On the eve of his final year, President Barack Obama has announced an executive decision to abolish solitary confinement for all juveniles as reported in the Washington Post.
This, along with the change to the maximum first offense incarceration from 365 to 60 days was a part of a series of movements the president has made to help remove the reciprocation of crime in the United States.
The importance of the moves our President is making could amplify; an area of the country usually avoided by politicians due to the harsh subject matter is being highlighted with a red pen by our Chief in Command.
Issues seldom see resolve, especially in a diplomatic system such as the United States.
But the realization of the need for reform in the prison system might not be a pleasant one, but it might be the most important.
Obama decidedly uses a tragedy to help build a case against the method of incarceration, citing the story of Kalief Browder during a speech, a 22-year old college student that committed suicide after two years of solitary confinement because he could not cope with the trauma.
Time after time, it seems as if the answer to a crime is to penalize those who committed; this response is as general as it is ineffective, providing an institutionalized effect upon those that have entered the ‘system.’
And while those who stand firmly on the black or white side try to consider what a makes crime and decide the entrails of the disciplinary action accordingly, a generation of souls are being changed from humans to felons.
So what is expected from someone who is constantly being shaded by the veil of the courts, someone who has to consider whether ‘going back’ is a better option than living?
For generations, it was believed that reform was the effect of solitary confinement, but after years and years of scientific evidence that back up the general consensus from psychologists that it does quite the opposite have led many of those in government positions to re-think the entire idea of prison.
Along with President Obama’s attempts to invigorate a socio-political thought only heard in the whispers of change-mongering Democrats, many states have tried their hand at fixing some of the issues as well.
Social issues such as drug abuse, psychological disabilities and prison reform seldom see resolve, especially in a diplomatic system such as the United States’, but the realization of the need for reform in the prison system shan’t be a pleasant one, but it might be the most important.