By Futurist Thomas Frey
The System Future Generations Will Judge Us For
By 2045, our grandchildren will visit prisons the way we visit medieval dungeons—with horror that civilized societies once considered this an acceptable solution. They’ll ask the same questions we ask about torture chambers and public executions: “How did intelligent people think this was helping anyone?”
The logic of current incarceration is genuinely insane when you examine it clearly. Take people who struggle with impulse control, addiction, mental illness, or poverty-driven desperation—people who by definition can’t navigate society’s rules successfully—and cram them into tiny cells with other people who also can’t follow rules. Remove their autonomy, employment prospects, family connections, and dignity. Subject them to violence, abuse, and dehumanization. Then release them years later, usually with no resources and a criminal record that prevents employment, and act surprised when they reoffend.
We’re not reforming people. We’re warehousing them and calling it justice.
The alternatives emerging over the next two decades will make incarceration look as primitive as bloodletting looks to modern medicine. Not because we’ve become softer on crime, but because we’ve finally developed interventions that actually work.
Continue reading… “The Day Our Grandchildren Ask: “You Locked People in Cages and Called It Justice?””