Fixing our prison system | Author Shaka Senghor

Our prison system is basically one giant warehouse spread across all of the states, tragically and unfortunately, there's a big profit motive there. When you look at the companies that are investing in free or cheap prison labor, you know, there's no surprise as to why the prison population continues to grow and the recidivum rates continue to exceed 70%, which means there are 70% of the men and women who get out will return to prison largely because we're not doing anything to prepare them for life at the prison. I spent basically two decades inside and I came out to a very different world. When I went to prison in 1991, there was no Internet, no smartphones, no laptops, none of the technology that we currently utilize to interact in our day to day lives. And tragically, there's no classes to prepare you for that once you get out. And so I think that if we really had the political fortitude that we can actually change some things. And I think some of the policies that we really can start with is decriminalizing mental illness. It's absolutely ridiculous how many people who have real mental illness are currently incarcerated because they've closed down so many mental institutions. Another thing is to adequately prepare men and women for life on the outside and recognizing that the majority of men and women who end up in prison come from very traumatic backgrounds that include everything from sexual abuse, child abuse, to domestic violence. I think if we start with addressing mental illness, addressing recidivism rates, really looking at reentry initiatives, passing policies that are reflective of restorative justice practices, that gives not only the men and women on the inside an opportunity to re emerge in society, but it also allows victims of violent crime to heal. I've had an opportunity to work with both political parties on some policy to help reduce the prison population. And sadly and unfortunately, I'm not sure where that's going to go now that we have a new administration. But I think the more people are aware of these policies, the more people are aware about what's happening inside prison, the more likely we are to change the system. And it's one of the reasons that I decided to write my book, SA.