Rehabilitation is More Effective than Imprisonment

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The United States corrections system is a complicated system with many different ways of handling certain situations. There is not just one set criminal justice system that covers nationwide, each state is different but all follow the same set of laws and rules set forth by the United States Constitution. (Bureau Justice of Statistics, 2013). The state goes through many different sets of obligations before convicting a suspect.

They are "punished" by many different ways once they are initially arrested. All law enforcement agencies apart of the investigation do their own part. They are responsible for the arrest, apprehension, trial period, and conviction period and all decisions in between. Depending on the type of crime committed, the convicted may get the choice to have a plea bargain, which is when they can decide if they would like to plead guilty to the crime without a trial, or plead not guilty and go through the trail period. Waving your right to trial is a big leap in the court process and is often frowned upon. Most people choose to plead not guilty if they know they really didn't commit the crime so that they are given the chance to tell their portion of the occurrence to a jury who then gets to decide if they will be incarcerated or not. A suspect usually pleads guilty of the crime they are being accused of if they know they did commit the crime and don't want to have their sentence in the hands of the jury based on evidence and decisions made by the judge or magistrate. (Bureau Justice of Statistics, 2013).

Currently, the "community corrections system monitors more than 5 million adults, and prisons and jails hold around 2.3 million adults, the Bureau of Justice Statistics reports" (Corrections Today, 2009). ...

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... http://www.bjs.gov/content/justsys.cfm

DeMicchele, M., & