The prison system in the US.
I fucking hate what we do to people, lock them away, no major attempt at rehabilitation. It seems to be partly that people want to see someone suffer for their crimes rather than become a productive member of society, and it becomes more about vengeance than actually fixing the problems in our country. It's also a result of the "drug war". People with simple medical issues are locked up, their freedom taken away, just because they have substance abuse issues. I see these people as innocents in an oppressive society that was tricked by drug war propaganda, making a morality problem out of addiction where there is none. These are people that could be treated by doctors instead of locked in a cage.
People are tricked into agreeing to be locked up because they're threatened with a worse sentence if they try to prove their innocence. Plea deals are fucking terrible. Poor people with no good way to pay for a decent lawyer are forced to just plead guilty. How the fuck is that system fair, where poor people rather agree to a year rather than risk five years, because they feel trapped with no way to defend themselves? This system makes people assumed guilty rather than until proven guilty, because they don't have a real choice. They can't force the system to prove them guilty because the system makes it an easy choice to just agree to being guilty without it being proven. It's just completely fucking wrong.
They suffer in there. They aren't truly safe. They are given deals to work to reduce their sentences, and it makes it dumb to avoid it. That essentially makes it slavery in my opinion. And they get "paid" less than minimum wage, and are charged extreme prices for essentials like soap and toothpaste and underwear. Their conditions are fucking terrible.
Most of them just go back to jail. 68% go back to jail within 3 years of being released, 77% in 5. There's your fucking proof of how well it rehabilitates them. It's on their permanent record and they'll never have a decent chance at a real life. Good fucking luck getting a job. Their easiest and most obvious opportunity is staying a criminal.
The US has the highest rate of incarceration in the world. This is uniquely an American problem in the civilized first world, real obvious proof of oppression. We lock up our people and take away their freedom, the worst crime in my opinion. And let's not get started on the racial statistics, and how much worse it is for black people. Imagine raising a black son and knowing that he's got around a 33% chance of ending up in jail. Imagine being a parent knowing the odds they're up against. But black or white or whatever, no one deserves to end up in our system.
I think we'll look back at this as one of the evils of our century, similar to how we look at slavery. I think we'll eventually recognize how terrible it is... but I simply can't understand how people are so fucking complacent with it today.