Posted: July 1st, 2022

“How to Fix Our Prisons? Let the Public Inside.”

Summary of the Article” How to Fix Our Prisons? Let the Public Inside.”
According to Barsky (1), it is now time to have criminal justice reforms to increase mass incarceration rates. To this effect, the author proposes the project “Let Us In,” which primarily involves different stakeholders in teaching the inmates on preparing their lives after completing their prison sentences. The stakeholders to be brought in include teachers, college students, retirees, and volunteers who will each receive training on how they will conduct themselves. Though the program is distinct from the existing smaller-scale programs, the former will act as a complementary program that will bring in long-lasting positive change within the prison and receive proper support from the country’s [resident and society will also benefit from its existence.
For some time, the different United States governments have put in various measures to see the prison population reduce. According to Barsky (1), the recent one is the First Step Act enacted by President Trump, which focuses on reducing federal prison sentences. Other Democratic presidential candidates are proposing reforms on bail, sentencing, punishments, and voting rights for the incarcerated rights. While these reforms are all significant for the desired change, the author indicates that there has been a failure in looking inside the prison walls, thus achieving little in the inside environment. The prison inside the environment has virtually nonexistent constitutional protections, solitary confinements, and various forms of abuse, among other deplorable conditions. Therefore, it is difficult to achieve positive change and to fail to look into such conditions.
To this effect, Barsky indicates that the challenging prison environment will need the “Let Us In” program to focus on having the public understand what happens in it. When the public gets to understand the prison conditions for a home to an estimated 2.1 million individuals, then they will ring in their efforts to ensure that prisoners have better lives after their sentences (Barsky, 1). For instance, the program will have college graduates receive stipends from implementing educational programs for the prisoners. The graduates will teach skills such as math and history to grasp the few opportunities available in that aspect. The graduates then receive credit for the prison work they do that will help them in professional advancement. The retiree teachers could also offer their services depending on the subjects they teach.
In contrast, former prisoners could teach those within the prisons on the outside environment, the expectations, and what they need to survive legally. Notably, this program will acknowledge the existing programs that focus on allowing outsiders to learn about the prison’s internal environment. However, more is required if a criminal justice reform is to be achieved. The public should have a total understanding of the prison environment. Everyone should work on the betterment of the relationship between them and the imprisoned, thus ensuring that they do not go back.

Additionally, the author affirms that the current president understands that the prison system is currently failing due to mass incarcerations (Barsky, 2). Therefore, this program will seek the president’s full support and speak on the people’s pain and proper direct resources to reduce the lengthy sentences and the exorbitant expenses to maintain the systems, which is a burden to taxpayers. The president is expected to bring together various criminal justice experts and develop a national program with distinctive paths to train the volunteers and professionals that will work inside the prisons and still be safe. The author further indicates that the programs will not only focus on dispensing knowledge and skills to the inmates but also ensuring their safety. This pram has demonstrated effectiveness in areas such as Green Haven and Fishkill Correctional Facilities within New York (Barsky, 2). The various examples pointed out by the author are still small-scale, and thus one could imagine its transformative power in case it is applied nationally.
Notably, the author points to the fact that the “Let Us In” program may not be considered a program substitute to the existing one since the latter is also playing significant functions in achieving radical change. Nonetheless, through this program, the prison systems will achieve various objectives such as the provision of tools that will have the inmates live healthy and productive lives after completion of their sentences, enlightenment of the prison leadership to provide proper resources and incentives for educational and other similar programs, and creation of a generation constituting of proponents to prison reforms (Barsky, 2). Citing the civil rights lawyer, Bryan Stevenson, the author states that the four things important in confronting the injustice occurring within the United States include; first knowing the issue, changing the narrative, implementing proper efforts to fight hopelessness, and accepting discomfort in these efforts. This program achieves these objectives while holding the right institutions accountable to the public coming into this environment (Barsky, 2).

Works Cited
Barsky, Neil. “How to Fix Our Prisons? Let the Public Inside.” The New York Times (2019):1-2.

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