Understood. I’ve been following the Manson cases since the murders took place, and that is why I am convinced she is rehabilitated. I would also like a penal system that is more willing to take mitigating circumstances into account during parole hearings, years after the emotional impact of the case has diminished and people are thinking more clearly.
But I live in a country that houses more prisoners than anywhere else in the world—4.4% of the world’s population within a population of only 325 million. That’s 2.2 million adult prisoners alone, or 22% of all the world’s prisoners. Recidivism rates are out of this world.
Within three years of release, about two-thirds (67.8 percent) of released prisoners were rearrested. Within five years of release, about three-quarters (76.6 percent) of released prisoners were rearrested. Of those prisoners who were rearrested, more than half (56.7 percent) were arrested by the end of the first year.
We aren’t such bad citizens to warrant that, so there is something horribly wrong with our judicial and penal systems. One of those things is that we aren’t even attempting rehab anymore in most of our penal systems. The other is that we have people inside who no longer belong their. Another is that prison is the go-to solution for nearly every crime, and we actively make laws that create felons by converting socio-economic based misdemeanors into felony charges upon repetition.
So, this is probably why two good friends from across the Pacific would disagree on this.