Venezuela's Resort Prison

SneakerHeathen said:

I'm not going to ask what you did to get incarcerated, that's none of my business, but I will say that just looking at the sheer number of non-violent offenders being locked up for a number of years in this nation, the punishment does not match the crime.


I for the life of me cannot wrap my mind around doing a stretch of years behind bars for selling or using a controlled substance. You're absolutely right in saying that people are gong to go right ahead and do whatever it is they want to do. However our current system isn't exactly fostering change. Recidivism in America is higher than our European counterparts.


So do these laws we have in place really "deter" anyone from using or selling a drug?

How about theft, burglary & violent crime, when a young man commits one of these crimes and is branded for life as a felon, does he have much hope to relate to anyone else but criminals?



....I'll leave it at that for now, I'll return later to expand on these questions and my point....For now just food for thought, but before I take my leave I want to say....


I commend you for taking the steps necessary to turn your life around, I don't know you but I value you as a fellow human being and that alone is enough for me to hope you make the best of your freedom.

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Thankyou for the last remark, I really am just trying to get my life on track after this huge set back.  Everything is falling into place.

As far as what crime I committed, i was an accomplice in a violent crime.  I was charged with 1 count Carjacking, 1 count of assault with a firearm.  I got three years for each charge, ran con current, which means at the same time. I paid my entire savings, $30,000 for a layer, and $15,000 for bail.  It ruined me financially.  I was not the type of individual who did these type of things ever, I was with the wrong crowd on the wrong night situation.  But I take full responsibilites for my role and actions that night. 

I'm sure you have heard of PROP 47, no violent drug offense convicts where being released A LOT when I was about 2-3 weeks from going home.  So CA is doing something to release these guys stuck in prison for drugs.  If you are caught with a controlled substance now I believe it is just a misdemeanor. They are release into programs and transitional housing mostly, which is a good start for many ex-cons.  

But thats basically the extent of my knowledge on the subject,  everything else I learned in there was all in house politics.

Prison isn't supposed to be fun

Props to heathen

Prison system here is ******* trash...all about a dollar

Mr Marcus said:

Props to heathen

Prison system here is ******* trash...all about a dollar

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#SaluteFamb

Dloy19 said:

Thankyou for the last remark, I really am just trying to get my life on track after this huge set back.  Everything is falling into place.

As far as what crime I committed, i was an accomplice in a violent crime.  I was charged with 1 count Carjacking, 1 count of assault with a firearm.  I got three years for each charge, ran con current, which means at the same time. I paid my entire savings, $30,000 for a layer, and $15,000 for bail.  It ruined me financially.  I was not the type of individual who did these type of things ever, I was with the wrong crowd on the wrong night situation.  But I take full responsibilites for my role and actions that night. 

I'm sure you have heard of PROP 47, no violent drug offense convicts where being released A LOT when I was about 2-3 weeks from going home.  So CA is doing something to release these guys stuck in prison for drugs.  If you are caught with a controlled substance now I believe it is just a misdemeanor. They are release into programs and transitional housing mostly, which is a good start for many ex-cons.  

But thats basically the extent of my knowledge on the subject,  everything else I learned in there was all in house politics.

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You're welcome bro.

It takes a man to take accountability for his actions.


I don't know how old you were at the time of your arrest, nor your socioeconomic background, but it seems to me a lot of young men fall into the traps of their environments.

At-risk youth, I'm talking male & female but especially minority males, and especially young black men, often grew up in abusive situations. They grow up in households devoid of one or both parents, devoid of a college educated role-model, often having to fend for themselves just to survive on a day to day basis.

At-risk youth often don't have the luxury of proper nutrition, sometimes only being able to eat one meal (usually a school lunch), often hail from families in a low income tax-bracket which means they're going to underfunded schools with high instructor turnover rates which all but kills continuity in a child's education and they often face physical, mental & sexual abuse from the caretakers they have.

Now again, I don't know your background, and the truth is people from all kinds of socioeconomic situations end up in prison. The statistics however do not lie, minorities get incarcerated at a higher rate then their white counterparts.

They also face higher recidivism rate because these young men & women return to the same environment once they've satisfied the conditions of their release. I understand that there is transitional housing, I understand that there is therapy and even opportunities for education & work but it's unrealistic to expect people to gain complete independence considering the cost of living in today's age.


Plus, these young men & women, they often have families, many of them have aging relatives (aunt, uncle, grandparents) who took care of them because their parents were useless, many have kids to take care of.


So the allure, the same traps that they fell into the first time, the fast money, the camaraderie, the drugs, it's easy to fall back into when one simply isn't conditioned for the 9-5 life.

And a lot of these ex-cons, just like you, were not violent by nature. They weren't inherently evil, but your environment can often cloud your judgement especially when that's the only environment you knew.


It's easy for those who are privileged, to sit back and say, "well, if a person wants to go forward in life he'll stay away from those negative pressures and do whatever it takes to make it", when they've been given the path of least resistance. One or both parents are in the picture, there is a college educated role-model in the household who has a career, they had the opportunity to go to good schools with attentive, caring teachers and their peers also come from similarly privileged backgrounds.


My point is people don't just wake up in prison one day. It's a process, some have spent more time being institutionalized than being free. Some don't know if being free is even better than being incarcerated because when they do go out they have absolutely no support system.


The circumstances that led up to your incarceration were no coincidence, it was a build-up. The people you were with, the motives, & the ultimate act was catalyzed by forces often beyond your control.


I'm not saying you're not at fault for what you did, but what I am saying is that often, life leads people down a path they have little choice to deviate from. They weren't given enough avenues to go a different way in life.


I have to recognize my own privilege, because despite some of my own hardships, I was eventually given opportunities to go away from the pitfalls in my path. Some never are given that opportunity, and even if they are, it's difficult to expect a person to recognize an opportunity to go down a better path. At-risk youth (of all racial & ethnic backgrounds) need to be shown that opportunity more often, because they don't know any better. It's absolutely unreasonable to expect a teenager to make sound life decisions without rigorous training.


So the concept of rehabilitation, to me, transcends the breadth of our current correctional system. It starts with changing the environments that at-risk youth are coming from. It's about putting more money back into impoverished neighborhoods, it's about improving schools and adding extra curriculum activities, and it's about fighting gentrification which increases the cost of living for many already barely getting by.


It's about eliminating the economic incentive of systematic oppression. Eliminating unjust policies that promote racial profiling & quota filling. It's about limiting the power of police unions that lobby to keep said policies in place and giving people the peace of mind to walk their neighborhoods without fear of those entrusted to serve & protect. It's about eliminating the animosity between minorities and our police forces and instead creating an environment that fosters positive community growth, together.


It goes far beyond just determent & correction.


You can't "spot reduce" crime, you have to attack & minimize the elements that lead people down that path.



Sorry if I came across at all scatter-brain to anyone, it's been a long night, trying to work on a project so I'm a bit mentally fatigued.

So Venezuela has benefited from this and has lower crime rates than the U.S. because of this "resort style prison"??? Can someone link me to the articles or are we just mad the us punishes criminals?

airedweezy said:

So Venezuela has benefited from this and has lower crime rates than the U.S. because of this "resort style prison"??? Can someone link me to the articles or are we just mad the us punishes criminals?

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I don't think I or anyone else has made such a claim.


My only claim was that giving people, inmates, a lifeline to their loved ones.


Beyond the tables they sit across in, beyond the bullet proof glass they sit behind, beyond the no-contact environment that in my belief does nothing but broadens the gap between inmates and their families.


Give people an opportunity to hold their children, embrace their brothers & sisters, allow husband & wife to love one another.


In my opinion it's extremely damaging to families to deny people an opportunity to nurture that bond. I don't see the upside in alienating people from their loved ones.


It was an element prevalent in this video that in my eyes definitely would be beneficial to those lost in our prison system.


I also think giving inmates better meals, controlled internet and media access & more options to spend their time would also be beneficial.

In some states a prisoner's meal costs less than a bowl of bargain dog food. Where is the humanity in that? Where is the rehabilitation in that? That's degrading and dehumanizing.