According to Ben Carson, the problem with American federal prisons is that they’re just too comfortable for the prisoners’ own good.
“I was flabbergasted by the accommodations — the exercise equipment,
the libraries and the computers,” he said in a speech Tuesday to teenage Republicans in Arlington, Va., according to the Washington Post.
Carson said he learned that “a lot of times when it’s about time for one of the guys to be discharged, especially when its winter, they’ll do something so they can stay in there.” He also added that “a lot of people that we incarcerate don’t need to be incarcerated.”
Following his speech, Carson told reporters that U.S. prisons may be too comfortable, according to the Washington Post.
“I think that we need to sometimes ask ourselves, ‘Are we creating an environment that is conducive to comfort where a person would want to stay, versus an environment where we maybe provide them an opportunity for rehabilitation but is not a place that they would find particularly comfortable?'” he asked.
Carson has opined on how he thinks prisons affect inmates before. In March, he said he believes that being gay is a choice because because some people enter prison straight and start identifying as gay while in prison.
“Because a lot of people who go into prison, go into prison straight — and when they come out they’re gay,” he said. “So, did something happen while they were in there? Ask yourself that question.”
H/t Mother Jones
