Reaction Paper
In the paper “Stepping into a New World: Arrested, Booked, Charged, Jailed, and Investigated” written by Chuck Terry it tells about his life of crime and the processes you go through after you get arrested. In this paper Terry talks about how he skipped parole and went on the run. When he was on the run he was selling about one thousand dollars’ worth of heroin a week, which help to support his heroin addiction as well. One day when Terry was calling his connections he notices that two men in suits were knocking on his motel door. Terry quickly figured out that the men were police officers and tried to escape from the scene, but did not make it far before he was arrested. After Terry was arrested he was taken to a small facility
In the two-day trial of fellow officer Detective Jason Arbeenie, Stephen Anderson who testified for the prosecution regarding “flaking” in the police units he was assigned to, stated in his testimony that his partner police officer Henry Tavarez "was worried about getting sent back [to patrol] and, you know, the supervisors getting on his case". He then added, "As a detective, you still have a number to reach while you are in the narcotics division".
Charles McDuffie is serving a five-year sentence for burglary. He feels as if he has to turn to drugs for help. McDuffie’s drinking and drug addiction began
In the case study of whistle-blowing at Corcoran State Prison, two corrections officers were all but shunned for the actions they took to put an end to the mistreatment of prisoners. Officers Richard Caruso and Steve Rigg witnessed their fellow corrections officers abusing their power by placing rival gang members in a small recreation yard in the Security Housing Unit (SHU) to promote fighting. The officers would make bets on the inmates, treated the fighting like a sport and used unnecessary deadly force with a firearm at will (Dryburgh, 2009). Caruso and Rigg, both former marines, had superior comprehension of ethically handling a firearm; the actions of their co-workers became unacceptable so they took action (Dryburgh, 2009).
In Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing journalist Ted Conover, who has a background in anthropology, goes undercover as correctional officer in order to examine the US prison system. The central problem to this analysis is that is inherently subjective because the author is documenting his experience from the lens of the guard. In such a polarizing and negative power dynamic a singular perspective shows a severely inadequate representation of what occurs at the institution and the circumstances that allow it to perpetuate. This failure is evident in the author’s personal transformation from the beginning of the book to the end. His writing becomes desensitized and begins to see prisoners as increasingly evil. Although this type of first hand journalism is admirable and provides interesting anecdotal evidence it will never be able to fully examine the precise and intricate social, economic, and political conditions that are the root cause of the injustice that is our criminal justice system.
Once he displayed the table showing the percentage of calls in the Eastern District in one year, over one quarter of them were DCS or drugs related. This made sense because of the drug relyant nature of the Eastern District. But many of those were “bullshit calls” meaning the police did not need to be dispatched to the call. This includes competing drug dealers calling the police on each other, or prostitutes not getting paid and claiming they were raped. The themes of the chapter is
Ted Conover, an investigative journalist decided to investigate the conditions within Sing Sing Prison in Ossining, New York. Taking his investigation to a new level, Conover applied to work as a corrections officer. This decision came after being repeatedly denied the opportunity to chronicle the life of a corrections officer in training by the New York State Department of Corrections. He used this experience to author his book Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing and give a first-hand account of life as a corrections officer. Conover goes on to describe the life of a corrections officer going through his first year of training and adjusting to the conditions within the prison. He further describes the interaction between corrections officer and inmate and how these interactions affected his own life.
“My crimey here think the way to go is more drugs. But I know better. I think making money is okay, but not making it just by dealing. You gotta go legit, at least for a minute. You gotta go state fresh, all the way live, if you wanna do anything worthwhile out here. Everybody thinks they can make crazy dollars, but they confused. It aint like that. I’ve seen co-caine bust many a head – they get fucked up and be clocking out after they find out they cannot find the key to understanding that mystery skied. But you know what? But-but0but you know what? They don’t have a clue. Word.” (Williams, 1989)
Convicts rarely serve their entire sentences in prison (Ross and Richards, 146). To alleviate the costs of imprisonment on taxpayers and lessen the staggering populations of prisons across America, it is simply prudent to let inmates out on parole. Unfortunately, the parole system is imperfect and often leads to many ex-convicts recidivating. With the various trials and challenges that ex-convicts are bound to face when rejoining society after prison, Ross and Richards provide valuable lessons in their book of how a convict might survive beyond bars.
The silence has been broken in recent years in federal courts where witnesses detailed the crimes of drug kingpins and many hit men, putting many of Charlestown's d...
The incarceration rates have been growing rapidly in the United States. This is a problem that has been ongoing for many years, has recently caught a lot of attention by well-known law enforcement departments across the United States. A piece wrote by the New York Times, Editorial Board “Why the Police Want Prison Reform” published October 22, 2015. In this article, more than 130 of the top law enforcement officers have come together to stop the prison crisis. With the reform that just passed in October more than 6,000 prisoners who have been serving time have been released. The controversial topic has been presented by the New York Times article, “Why the Police Want Prison Reform”, the author who is not listed build their credibility with
...liams (in person) First hand account of drug trafficking, use, abuse, effects, and treatment in a Washington State male correctional facility.
In order to understand how the criminal justice system will handle or process this crime it is imperative that one understands how the criminal justice system looks at procession of a controlled...
The criminal justice system is composed of three parts – Police, Courts and Corrections – and all three work together to protect an individual’s rights and the rights of society to live without fear of being a victim of crime. According to merriam-webster.com, crime is defined as “an act that is forbidden or omission of a duty that is commanded by public law and that makes the offender liable to punishment by that law.” When all the three parts work together, it makes the criminal justice system function like a well tuned machine.
Officer Wren unfortunately made plans to be corrupt before ever joining the police force. He met Mardjaee through a mutual acquaintance while working at a Discount Tire on 32nd Street and Cactus Road in 2008. Once Wren became an officer, he and Mardjaee set up meetings with each other on two separate occasions. In the first meeting, Wren dressed in street clothes and met Mardjaee at a Home Depot in ord...
The link between drug use and crime is not a new one. For more than twenty years, both the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the National Institute of Justice have funded many studies to try to better understand the connection. One such study was done in Baltimore on heroin users. This study found high rates of criminality among users during periods of active drug use, and much lower rates during periods of nonuse (Ball et al. 1983, pp.119-142). A large number of people who abuse drugs come into contact with the criminal justice system when they are sent to jail or to other correctional facilities. The criminal justice system is flooded with substance abusers. The need for expanding drug abuse treatment for this group of people was recognized in the Crime Act of 1994, which for the first time provided substantial resources for federal and state jurisdictions. In this paper, I will argue that using therapeutic communities in prisons will reduce the recidivism rates among people who have been released from prison. I am going to use the general theory of crime, which is based on self-control, to help rationalize using federal tax dollars to fund these therapeutic communities in prisons. I feel that if we teach these prisoners some self-control and alternative lifestyles that we can keep them from reentering the prisons once they get out. I am also going to describe some of today’s programs that have proven to be very effective. Gottfredson and Hirschi developed the general theory of crime.