If you were given complete power to reform the US prison system, including sentencing, what would you do?


First, I would institute judicial corporal punishment in lieu of incarceration for many prisoners. This solution is straight out of the Bible, Deuteronomy 25:1–3 and was favored by all the presidents carved into Mt. Rushmore. It is inexpensive, repeatable, proven to work and starts rehabilitation without removing the offender from the community. This might cut the prison population in half. Prison Overcrowding Cure: Judicial Corporal Punishment of Adults
Second, to keep kids in school or on the job, eliminate immediate incarceration of offenders, warn the public and shame offenders, I would fit offenders with a metallic collar, with or without electronic enhancement, color-coded per the crime and made heavier or lighter according to the ongoing behavior of the offender. For example, green for crimes of property, yellow for sex offenders, red for violent offenders, purple for drug offenses, etc. Like judicial corporal punishment, this would also be a community punishment, which many reformers want.
Third, for those who remained in prison, I would privatize and re-vitalize prison industries by removing almost all government subsidies, regulations and laws, except for OSHA safety regulations, and allow private employers to hire prisoners on an employment-at-will, laissez faire basis for whatever they could negotiate. Prisoners need to work, want to work and should work; and this would allow them to build a nest egg as well as paying restitution, court costs, some incarceration costs and money to the state. The USA could compete with the Chinese and Vietnamese — perhaps only making goods now made exclusively overseas. Read: How to Create American Manufacturing Jobs
These three main ideas are explained in the publications shown in my Profile: Prison & Slavery - A Surprising Comparison (Kindle $4.75 Amazon.com: Prison & Slavery - A Surprising Comparison eBook: John Dewar Gleissner: Kindle Store); “How to Create American Manufacturing Jobs,” Tennessee Journal of Law & Policy; “Prison Overcrowding Cure: Judicial Corporal Punishment of Adults” (The Criminal Law Bulletin, 2013); articles at Academia.edu, in Corrections.com, EzineArticles.com, Digital Journal and other locations. Host: Incarceration Reform Mega-Site(incarcerationreform.blogspot.com).
Please write your state legislator, governor and/or U.S. Congress representative that you want one, two or three of the above things done!

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