Why aren't U.S. prisons more like Marine Corps boot camp, were every second of the day there are mandatory activities so that at night everyone is so tired they go to sleep until wakeup at 5:30 am? Would this make prisons safer for all?
07.06.2025 18:10
The Disciplinary Barracks on Ft. Leavenworth is a military institution through and through. The guards are military police and the inmates are under constant supervision. It's run exactly as you would envision. Early to rise, vigorous PT, and daily inspections that are strict and intrusive. The inmates are kept busy training for jobs that would help them survive on the outside. But they're so strictly controlled that there's no opportunity to commit violations of person and property. Life is not easy for the guards, either. I used to own the brigade lock-up in Coleman Barracks for those poor wretches sentenced under Article 15. The “inn keepers" are just as behind bars as the inmates. Constantly supervising the prisoners is stressful and tiring. After a tour guarding the DB, the MPs will be happy to go back to patrolling the housing areas and write speeding tickets. But there's no escape for corrections officers. And an environment mimicking a military disciplinary barracks would impose the same stresses on corrections officers without hope of relief. Nobody would keep the job.