Question

Why does Pacholke say that it shouldn’t make you happy that “as a prison system, as a nation, and as a society, we've become very good” at containing and controlling the people who have fallen through all of the other societal safety nets? What do you feel that he is insinuating by this statement? Explain.

Answer 1

Dan Pacholke is a prison administrator and reformer who has an experience of 30 years working in the sector. He has made numerous efforts throughout the years to improve the living conditions of confined prisoners, including giving them education programs.

When he says that the system has become very good at containing people who have fallen through all other social safety nets, he means that the there are very little efforts done in order to prevent people to incur in actions that would lead them to imprisonment. In other words, there is no proactive program to prevent people to commit more crimes but rather a reactive one that is prepared to receive people who have already done some sort of harm to society.