I think these prisoners should be required to earn their keep while serving their sentences.
Unfortunately only the most trusted prisoners get to have jailhouse jobs such as mowing lawns, milking cows (on prison farms), and custodial duty. The majority are left out in the yard to mingle all day, then return to their cell at night for their evening meal some TV time (supermax has cable in every cell), then to bed.
During the 40s, 50s, and 60s, the purpose of our prison system was to punish. Many that were in prison during that time can tell you they learned their lesson and after they got out they made every effort not to return. However that is a different generation of criminals that were raised much differently than the current prison population.
During that era solitary confinement meant a cold dark cell with nothing to do for the duration of the solitary confinement. These days solitary confinement means free cable TV all day, and one hour of rec time for excercise.
In the 40s- 60s it wasn't uncommon to see chaingangs picking up trash alongside our roads, now we have this "Adopt-A-Highway" program that clearly does not work as our roadways are still littered with trash. Bring back the chain gangs to help keep our roadways clean, the prisoners that can't have a job in the prison can spend their day doing this.
What about prisoners working to make license plates for vehicles? What about prisoners that can work a large agricultural field of crops. This would help the facility become 'greener' by not using gas-powered machinery and it would give the inmates something to do and they would in essence be providing for themselves. Even jobs such as building and repairing computers for public schools, why not have them work in laundry or in the kitchen. For God's sakes, we can make these prisoners earn their stay, instead of us taxpayers doing it and at the same time they are gaining job skills to be employed outside the prison system.
The jobs themselves wouldn't be abuse, but they would required to work just 8 hours a day at a maximum 6 days a week with rotating days off.
Depending on the sentencing, 6 months before a prisoner is scheduled to be released he should be offered job services that will help them line up a job as soon as they are released, how to fill out applications, how to interview, and so forth. Obviously the prison system would have to work with certain employers that accepts offenders to be hired straight out of jail. The inmate would be released to a half-way house and required to stay there a minimum of 1 year to transition from prison life to civilian life, where applicable the inmate may also be required to enroll into a vocational training program.
If the inmate is fired from his prison-release job, he is automatically kicked out of the halfway house and must be paroled out to a relative and report to an officer weekly. If the inmate fails to meet even these conditions, then he must serve out the remainder of his parole sentence in prison, if he is released a second time, then he should just be dropped off and told to do it his way, if he fails and comes back a third time, then he is in prison for life.
This is a a very complicated problem that needs a complicated solution to be solved. I doubt this problem will ever be fully remedied as people in general are unpredictable and each person functions in society differently.
