The prison system has totally failed, prison does not reform anyone.
Sometimes an unfortunate man who has no profession and wanders the streets as a vagabond, perhaps an unfortunate family man who does not have bread to feed his children, becomes a novice thief, takes a piece of bread to feed his family, and is then taken to prison, there the offender becomes more perverse, the veterans of crime instruct the novice, and the one who stole a loaf of bread upon leaving the jail will rob a safe, the one who stole a dollar will rob many millions of dollars later.
The sexual problem of prisons is appalling, men separated from women become homosexual. Some degenerate with the vice of masturbation, others become poisoned with erotic imagination and morbid words becoming later, and for that reason, inveterate seducers, rapists, abductors of women, etc., etc.
The jail is a real hell where nobody regenerates and where they degenerate, the jail is ineffective and absurd.
Penal reform is necessary, prisons must be transformed into ultramodern reformatories.
In ultramodern reformatories there would be clinics, hospitals, universities, primary and secondary schools, polytechnic institutes, large industrial workshops, large agricultural fields, small peasant homes where criminals could live with their wives and children in order to solve the sexual problem, etc., etc.
All the money that the states spend on the useless construction of penitentiaries or panopticons and extraneous jails,should be spent on ultramodern reformatories.
The prison is in fact the center of crime and idleness, the prison is the paradise of the totally corrupt and degenerate idler, the jail consumes but does not produce.
The ultramodern reformatories would be producers of food, industries, arts, etc., etc.
In prison it is discovered that the cause of crime is sometimes ignorance; in the ultramodern reformatories ignorance would disappear totally, there would be special psychologists to study the aptitudes of the delinquents, many are thieves because they have no profession; they do not know how to work, there they would be oriented according to their true vocation. The ultramodern reformatories would become producers of doctors, lawyers, engineers, army officers, priests, technicians, carpenters, cabinetmakers, brass workers, mechanics, dentists, police, merchants, farmers, etc., etc., etc.
Regarding also the psychological states of each individual, it would be necessary to have special psychiatrists to study the mental states of the criminals, these would be in charge of solving the clinical problems of the diseased minds.
The prison does not transform, in the ultramodern reformatories, everything would be transformation.
Good educational cinema, good music, lectures, healthy sports, technology, science, etc.., in addition to the religious teachings without denominational exclusivity, would manage to transform the delinquents.
It is urgent to learn to think with a mentality of the new age . At present, in this time of atomic energy and remote-controlled missiles, people are still thinking with a medieval mentality. Really only those who have an archaic mentality can defend with fanaticism the prison system which is fashionable.
This archaic system is based on revenge and hatred. That in fact is absurd for the new age that is now beginning in the august thunder of thought.
The Law of the Talion, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, does not transform anyone nor is it useful for anything.
It is urgent to put an end to the criteria of revenge and cruelty that characterize archaic minds and fight for the total transformation of criminals. Prison is based on the psychology of hatred and revenge. This type of psychological idiosyncrasy is totally medieval, society must fight for the transformation of criminals if it really wants to protect itself.
The prison does not protect society, the prison reinforces crime and produces abominable monsters.
It is urgent to finish with prisons and establish ultramodern reformatories to transform criminals and to truly protect society.
The authorities must now transcend their retarded consciousness and convince themselves fully that prisons are useless.
When we finish with the cruelty and selfishness that we have within, we will understand that the prison system has totally failed. The Universal Christian Gnostic Movement, and all the schools associated with the Gnostic Movement, must fight intensely in the face of the world and society to finish with the prisons and establish on the face of the earth, ultramodern reformatories worthy of the new age that is beginning in these moments of worldwide tragedy and pain.
It is necessary to use the press, the radio, the television, and in general all the modern systems of propaganda to fight intensely for the great penal reform.
It is urgent to make the world understand that prison is a danger to society, it is necessary to make people understand that prison is only the result of the cruelty, hatred and revenge of society, it is essential to make the people see the need to realize the Social Christ on the face of the earth.
The crime does not disappear in the prison, inside the prison each prisoner continues being a criminal that only waits the freedom to continue in his wanderings.
Only comprehension with the tools of work, culture and conscious civilization can really transform the criminals.
The causes of crime, prison and abomination, are within the mind of each individual, it is urgent to understand that each citizen is a potential criminal, the prison will exist with all its abominations while there is cruelty within each individual.
When we understand that cruelty is absurd, when we understand that revenge is useless, then we are prepared to fight against the prison system. Really the ultramodern reformatories are the result of comprehension.
The ultramodern reformatories would create immense sources of wealth and national production that would enrich all the countries of the earth.
The prison impoverishes and does not produce anything. The only thing that the jail produces is specialists in crime, and abominable monsters, that’s it.
In the ultramodern reformatories, each bandit, each thief, each murderer, would become a doctor, an engineer, a lawyer, a merchant, a scientist, a farmer, a shoemaker, etc., etc.
The reformatory is the only hope for the social transformation of criminals, let’s fight for penal reform.
The criminals should have their individual homes within the same reformatories and the latter should be located in the countryside, in such a way that each delinquent would have the obligation to cultivate a plot of land. In this way the criminals would become agricultural producers, manufacturers, etc.., etc.
Criminals need vital air, sun, life, work, reform. The total prison system of this age in which we live is absurd.
We need the reform of criminals. That is the only way of protecting the society.
Samael Aun Weor
