Serving time is not a waste of time. While an inmate is incarcerated, he or she has every opportunity to better themselves and prepare for their impending re-entry into society. Jails and prisons alike offer rehabilitative programs. These programs allow every inmate an equal opportunity to return to the outside world as a better and more productive member of society. Educational, vocational training, work release, drug-abuse, self-help, health care, religious, and finally recreational programs are just a few of the hundreds of correctional programs that inmates can participate in. Due to these programs, positive changes within an inmates life, as well as drastic changes in our society, are entirely within reach. Educational programs in correctional institutions began around the time correctional facilities were being introduced. William Rogers began instructing student inmates, in 1789, at the Philadelphia Walnut Street Jail. Rogers established what is now known as the “Sabbath School”. The “Sabbath School” existed from 1789 to about 1875. Within this period, members of the clergy focused on teaching to read. The clergy strove for every inmate to be able to read the Bible. Zebulon Brockway assisted Rogers goal from 1876 until 1900. At the Elmira Reformatory, in Upstate New York, Brockway transformed the Reformatory into a school for inmates. Many educated inmates began instructing other inmates, and some willing professors were brought in to teach geography and natural sciences. In 1882, a summer school began at the Elmira Reformatory. Rogers and Brockway formed the way for the educational programs in our present correctional institutions. Today, based on many facts, researchers are led to believe that correctional educational... ... middle of paper ... ...Washington: Vol.12, Iss.12; p.2. Carter, M., Russell, K.,(2005). What Is the Perceived Worth of Recreation? Results From a County Jail Study. Corrections Today. Lanham: Vol.67, Iss.3; p. 80. Cei, L.,(2010). Faith-Based Programs Are Low-Cost Ways to Reduce Recidivism. Corrections Today. Lanham: Vol.72, Iss.4; p.48. Coyne, R., Green,R.,( 2008). Standards of Care: Advancing Inmate Health Care Through Performance- Based Outcomes. Corrections Today. Lanham: Vol.70, Iss.3; p.50. Davis, L., Bozick, R., Saunders, J.(2011). Journal of Correctional Education. Lanham:Vol.62, Iss. 1;p.4. DelliCarpini, M.(2010). Journal of Correctional Education. Lanham: Vol.61, Iss.4; p.283. Shepard, J.(1999). State's 1913 Reform Is A National Model. The Capital Times. (Madison, WI) Tighe,F., O'Malley,K. (2010). A Journey Forward. American Jails. Hagerstown: Vol.24, Iss.3; p.19.
When envisioning a prison, one often conceptualizes a grisly scene of hardened rapists and murderers wandering aimlessly down the darkened halls of Alcatraz, as opposed to a pleasant facility catering to the needs of troubled souls. Prisons have long been a source of punishment for inmates in America and the debate continues as to whether or not an overhaul of the US prison system should occur. Such an overhaul would readjust the focuses of prison to rehabilitation and incarceration of inmates instead of the current focuses of punishment and incarceration. Altering the goal of the entire state and federal prison system for the purpose of rehabilitation is an unrealistic objective, however. Rehabilitation should not be the main purpose of prison because there are outlying factors that negatively affect the success of rehabilitation programs and such programs would be too costly for prisons currently struggling to accommodate additional inmate needs.
Correctional program writing nowadays is at a level of efficiency that surpasses earlier outlooks. In territories all over the United States, there are several curriculums that use research-based curriculums to teach, instruct, and inspire inmates. Disappeared are the days of hit-or-miss execution of curriculums that seemed good, but over and over again just occupied time for the inmates. The previous evolution happened for several reasons (Corrections Today, 2010). The largest wake-up demands was the claim composed around thirty years ago. The statement made was not anything works in corrections systems, mainly rehabilitation. Even though this commonly revealed report was taken from its context, it did in detail carry some notice to the mystery that several penitentiaries were not operational as change
The book titled Beyond Bars: Rejoining Society After Prison offers invaluable lessons of how both men and women may successfully depart prison and return to society. The book was written by Jeffrey Ross and Stephen Richards, both of whom are college professors and criminal justice experts. The population of prisons across the United States has increased dramatically in recent decades despite overall crime rates decreasing during the same time period. Approximately seven million American people are in some form of correctional custody. Between the years1980 and 2000, America’s prison population increased by 500 percent. During the same time period, the number of prisons grew by 300 percent (Ross and Richards, xii). Close to 50 percent of people admitted to confinement have previously served time, exemplifying that the criminal justice system “recycles” inmates through the system again and again (Ross and Richards, xi). Unfortunately, many convicts simply do not remember how to or are ill-equipped to return to society once their sentence ends. Ross and Richards, through their valuable lessons within their book, seek to lessen the problems that ex-prisoners may face when released from prison.
