Why do we have prisons in the US? I mean jails sure, to hold overnight drunks and such, but why prisons to hold people for long periods of time? We spent $68 billion on prisons and jails last year. There has to be a cheaper way and, if we have to waste money somewhere, why waste it here?
What if we sent people to prison in Mexico? Or Gambia? I am sure Mexico and Gambia would be happy to build prisons to our specifications, treat our prisoners as we require under the terms of a contract, open their prisons to inspections, etc. And I am sure we could cut costs by 50% at least.
For a lot of convicts, we might not need to send them to prison at all. What if we just said that for certain crimes the punishment is exile from the United States, for a period of time or for life? You can live wherever you want, but not here.
We could make a deal with countries to send convicts there. We would have a treaty with the receiving countries establishing a minimum standard of treatment for exiles. Exiles would get citizenship in the new country.
This would cost something. We might have to pay Gambia or New Guinea or whomever $100,000 per convict or so. But we would save a lot of money. We probably spend that in a single year housing and guarding each convict.
Is this cruel? Is it unusual? Well, it’s certainly not historically unusual. Exile is a traditional punishment going back to the ancient Greeks.
Is it cruel? Well, compared to what? Compared to being in prison for ten years? I am not sure it is crueler than that. That’s pretty awful. And I bet exiled convicts would more often abandon crime than people who go to US prisons. US prisons are great places to meet other criminals and learn from them. Sometimes what you need is to get away from it all.
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