If You Want Him to Become a Working Class Person, Work Him

  If you were trying to rehabilitate a person, would you take out of his life the things he was was doing that were good? If you had an image of who you wanted him or her to be, would it not include being a working-class person, taking care of his family, and engaging in meaningful activities?
  In separating the prisoner from society, sometimes we also separate him from activities we should want to foster, not remove from his life.
   So, why do our prisons take work away from the criminal?
  Enter, the work prison. Many prisons already have work programs. I understand Utah's Point of the Mountain facility has a wonderful work program. But, I wonder if more could be done. I'd rather guess that no prison, anywhere, has all its prisoners working eight hours a day.  But, if, per chance, there already exists such a prison, I hail it.
   The work prison then. In this prison, the person puts in an eight-hour day the same as he would on the outside. In this prison, the idea is to teach them to be productive members of society. Rather than slapping a TV in front of their faces for five years, or however long they are in prison, and training them in how to watch a TV, they are trained to work. And, not only to work, but to love work.
   If you want him to be a working class person once he gets out, work him while he is in there.
   Start him on ditch digging, perhaps. If you like, have them dig trenches and fill them right back up. Teach them that sometimes this is the type of work they get stuck in in life, and if they find no other work, to be satisfied in it, to be grateful for it, for it pays for them to make their way in life.
  Pay them for it, and watch as their families come visiting, and they turn the money over to the family.
   Have an assembly line business right within the prison. After they have experienced the ditch digging, graduate them to the assembly line.
  But, here's the trick. Be searching for more. Be searching for their talents, searching to get them doing something they will enjoy. Maybe they will become soda pop makers. Maybe they will become care givers. Find a way within those prison walls, to let them do things of interest to them. Develop their talents and skills, and let them do work that gives them a sense of accomplishment.
  All that you want the prisoner to be when he gets out, should be instilled in him while he is in the prison. And, this includes being a working-class person.