I feel like this article has a vibe of “whataboutism”. Answering the question of “what to do with rapists and murderers” with “lots of murderers don’t face justice and many rapists don’t even get charged, meanwhile cops kill plenty of people”. That may be true but that’s not really an answer.

It was a bit confusing too when you mentioned Dylan Roof, because you were saying “why should we expose black prisoners to a dangerous man like Dylan”, well you could put him in solitary, you could imprison him and have a segregated prison where blacks don’t interact with whites, or you could in this instance trust that Dylan as a weedy skinny man is actually not much of a threat without guns, and most black prisoners could actually harm him (and probably should), there’s a reason Dylan murdered elderly people at church, because he was a coward. That said, I’m not saying these are the right solutions I’m saying there are more options out there than you allowed for.

Now I actually am for major prison reform, as my fiance is in prison for manslaughter. I know the prison system as-is, does not rehabilitate the majority of offenders. My fiancé’s crime was caused by a psychotic break caused by a combination of psychedelics and longstanding mental illness, is he a danger to society now? No. And yet, what alternative to prison would satisfy the vengefulness of a victim’s family? It’s a tricky question.

I was discussing with him an idea actually whereby there was an actual rehabilitative model of justice, everyone could start in a secure mental hospital when arrested, and be evaluated for any mental health and addiction treatments they may need. Then as they go through programs and give back to the community they earn back levels of freedom. There’s no fixed “sentence”, each treatment plan is designed to address the factors that led the offender to commit their crime, and also for them to take accountability and give back to a society they harmed. But also gives them measurable ways they can try and earn back the trust of society.

For people like the Dylan Roofs of the world, or the Samuel Littles, they will never progress through the treatment as they are psychopaths who represent the minority of all homicides (most murders and manslaughters are crimes of passion, impaired judgement due to drugs and alcohol, or impetuousness, not cold calculation). So for the unrehabilitatable, they would never be free. It would be essentially a life sentence. But for the majority of people who can rehabilitate, it would give them an opportunity to control their destiny to an extent and motivate them to get out faster. There’s actually a place kind of like this in California, it’s a hospital for pedophiles, and when I saw a documentary on it, I felt angry because the way these pedophiles are being “rehabilitated” is so much more comfortable and mental health focused than my fiance experiences, or most black prisoners experience, and pedophiles did far worse crimes. If pedophiles get that treatments, why not make it for all prisoners?

I would say combine that with the Nordic model where prisoners don’t live in inhospitable conditions but are on an island commune where they grow their own foods, have their own rooms, relative freedom of movement within the island.