This paper explores the advantages of the German correctional system and the changes that could be made to the current American system to improve its efficiency. Several different comparison studies as well as statistics obtained from credible online sources aid in highlighting the advantages of three key components of the German penal system which make it more successful in crime inhibition and recidivism prevention than the current American counterpart. Reintegration and rehabilitation as the primary aspect in a judge’s choice of verdict are discussed first, following the availability and condition of programs existing in prison for offenders that have been sentenced to incarceration, as well as the ongoing care and help available for parolees and offenders sentenced to alternate disciplinary methods such as community service or house arrest. The paper concludes with suggestions on how to implement the discussed advantages in the quickest and most undisruptive way into the American system and discovers how recidivism rates could plummet as a result.
The German and the American Correctional Systems
The differences between the German and the American correctional systems are far-reaching. Simply by looking at recent incarceration statistics, one can tell that practices must vary greatly. In 2011, the Department of Justice in Washington reported a total prison population of 2,239,751 prisoners and detainees in the United States ("International Centre for Prison Studies", 2011). This translates to a prison population rate of 716 per 100,000 of national population. The prison occupancy level based on official capacity was determined to be 99%. In the same year in Germany, the State Ministries of Justice across the 16 G...
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...rson: Prentice Hall.
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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.
The purpose of this research was to identify the differences between American and Scandinavian countries in every aspect of the correctional system. The United States holds 5% of the global population, however the United States has the highest incarcerations per capita and highest global prison population with 25% of the world’s prison population. The Scandinavian countries of Sweden, Finland and Norway have the highest quality of life and lowest crime rates in the world. The Scandinavians have closed numerous prisons, lowered prison populations, and focused on rehabilitation in prison rather than punishment.
There are too many people incarcerated in the United States of America. The U.S. imprisons 724 people per 100,000. In absolute numbers United States has more of its citizens behind bars then do China or Russia combined. (Gallagher 2008). There are about thousand U.S. citizens that become incarcerated in the prison system in any given week. Many of the prisons are so crowded that they have converted the gymnasium into a massive housing unit. These massive housing units hold hundreds of prisoners inside small gymnasiums. The bunk beds are stacked four or five high with every available space reserved for the bunk beds. Even though the prisons are over double capacity they have not added one extra toilet or shower at any of the facilities. Because of this many of the prisoners report tha...
Throughout history, it has become very clear that the tough on crime model just does not work. As stated by Drago & Galbiati et al. In their article: Prison Conditions and Recidivism, although it is...
Throughout the history of the United States and including the western world. Corrections have served the country by convicting and sentencing offenders depending on the seriousness of the crime. Along with that today, offenders are either placed in probation, incarcerated or taken to community-based corrections. Even though, corrections have always tried to find ways to deter crime by correcting criminals, the poor economy in our country has been the cause for struggles in the correctional system. Some of the causes of economic issues are the cut of budget, over crowing, lack of programs for people with mental illnesses, and lack of innovation.
The past two decades have engendered a very serious and historic shift in the utilization of confinement within the United States. In 1980, there were less than five hundred thousand people confined in the nation’s prisons and jails. Today we have approximately two million and the numbers are still elevating. We are spending over thirty five billion annually on corrections while many other regime accommodations for education, health
There are several fundamental problems within America’s penal system. First, the name “penal” system indicates that the main focus is punishment. Punishment is meant to “teach them a lesson,” i.e. deter the convicts from future crime. Reasonable or unreasonable, punishment often results in the punished resenting and holding negative feelings for the punisher. If society is the punisher, inmates will not be motivated to go back into the general populace as a valued and productive member of society. Furthermore, prison has been commonly known to be both a training ground for more sophisticated crime as well as psychologically hardening nonviolent or innocent inmates that were falsely accused.
On the other side of the criminal justice spectrum, there is Germany, a nation with a shaky and complex history. Until October of 1990, Germany was divided into two separate nations, West Germany and East Germany. The criminal justice system existing in modern Germany represents a combination of “Civil Law” as well as “Common Law.” The history and culture of Germany is deeply rooted into the crafting and maintenance of the German criminal justice system. In Germany, “obedience to the laws of the state, and firm discipline conforming itself with these laws, are, in Germany thought to be the most needful things in public life (Hartmann, 1911). This attitude towards obedience and discipline is seen throughout German history and is still to this
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
Throughout history into today, there have been many problems with our prison system. Prisons are overcrowded, underfunded, rape rates are off the charts, and we as Americans have no idea how to fix it. We need to have shorter sentences and try to rehabilitate prisoners back to where they can function in society. Many prisoners barely have a high school education and do not receive further education in jail. Guards need to pay more attention to the well being of the inmates and start to notice signs of abuse and address them. These are just a few of the many problems in our prison systems that need to be addressed.
Since the early 2010s, the situation is stable and the jail population has begun to decrease (from 758 per 100 000 people incarcerated in 2008 to 710 in 2012), but remains at a unique high level, in comparison France has a rate of 123 per 100 000. If incarceration gave the image of reducing crime which was at a very high levels in the 90s, the correlation has never been rigorously established and the "returns" of this policy are now much more controversial, including in terms of public safety. Number of research shows that the effects of mass incarceration are complex and highly problematic. Regarding rehabilitation, prisons become a way to develop criminal values and attitudes. If we look at the environment of prison : long isolation from society, from constructive relationships with parents or relatives, and positive responsibilities such as getting a job or taking care of a family do not favor a good reintegration in society. If prison and confinement are considered the only way to protect society from criminals, some countries have shown that there were other alternatives to achieve this
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, in the year 1980 we had approximately 501,900 persons incarcerated across the United States. By the year 2000, that figure has jumped to over 2,014,000 prisoners. The current level of incarceration represents the continuation of a 25-year escalation of the nation's prison and jail population beginning in 1973. Currently the U.S. rate of 672 per 100,000 is second only to Russia, and represents a level of incarceration that is 6-10 times that of most industrialized nations. The rise in prison population in recent years is particularly remarkable given that crime rates have been falling nationally since 1992. With less crime, one might assume that fewer people would be sentenced to prison. This trend has been overridden by the increasing impact of lengthy mandatory sentencing policies.
Prisons have been around since the 1500s but from watching different movies and reading books before they were what they are today facilities, people would be put in things such as dungeons. Imprisonment is the main form of punishment or rehabilitation in the United States. It is known that the United States has the highest level of imprisonment. “Prison building efforts in the United States came in three major waves. The first began during the Jacksonian Era and led to widespread use of imprisonment and rehabilitative labor as the primary penalty for most crimes in nearly all states by the time of the American Civil War. The second began after the Civil War and gained momentum during the Progressive Era, bringing a number of new mechanisms—such as parole, probation, and indeterminate sentencing—into the mainstream of American p...
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.