violations (549). Since prisons have become so corrupted and reforming prisoners has been put on the back burner, about the only thing that prisoners do learn in jail are ways to be more criminal. With the great deal of violence and corruption that takes place in prisons, new prisoners quickly become accustomed to his environment and soon begin to take part. Eventually, they begin to learn ways to be more aggressive, sly, and cold hearted. Consequently, prisoners become virtually impossible to reform, because they are learning more and more each day to make themselves better criminals. Instead of letting prisoners learn more about becoming more criminal, we have to start teaching them about becoming better citizens.
The greatest cause of the problems we now face with prisons, though, may not be as easily identifiable as stronger walls or larger security details. The most significant cause of the problems our penal system must now manage may, in fact be the result of our concept of rehabilitation. For some time now prisons have made a habit of providing prisoners with almost any "luxury" amenity. Satellite television, world class weight rooms, and professionally manicured lawns have all been provided for our countries worst criminals. In their book, America’s Prisons, editors Bender, Leone, and Szunski claim that "prisons offer more comfort than the U.S. Army"(80). This is because our idea of what prison life should be is skewed. As a country, we feel that if you can keep the prisoners happy you will have less problems with them. When in fact prisons are not supposed to be fun for a criminal, they are meant as places of punishment and rehabilitation. Because of our concept of prisons we have created two large problems for our country: we are spending a considerable amount of money on prisoners and we are unable to reform them. Reforming a criminal is the main goal of our prison system, yet by giving criminals everything to keep them happy, we are