1048: Shaun Attwood | From Raves to Riches to Ruin Part Two

Profit Motives

Private prisons in the U.S. operate on profit motives that perpetuate a cycle of crime and recidivism. Shaun Attwood explains how prisons allow gang and drug activities to thrive, ensuring inmates return, which generates revenue 1. He describes the brutal realities of prison life, where violence and corruption are rampant, and rehabilitation is virtually nonexistent 2.

The jail knows if they allow it to be gang and drug infested mayhem. They're coming back to the jail. As soon as they come back to the jail, it was $60,000 a year per person of taxpayers money to house that person.

--- Shaun Attwood

This system benefits both the gangs and the prisons, creating a vicious cycle of incarceration and re-incarceration.

   

Systemic Failures

The American prison system is fraught with systemic failures that exacerbate the suffering of inmates. Shaun Attwood recounts horrifying conditions, such as toxic toothpaste and inadequate medical care, which highlight the inhumane treatment prisoners endure 3. He also describes the deplorable food quality, with moldy bread and inedible meat being the norm 4.

Guards wouldn't take him to medical, so in the day room, big guys arm locked him on either side to hold him steady. There was a Russian guy in there who'd been in the military and said he knew how to dress wounds. He comes up behind Alejandro, and he's massaging this guy's back, and all this pus is running down the back, and I'm mopping it up with the toilet paper.

--- Shaun Attwood

These conditions reflect a broader systemic issue where the focus is on punishment rather than rehabilitation.