One Nation Under Guard

Great job on this one.

This pod was a joke. All I heard was a repeatition of a "problem" and no solution was offered. No stats were produced to show that violent crime is up and the animals who are doing this need to be in prison. I'm sure the hippies in the pod informing us of these atrocities are not living in the lower class black communities where the problems are at.

Its time to realize the black community and all of society needs to address the glorification of crime toward their youth.

i just don't understand how we can treat us like that. We need to stop discriminating and start embracing. People need to feel comfortable if you want them to succeed. You catch more bee's with honey man

The sad part about this is that we have been brainwashed into thinking that any money put towards rehabilitating felons and offenders will be wasted. Rehabilitation can work, but change needs to happen on a societal level first. We need to expose the deeply rooted injustices of race, religeon and sexual orientation before we start using tax money to implement rehabilition programs. In other words, we need to rehabilitate ourselves as a nation before we spend the time and money and not to mention add to the bureaucracy involved in the already broken prison system.

This piece really caught my attention for several reasons.
First; I'm an "ex-con" who is on parole and probation. I served 16 months in The California Department of Corrections for Possession of a controlled substance.(meth) .
I was released on Parole and managed to hold a job for almost 2 years. While on Parole I was required to take a drug test once a month and basically stay out of trouble.
But soon after I found my-self back in Jail for the same offense. But this time I was released under the proposition 36 law in witch instead of prison you are given an opportunity to enter drug treatment. Of course like everything else there is a catch. If i don't successfully complete the treatment program, I will be sentenced to 3 years in prison.
Thats an entirely different subject altogether so I'll just tell you of my experience.
The thing that I noticed was how little these State employees who run the prisons care about what's going on . Drugs are everywhere in the prison system and are sometime brought in by the Correctional officers to make a quick buck. The only time they actually do anything is when there is violence evolved or one of their superiors are watching over them.
The riots that happen in prisons are 90% of the time caused directly or indirectly by the Correctional Officers. I know it's hard to believe but ask anyone who's been in a California Prison.
Not only does the prison system need to be reformed but even more so the parole system. Their are more inmates incarcerated for parole violations' than there are for actual crimes. There are entire prisons that are dedicated to housing only Parole violators like the one in Lancaster Ca. I knew guy who had to serve a year violation for carrying a tool used to cut carpet on his tool belt. He was arrested while coming out of 7-11 on his lunch break. And this kind of arrest is not uncommon here in California.
I understand that certain offenders need to kept track of when released from prison like sex offenders or violent offenders. But I was convicted for a simple drug possession. I've never robbed or stole anything from anywhere, I've always had a job to support my habit, be it right or wrong the only person I've ever harmed was my-self.