Transexuals

[TheRocketSurgeon]

Meh, I get Drich's point, there, actually. Many guys resent the educational system and everything about it-- frankly, it's too late for many of them. But there are also MANY MANY MANY prisoners who are there for non-violent crimes, or whose violence was a result of growing up in a rotten ghetto (and by rotten, I mean our culture deliberately created those ghettos and then left them to rot), with no prospects of legitimate, meaningful education or work. In that dog-eat-dog world, they ate another dog, and now they're being punished for it. Further, these guys are not completely dumb; they know that when they get out, with years of missing work-experience (prison jobs count for nothing on the streets) and a Felon label, they're going to be going right back to where they were, before-- so what's the point? It's often made worse by a Parole system that forces them to (even against their will) return to their old neighborhoods, and stay there, even if they're reporting to the officer that they are in danger of re-offending due to the influences around them. I've seen it over and over again, in Parole Violation reports I've read from inmates who had been returned to the prison after trying desperately to get away from The Life™. They want something else, but it is denied to them at every turn... hardly surprising, then, that so many give up and become intransigent.

A big part of the problem is that, all their life, they've gotten the message that the world is about who can dominate whom, so to send them to prison where they are treated like absolute shit, surrounded by the ultimate alpha-hierarchical structure, only reinforces that attitude.

So while I agree with you, Drich, that education is not the only key to this problem (which is why we're discussing several of the problems), it's essential that we restructure the way we treat prisoners. The current system simply does not work, except to keep troublemakers "out of sight, out of mind" for as long as possible... and usually, it makes them far worse than they were when they went in, even if it's just PTSD and other psychological issues that result from the inhuman treatment and constant danger, over the course of years.

Finally, I want you to pay very, very close attention to this statement: EQUAL DOES NOT MEAN "THE SAME", when speaking of humans, at least. It means "the same value". When we say we want equality, or fairer treatment of people, we are not saying we expect identical people. It's part of why we get so pissed off at you (and those like you) who tell us things like, "Well how can you say you're for equality when you're trying to give special rights/dispensations to _(insert minority or special needs group here)_?"

No one here fails to recognize that not everyone is capable of becoming a surgeon, or even graduating high school, or even of being non-violent and acting in a civilized manner. That does not mean anything *at all* when it comes to how we treat them, and what we do to try to give people who do want to turn their lives around an opportunity to do so.