. Prisons will be more focused on disciplining inmates (boot camp-ish) and breaking psychological barriers to conscience that criminals inherit from their backgrounds. Prisons will not become bastardized institutions for convicts and felons to extract generous taxpayer-funded amenities but there will be a reward system for inmates who show true cooperative progress towards rehabilitation. For those who seriously resist there will be a continuing system of harsh punishment, more intense discipline and depravation of privileges. On a case basis, the magnitude of the crime committed by the convict and their criminal history will determine for what privileges the convict can partake in the reward system and how far up the reward caste they may go. The Commonwealth Party will support increased funding necessary for the resources and personnel to man the new prison system. We also advocate better facilities and personnel to handle the criminally insane. We are open to private firms in the prison system as long as they maintain standards and their facilities are open and transparent for inspection to those ends. Drug legalization and clemency of drug dealers and users will streamline the current prison population, helping provide the logistics toward these goals. Prisoners will be de-ganged. There will be no gang structures allowed. Tattoos may be forcibly removed. Only the supremacy of the wardens and the reward caste for cooperative inmates will be honored. Allowing the public - especially the victim - to take part in disciplining, punishing and patrolling the prisoner should be considered. Corporal punishment will be allowed and monitored. Wardens may be furnished with whips, batons, cattle prods or analogous, etc. with protocols for use. Whatever works reasonably will be utilized to counter the gang affiliations, violent prisoners and uprisings. Cooperative inmates receive more kid-glove treatment. Prisoners' diet and exercise routine will be such that they are geared to be physically easier to handle and present less of a threat -- no serious body-building equipment and the like. Work and education routines will be established for the more cooperative and count towards earlier release with gain in skills and some cash for when they are let out. Cooperative prisoners are awarded freedom and incentive to maintain their environs - painting, gardening, basic maintenance. Uncooperative prisoners get the more dreg cells but should be witness in some form to the better conditions of the cooperative inmates. No qualms over tranquilizing the dangerous and violent inmates in order to keep them under control just like the dangerous animals that they are. Prison rapists will be institutionally whipped, batonned and/or castrated. Former inmates will be subject to a tax that covers costs of their previous incarceration. |