I just watched a two part Louis Theroux BBC Docuмentary series about Miami County Jail, where people are awaiting trial, often for years.  It made me ask myself a lot of questions and why the prison service was run like that, what alternatives would be, how humans get like that.

It's called Miami Mega Jail and the whole docuмentary lasts about two hours.  I recommend watching it.

There is one white middle class guy in his early 20s who appears to have been bullied and persecuted by one person for years and then lashed out, and made some botch attempt on them.  He was charged with attempted murder, he was one of the only people there that had maintained his humanity.  He had been there 4 years awaiting trial.

For most of the inmates, who are 90 percent black, it seems that their frontal lobe either hasn't formed or has just been turned off completely. They seem to have no higher brain functions whatsoever. They have no sympathy, appear incapable of empathy, they cannot understand that actions have consequences and violence is not an acceptable way of resolving problems. There's no chance in hell that they could function in any sort of lawful society.  So why are we even trying? It's not in their nature to conform.

It is called the Department of "Corrections" but there was absolutely no correcting going on.  They just constructed their own rules inside like prison life was a video game for them.

Honestly, these people can't be rehabilitated, it's been proven time and time again. It's absurd to waste all the money on 'em. Do we need a program where they can be sent elsewhere, for good? Perhaps their own people could shape them up, if they lived in Africa, I dunno. I suspect that they wouldn't survive without all the things they're given in the USA (housing, food, money, transportation, etc), but once they renounced their citizenship, that wouldn't be your concern.

Should gang-bangers in their for violent robbery or even lesser crime who then involve themselves with the prison sub culture and remain violent and uncooperative simply be exiled or executed.

How should society handle this.  If you woke up tomorrow as dictator of the USA what would you do about the prison population?

The true priests used to go to the prisons to convert people, and pray the Mass, but that doesn't happen anymore. I'm fairly sure they would perform exorcisms if necessary as well, but which bishop even believes in Hell anymore, much less the "fairy tale" of a devil.

That's what -should- be done, but there isn't the manpower out there to do it anymore, sadly.

The true priests used to go to the prisons to convert people, and pray the Mass, but that doesn't happen anymore. I'm fairly sure they would perform exorcisms if necessary as well, but which bishop even believes in Hell anymore, much less the "fairy tale" of a devil.

That's what -should- be done, but there isn't the manpower out there to do it anymore, sadly.

Based on the nature of these prisoners, do you think it would convert more than a handful?

It's nice to hope and stuff, but what do you think WOULD happen.

It did not have THAT big an effect in the past, prisoners were not converting hand over fist, and bear in mind that then we were talking about people who had often been to some sort of Sunday school as children or come from Christian parents.

These negros appear to have grown up with chaos, violence, drugs, prostitution etc around them.  They appear to have been cursed.

Once of them who has go 40 years for murder, calmly says that he is pleased to be in jail because outside was more stressful for him.  Seems to be telling the truth.

There is something about these prisoners that strikes one as sub-human, and I don't mean that in a racist way, though it is impossible to notice that most of them are negros.  Moreover they seem to have no hope, empathy or even the desire to make prison as pleasant as it can be.  No co-operation, no trust, no sympathy.  Just about all the traits that separate humans from beasts they either don't have or are deficient in.

Is anyone of the opinion that once out of childhood, broken people are difficult if not impossible to fix?

Some priests still do visit the prisons.  A CMRI priest in Ohio visited a death row inmate convicted of horrible and unspeakable crimes.  After many visits by this priest, the man completely repented and died as a practicing Catholic and received Holy Communion before the state executed him.

OK, but let's put this into perspective.

The man said the words and went through the motions and had some sort of sorrow in his heart perhaps.  We hope.  Who knows how psychologically stable he was etc.

What the priest probably didn't do is reform him, such that the killer could articulately and calmly, explain his sins to a docuмentary making, sit without restraints in a room with a woman interview, apologise to the victims' families and face the death penalty.

What, I am wondering is whether a young negro killer/thug could be re-habilitated like Morgan Freeman's character in the Shawshank Redemption.  Or once the damage is done are rehabilitations like that as rare as rocking horse poop?

What shocks me most about the US prison system is that there is not even an attempt or show from the prisoners of trying to reform.

Making a knife with intent to harm in prison, for example, should be a capital offence.  Prisons appear to me to need a penal code, distinct from the civil code, like a military justice code.

It's completely unacceptable that violence, rape etc are seen as normal in prisons.  More than the bars and the loss of liberty should be a sense that you now follow these very strict rules because you were not able to follow societies less strict ones.

The true priests used to go to the prisons to convert people, and pray the Mass, but that doesn't happen anymore.

I'm not sure where you're getting your information, but even novus ordo priests still commonly make visits to prisoners.

Quote from: parentsfortruth

God's grace is miraculous. Yes, it may be few, but the saying is that God rejoices over one sinner more than He does over 1000 just men. So to say that prisons are a waste of time for priests, is not so.

OK, but they are not a solution.

Is there a better method of reform and correction so that a 15 year old gangbanger could be a useful and productive member of society at 25?

UK prisons are nothing like as bad.

You might know of Fr. Voigt. He was a novus ordo priest in Los Angeles, and he was told to "stop proselytizing," which caused him to become a true priest.

Here's what could be done. Have these novus ordo priests come to the Faith, and turn these ghettos around like Fr. Voigt tried to do but was told by his fraud superior to stop doing.

Quote from: ggreg

Quote from: parentsfortruth

God's grace is miraculous. Yes, it may be few, but the saying is that God rejoices over one sinner more than He does over 1000 just men. So to say that prisons are a waste of time for priests, is not so.

OK, but they are not a solution.

Is there a better method of reform and correction so that a 15 year old gangbanger could be a useful and productive member of society at 25?

UK prisons are nothing like as bad.

Closing down every public school would be a good start.

How would that help?  Appears to me that many of those negro children are not going to school anyway and the schools are only too pleased not to see them there.

It's not like their mother is going to homeschool them, is it?

Those nation of Islam negros however are by far the most civilised in prison according to the prison officers I have spoken to.  The religion disciplines them.