When released, most inmates want to square up' with society."" .
The Social Cost.
The prison crisis reaches right into your wallet. It is estimated that in the United States, for example, each prisoner costs taxpayers about $21,000 annually. Inmates over the age of 60 can cost three times that amount. In many countries public confidence in the penal system is waning for additional reasons. There are concerns about prematurely released criminals, as well as offenders, who manage to avoid prison sentences altogether because of some legal technicality discovered by an astute lawyer. Usually, victims do not feel sufficiently protected against further violation, and they may have little voice in the legal process.
Public Concern Grows.
Public confidence in the prison system is not helped by the inhumane conditions to which prisoners are exposed, as described in the accompanying box. Prisoners who have suffered unjust treatment while serving their sentences are hardly candidates for rehabilitation. Then, too, a number of human rights groups are concerned about the disproportionate numbers of members of minority groups who are found in prisons. They question whether this is a coincidence or the result of racial discrimination.
A 1998 Associated Press report drew attention to the plight of ex-prisoners to the Holmesburg Prison, in Pennsylvania, U.S.A., who sought compensation for having allegedly been used as human guinea pigs in chemical experiment while imprisoned. And what about the reintroduction of chain gangs in the United State? Amnesty International reports: "Work on the gang lasts for 10-12 hours often in the hot sun, with very brief breaks for water, and one hour for lunch . The only toilet facility available to chain gang inmates is a portable chamber pot behind a makeshift screen. Inmates remain chained together while using it. When the chamber pot is inaccessible, inmates are forced to squat down on the ground in public.