It is a strange fact that as we become, supposedly, more civilised, we lock up more people than ever. That, supposed pinnacle, of Western development America, locks up more people than any other country on the planet and is responsible for a quarter of the world's prison population. The UK has one of the highest prison populations per head, in Europe. These two countries strut the globe shouting "freedom", while the holding the accolade of locking up more of their citizens than anybody else in the West.
The concept of prison is outdated in any truly civilised country, it was built on a failed and false premise. Take a "bad" person, punish them and they will become good. It then was modified to take a "bad "person, lock them up and they will see the errors of their ways and reform. The fact that over the centuries we have seen the prison population grow, can only mean, it is failing, or we are becoming a more "bad" species. Of course we all know that prisons are really there to keep the population in thrall to the established power. There is no place for prisons in any free and civilised society.
An interesting article originally from MediaPart before being translated by Lena Theodoropoulou and appearing in Xpressed:
Read the full article HERE:---“Prison was built on the principles of philanthropy: during the time of their incarceration, the offenders would reflect, would improve, would be reborn. History defeated this sad nonsense. A prison can only be constructed on the foundations of absolute spiritual cruelty; otherwise imprisonment is just based on the hope that everything will go well after it ends, hence on something completely inconceivable”. When Catherine Baker (journalist of the libertarian movement, author and supporter of the abolition of prisons) was writing these words in March of 1984, in France there were 38,600 persons held in prisons. Thirty years later this number has increased to 69,000 and the average time of incarceration is more than double (from 5.5 to more than 12 months).----
