One of my neighbors is a drunk.
One of my neighbors is a drunk.
He is also a kind, and intelligent person, and he worries about his son—and others—who are in jail. He does not, at least so far as I am aware, assert their innocence, but rather worries and argues about inhumane conditions in the jail, and about denial of necessary, medical, psychological, and rehabilitative services for those imprisoned.
Sane people should share his concerns. We are talking of a local jail, not prison. Therefore, with possible exceptions, most of the people incarcerated there will be getting out in a matter of—usually months. Therefore, irrespective of highly appropriate concerns for these inmates themselves, an intelligent local community should be concerned about maltreating minor criminals for a period of months and then turning them loose without having helped them to recover from the problems that got them sent to jail while they were in jail.
What answer can I give this man?
He would really like me to sue the county, or the local Tribe, or the State, or somebody to try to force the provision of humane conditions and appropriate treatment for the jailees. He bemoans the fact that the local attorneys (likely including me when he is speaking to others) do nothing. He is probably unaware that Congress has—as a condition of providing even the most minimal funding for legal services—prohibited legal services corporations from suing local governments about such things as jail conditions.
He is probably quite right that conditions are very bad. I don’t know whether he takes the next logical step to argue that deprivation of services to jailees harms not only them, but also the community. His primary concern seems to be for those imprisoned, and as stated above that is highly appropriate.
But if we are not concerned about such persons, then how can we claim to be concerned about the communities to which they will soon return?
= new reply since forum marked as read
you about how they do what they do . . . ?
I hope.
My Mom was one of those "good" church ladies. Most in her church were hypocrites, but there was this one fellow. Owned a Jewelry Store in a larger town nearby. Mom liked him, because he visited the jail regularly and "ministered" to them. He would take them a little New Testament Bible and just shoot the bull with them. He took them magazines or books if they wanted them, even cigarettes or cigars (as they were allowed.) Any small thing they wanted and were allowed to have, he would take to them. And before he left, he would say a simple prayer. Even though I am not that religious, I always admired that little man for doing that. Truth be known, Mom probably gave him money to help defray the cost. She was just like that.
Jails are our modern-day dungeons. And I don't know how to answer your last question. I really don't. We have a broken prison system, and Republicans holding our society hostage. I can just imagine what they would say on the floors of Congress if someone wrote a bill to address the situation. This society is fucked, from one end to another. 
