What is incarceration? Incarceration is the act of placing someone in prison. Incarceration serves as a punishment for criminals due to their actions against the law. It is a solution for keeping the public safe. Prisoners follow a strict rules and schedules while following the culture within the walls among other prisoners. As a result of their crimes, convicts lose their freedom and are place among others who suffer the same fate. Crime is the cause of this establishment, but what are the effects of incarceration on convicts, their relations, and society? As the United States incarceration rate continues to increase, more people are imprisoned behind prison walls. While serving as a punishment to criminals, incarceration can create psychological and economic problems, and society suffers due to the expenses of maintaining prisons.
Incarceration creates psychological problems for incarcerated criminals. Each prisoner faces different challenges, both mentally and physically. Since each prisoner has different experiences, each prisoner is affected differently by being affected by physiological effects created by incarceration. Some of the mental problems can be curable while others have no treatment. One of the mental conditions is dependency. When people are incarcerated, they are stripped of their freedom and independence. Prisoners are forced to follow strict rules of prisons and become dependent on them. Once they brought back into the outside world, they are returned their independence and freedom. Some incarcerated people are unable to function to provide for themselves because they previously relied on prisons. They cannot function independently in society due to their reliance on others. Some prisoners, over time in pris...
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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.
A reality where the prisoner is dehumanized and have their rights and mental health abused. “I have endured lockdowns in buildings with little or no heat; lockdowns during which authorities cut off the plumbing completely, so contraband couldn’t be flushed away; and lockdowns where we weren’t allowed out to shower for more than a month” (Hopkins 154). A prisoner currently must survive isolation with improper shelter in the form of heat. Issues compound with a lack of running water and bathing, a proven severe health danger, especially for someone lacking proper nutrients such as a prisoner in lockdown. These abuses of physical well being then manifest into damage of prisoners’ mental well being. “Perhaps I should acknowledge that the lockdown-and, indeed, all these years-have damaged more than I want to believe” (Hopkins 156). Even for the experienced prisoner the wrath of unethically long lockdowns still cause mental damage. Each and every isolation period becomes another psychological beating delivered as the justice system needlessly aims to damage the already harmed inmates. The damage is so profound inmates even recognize the harm done to them by their jailors. An armed and widely used psychological weapon, the elongated lockdown procedures decimate mental health each and every time
Throughout his novel, Texas Tough: The Rise of America’s Prison Empire, author and professor Robert Perkinson outlines the three current dominant purposes of prison. The first, punishment, is the act of disciplining offenders in an effort to prevent them from recommitting a particular crime. Harsh punishment encourages prisoners to behave because many will not want to face the consequences of further incarceration. While the purpose of punishment is often denounced, many do agree that prison should continue to be used as a means of protecting law-abiding citizens from violent offenders. The isolation of inmates, prison’s second purpose, exists to protect the public. Rehabilitation is currently the third purpose of prison. Rehabilitation is considered successful when a prisoner does n...
The “pains of imprisonment” can be divided into five main conditions that attack the inmate’s personality and his feeling of self-worth. The deprivations are as follows: The deprivation of liberty, of goods and services, of heterosexual relationships, autonomy and of security.
Even excluding to consider the civil ramifications of imprisonment, the current standpoint neglects other measures effects. These incorporate damaging, faculty of crime and the crimes within the prison. Prison is a school of crime in which criminals first learn and then improve their skills at criminal behavior and create connections with other criminals. This account implies that incarceration removes prisoners from social networks connected with employment and instead connects them to associate with criminal activity. Some scholars have argued that incarceration does not necessarily reduce crime but merely relocates it behind bars. Increasing incarceration while ignoring more effective approaches will impose a heavy burden upon curst, corrections and communities, while providing a marginal impact on
Although prison systems are intense and the experience is one of a kind for sure, it does little to help them as statistics show “two-in-five inmates nationwide return to jail within three years of release”(Ascharya, K). The population of people entering the prison systems nationwide is increasing exponentially. Often times, it is due to the living conditions in which they return to, such as facing the same poverty, limited prospects and minimal network connections, that make them turn to crime to survive. For obvious reasons, income is the solution to many of their problems, which can only be obtained with their “by any means necessary” mindset. Prison has almost become a second home for recurring inmates and in some cases has reached a point where it is no longer intimidating....
