LA sheriff opposes releasing “good” prisoners needed for labor

Sheriff Steve Prattor

It’s already senseless that society chooses to lock up nonviolent convicts when non-carceral options exist to keep tabs on people who pose no physical threat to others. But if we’re going to cage human beings like animals, the least we could do is apply this power with compassion and restraint, and that includes releasing people when it can be determined there’s no benefit to keeping them behind bars any longer.

But that depends on who does the determining. Unfortunately, it’s often up to officials like Sheriff Steve Prattor of Caddo Parish, Louisiana, who is no fan of his state’s new criminal justice reforms that aim to cut down on prison overpopulation by releasing some nonviolent prisoners earlier:

WATCH.

In 38 seconds Steve Prattor, Sheriff of Caddo Parish in Louisiana, tells you why he REALLY likes keeping "good" Black men in jail. pic.twitter.com/7YtxixE1rU

— Shaun King (@ShaunKing) October 12, 2017

In a press conference held this week, Prattor said that keeping some of the “good” prisoners in jail was necessary for the prisons to keep functioning because they could provide needed labor that you couldn’t get out of more violent and dangerous prisoners.

“The [prisoners] that you can work, the ones that can pick up trash, the work release programs — but guess what? Those are the ones that they’re releasing!” Prattor fumed in his attack against criminal justice reforms. “In addition to the bad ones… they’re releasing some good ones that we use every day to wash cars, to change the oil in our cars, to cook in the kitchen… well, they’re going to let them out!”

Thankfully, in this case it’s not up to Sheriff Prattor, hence his indignation. But people like him will always exist to make obvious and sensible reforms harder to push through.

Prison (in the US and too many other countries) was never about reforming and rehabilitating. It’s no longer even mostly about punishing. It’s about vengeance and money – those dirty criminals did the crime, so they’ll do the time, and why not get some free labor out of them whilst we’re at it? Anything to avoid seeing them as people with rights and dignity.

(via @greg_doucette; RT: @Popehat)