The Model for a Good Prison is the Home

   The home is the best thing to model a prison after. It is in the home that values are learned, that character is molded, and that principles of right and wrong are stamped. It is the home that we, as society, have always relied on to teach people the difference between being a good person and being a bad person.
   So, how does our model translate when we operate a prison? For one thing, we will need one-on-one attention. Parenting is such a concentrated effort that one parent usually does not take a job, but instead stays at home because of the need to be constantly with the children. A nursery might have 20 children, but not a home (at least not usually). At any rate, if you got too many children, the parent would have difficulty attending to them all.
   So it is with a prison: We need someone with them constantly during waking hours, and there needs to be enough of these workers that the prisoners are getting one-on-one attention.
   What else does a home provide? While watching her children, the parent is on constant watch for misconduct. If the child swears, picks on another child, steals another's toy, or whatever, the parent is all over it, immediately telling the child that what he is doing is wrong.
   So it should be with a prison. The workers should monitor every interaction the prisoner makes with other prisoners and with visitors, correcting the inmate every time another person is belittled, every time a voice is raised in anger, and every time a cheating action is taken in a game of cards.
   The rules of conduct have ever been learned this way, by someone watching every move and offering a voice of direction each time the person does something wrong. Home taught us how to correct people, but we never learned, never got far enough to apply it to our prisons.
   There is one more element of home life that needs applied to prison life: love. It is the essence of what homes are about. The child learns as he is nurtured in love. He wants to learn because of the love. He wants to please the person who loves him.
   Do we suppose we can reform the prisoner if we don't teach him the values he needs? Do we suppose we can reform the prisoner without providing him a loving environment? Mother has ever been the master at teaching good from bad, and she has ever been known for her love. We should tip our hat to her, and learn her ways.

Note: Blog updated, added to, that is, 6/3/15.