Dude, you rock my world. The stuff you say makes mad sense. It's very easy to be tough on crime when no one you know has ever gone to jail, and you're sitting pretty because even if you do get arrested for a crime you commit, chances are your race/class/family connections (pick one) are going to prevent you from doing hard time.
Prison is not a pretty thing. Those horror stories you hear of cable TV and boob jobs? Those (and someone with more legal experience have more insight) are the rare rare exception, not the rule. For all we know, the prisoner in question was diagnosed with gender dysphoria before he went into prison--and that the sex change was simply part of the treatment (it is, you know).
Since when do most criminals learn a life of crime from their parents? Since when are they illiterate?
Also, for being a prison guard, you must have AT LEAST a high school diploma or its equivalent. Some even have certificates in criminology. See what falsehoods circulate about the penal system?
To prevent recidivism (which the American prison system doesn't really do), prison must be a place of rehabilitation. And, to rehabilitate prisoners to become productive members of society, there are some things we have to offer, such as a high school diploma and vocational education.
And to the person who suggested a shot o' Depo for welfare recipients?
Please don't make me go on about forced sterilization for poor women...a not so sunny side of American women's history...just because someone is born to a parent in poverty doesn't make them "slime".