Every civilization in history has had rules, and citizens who break them. To this day governments struggle to figure out the best way to deal with their criminals in ways that help both society and those that commit the crimes. Imprisonment has historically been the popular solution. However, there are many instances in which people are sent to prison that would be better served for community service, rehab, or some other form of punishment. Prison affects more than just the prisoner; the families, friends, employers, and communities of the incarcerated also pay a price. Prison as a punishment has its pros and cons; although it may be necessary for some, it can be harmful for those who would be better suited for alternative means of punishment.
Along with research on the positive affirmations of rehabilitation in prisons, there are studies that expand upon whether or not imprisonment reduces recidivism. During a time of mass incarceration, the goal is to reconstruct a prisoner’s actions so that they do not pose as a threat to society after they are released. However, some cases show that imprisonment may not be the best way to transition an offender toward a more pro-social lifestyle. Cullen, Jonson, & Nagin (2011) depict prisons as places to keep offenders away from the community to prevent crime and less about reconciliation. Prisons are a place for offenders to go so that they cannot commit any more crimes. The offenders spend a wasteful period of life secluded from society in
“Doing projects really gives people self-confidence. Nothing is better than taking the pie out of the oven. What it does for you personally, and for your family 's idea of you, is something you can 't buy." - Martha Stewart. Rehabilitated prisoners programs, for example, in the prisons are one of the most important programs in prison to address the causes of criminality and restore criminal’s self-confidence. Therefore, many governments are still taking advantage of their prisoners while they are in prison. However, some people believe that prison programs ' can improve and develop the criminals to be more professionals in their crimes. In addition, rehabilitated programs help inmates in the character building, ethical behavior, and develop
The correctional system is not a perfect system as it does not address the key issues that cause offenders to continue to be imprisoned after only one year of release. The system has been evolving from a punishment base system from the 1970s to a complex system designed to beyond the punishment to deal with the rehabilitation of the criminal mind. This allows the individual offender to recognize their faults, receive treatment and be released from the correctional system as a productive member lacking terminal deviant behavior.
In the essay "Prison "Reform" in America," Roger T. Pray points out the much attention that has been devoted to research to help prevent crimes. Showing criminals the errors of their ways not by brutal punishment, but by locking them up in the attempt to reform them. Robert Pray, who is a prison psychologist, is currently a researcher with the Utah Dept. of Corrections. He has seen what has become of our prison system and easily shows us that there is really no such thing as "Prison Reform"
In recent discussions of prison reform, a controversial issue has been whether diversion programs are more beneficial than not. On the one hand, some argue that diversion programs give convicted criminals a chance to hopefully better themselves and get back into society. On the other hand, however, others argue that these programs are allowing dangerous criminals back into the streets with no guarantee of them changing their behaviors. In sum, then, the issue is whether society and the government should allow these unguaranteed hopes to continue. While some believe that diversion programs may be a good substitute for prison, diversion programs are not an efficient substitute because they release potentially dangerous criminals and felons out onto the streets.
Rehabilitation is firmly entrenched in the history of corrections in the United States. Penitentiaries, for example were formed in 1820 with the belief that offenders could be morally reformed (Cullen, & Jonson, 2012, pp. 27-28). In 1870). The National Congress on Penitentiary and Reformatory Discipline documented the merits of rehabilitation (Wines, 1871, p. 457). However, by the end of the 1960s, the United States had experienced several years of discontent within its prison systems which resulted in a national call for prison reform and the development of a disillusionment with rehabilitation (Martinson, 1974, p. 22). In 1966, Robert Martinson was hired to evaluate the effectiveness of rehabilitation, the result of which was his infamous “What Works?” paper, in which he posits that empirical evidence does not support rehabilitation (p. 23). By the mid-1970s, correctional policy shifted from one emphasizing rehabilitation to one emphasizing just desserts/retribution, deterrence and incapacitation (Cullen, & Jonson, 2012, p. 22). The result of these “get-tough” policies, which sought to control crime through strict laws and lengthy sentences, was unprecedented growth in our custodial population, which we can no longer support, either financially or spatially (p. 1).
