Alexander Reynolds: I Went Undercover in America's Toughest Prison Alexander Reynolds - VICE News
go to original August 21, 2014

The author getting his hair cut

Everyone knows the US imprisons more people than any other country in the world. What they might not know is that, as an American citizen, you’re more likely to be jailed than if you were Chinese, Russian or North Korean; that, with 2.3 million inmates, there are currently the same amount of people imprisoned in the States as the combined populations of Estonia and Cyprus; and that once Americans are sent to jail, they tend to keep going back.

According to a recent study by the Bureau of Justice Statistics - a US Department of Justice agency - within six months of release 28 percent of inmates get rearrested for a new crime. After three years, the figure rises to 68 percent. By the end of five years, it’s an alarming 77 percent. But terrible recidivism rates have been a constant in the Land of the Free. The Pew Research Center issued its own report on the problem in 2011; the conclusion was bleak. Too many criminal offenders emerge from prison ready to offend again, and more than four out of 10 adult offenders in America return to prison within three years of their release. For too many Americans, the prison door keeps revolving.  

How do we try to change whatever it was that brought someone into trouble with the law? And if that proves impossible, what is the best way that society can protect itself? I wanted to find out. I also wanted to see how much of what I knew - or thought I knew - about jail turned out to be true. So I wrote to corrections departments worldwide asking for access.

Read the rest at VICE News

Is Solitary Confinement a Danger to Society? An undercover boss behind bars poses as a prisoner to experience the real effects of solitary confinement. (ABC News)

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