In Western cultures imprisonment is the universal method of punishing criminals (Chapman 571). According to criminologists locking up criminals may not even be an effective form of punishment. First, the prison sentences do not serve as an example to deter future criminals, which is indicated, in the increased rates of criminal behavior over the years. Secondly, prisons may protect the average citizen from crimes but the violence is then diverted to prison workers and other inmates. Finally, inmates are locked together which impedes their rehabilitation and exposes them too more criminal
Prisons have dated back to the twentieth century when the United States had almost two million people confined in prisons or jails. Prisons have been a form of government punishment that has shaped our nation to what it is today. The first jail was established in Philadelphia, in 1970. It was called the Walnut Street Jail and was recorded as the first use of imprisonment through solitary confinement. The basic principles of the new system were to reform those in prison, and to segregate those according to age, sex, and type of offenses charged against them (Schoenherr). The second prison was called Sing-Sing a...
Overcrowding of prisons due to mass incarceration is among one of the biggest problems in America, mass incarceration has ruined many families and lives over the years.America has the highest prison population rate , over the past forty years from 1984 until 2014 that number has grown by four hundred percent .America has four percent of the world population ,but twenty-five percent of the world population of incarcerated people Forty one percent of American juveniles have been or going to be arrested before the age of 23. America has been experimenting with incarceration as a way of showing that they are tough on crime but it actually it just show that they are tough on criminals. imprisonment was put in place to punish, criminals, protect society and rehabilitate criminals for their return into the society .
Prisons exist in this country as a means to administer retributive justice for those that break the laws in our society or to state it simply prisons punish criminals that are to receive a sentence of incarceration for more than one year. There are two main sub-cultures within the walls of prison the sub-culture of the Department of Corrections (which consists of the corrections officer, administrators, and all of the staff that work at the prison and go home at the end of their day) and the actual prisoners themselves. As you can imagine these two sub-cultures are dualistic in nature and this makes for a very stressful environment for both sides of the fence. While in prison, the inmates experience the same conditions as described in the previous
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.
The origin of the word prison comes from the Latin word seize. It is fair to say that the traditional use of prison corresponds well with the origin of the word as traditionally prison was a place for holding people whilst they were awaiting trial. Now, centuries on, prisons today are used as a very popular, and severe form of punishment offered to those that have been convicted. With the exception, however, of the death penalty and corporal punishment that still takes place in some countries. Being that prison is a very popular form of punishment used in today's society to tackle crime and punish offenders, this essay will then examine whether prison works, by drawing on relevant sociological factors.
Prison was designed to house and isolate criminals away from the society in order for our society and the people within it to function without the fears of the outlaws. The purpose of prison is to deter and prevent people from committing a crime using the ideas of incarceration by taking away freedom and liberty from those individuals committed of crimes. Prisons in America are run either by the federal, states or even private contractors. There are many challenges and issues that our correctional system is facing today due to the nature of prisons being the place to house various types of criminals. In this paper, I will address and identify three major issues that I believe our correctional system is facing today using my own ideas along with the researches from three reputable outside academic sources.
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
Incarceration is the act of imprisoning a convicted felon. The negative effects of incarceration seem to overshadow how beneficial it can to those with misdemeanors. The power of the church draws the more religious inmates in and gives them a new insight to life and to their religion. Many of the incarcerated did not plan that they would be in jail or prison; many had reasons whether it was childhood or drugs and alcohol, there are now groups that the inmates may attend in order to gain support, positive feedback, and help from others in similar situations. Education programs are also available to any who wish to continue (young adults) or go back to school in order to acquire a GED. From finding faith in a religion, to having a group support system, to getting your GED incarceration can have positive effects on prisoners, despite the negative publicity of prisons.