The inmates were kept in cells by themselves and were not allowed to converse with other inmates, which was believed to avoid moral contamination among prisoners. Also, prisoners made handicrafts in their own cells, and were urged to read the Bible and repent in the evenings. After the state of Pennsylvania opened its first two prisons, the ideology of the Pennsylvania system came along. The Pennsylvania system was the “separate and silent” system because they believed if the inmates interacted with each other that it would permanently contaminate them. In 1817, New York opened a prison in Auburn and it was originally designed around the Pennsylvania model. However, the auburn system was known as the “congregate and silent” because they allowed for the inmates to work together during the day, but they had to stay separate and silent from each other at certain
Although it may not seem like a major problem to most people in the United States, prisons are becoming overcrowded, expensive to maintain and have little to no effect on the moral discipline of inmates. The current prison system is extremely inefficient and the purpose of prisons has been completely forgotten. According to Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, the primary purpose of prisons is to punish, to protect, and to rehabilitate. Not only is there an increase in prisoners, but there is a rise in the number of repeat offenders. Alternatives such as counseling, drug rehabilitation, education, job training and victim restitution must be better enforced and organized. People do not understand the severity of the problem mainly because
All over America, crime is on the rise. Every day, every minute, and even every second someone will commit a crime. Now, I invite you to consider that a crime is taking place as you read this paper. "The fraction of the population in the State and Federal prison has increased in every single year for the last 34 years and the rate for imprisonment today is now five times higher than in 1972"(Russell, 2009). Considering that rate along crime is a serious act. These crimes range from robbery, rape, kidnapping, identity theft, abuse, trafficking, assault, and murder. Crime is a major social problem in the United States. While the correctional system was designed to protect society from offenders it also serves two specific functions. First it can serve as a tool for punishing the offender. This involves making the offender pay for his/her crime while serving time in a correctional facility. On the other hand it can serve as a place to rehabilitate the offender as preparation to be successful as they renter society. The U.S correctional system is a quite controversial subject that leads to questions such as how does our correctional system punish offenders? How does our correctional system rehabilitate offenders? Which method is more effective in reducing crime punishment or rehabilitation? Our correctional system has several ways to punish and rehabilitate offenders.
Many people idealized the relevancy of living in a civilized world, where those who break the law are reprimanded in a less traditional sense of punishment in today’s standard. Instead of just doing hard time, programs and services could and should be provided to reform and rehabilitate prisoner. Despite standard beliefs, many individuals in prison are not harden criminals and violent offenders, many of these people suffer mental illness and substance abuse Hoke
Prison within the society in America has sharply veered towards the idea of mass incarceration. The Prison Policy Initiative (PPI) is a criminal research group that reports on the quantity of people in the United States that are in the prison system, and in 2014 “PPI reckons the United States has roughly 2.4m people locked up, with most of those (1.36m) in state prisons” (J.F. 1). This number is cause for concern when compared to a study of recidivism released among thirty states in 2005 by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) According to BJS, “About two-thirds (67.8%) of released prisoners were arrested for a new crime within 3 years, and three quarters (76.6%) were arrested within 5 years” (BJS 1). The concern is that rehabilitation programs in the United States are not effectively working to introduce an inmate into the general population. The reason inmates are typically repeat offenders is because the United States focuses more on punishment than rehabilitation. While rehabilitation methods do exist, they are not the focus within American prison systems, the ones that do exist are more geared toward manual labor and teaching trades. While this an effective means to teach a skill, this style of rehabilitation fails to address the ideas of empathy, accountability, and effective social interaction. The main focus of prisons in the United States is to maintain order in an inherently hostile environment so that inmates may ‘serve their time.’ The focus should be placed on educating inmates instead of strictly punishing those who are incarcerated.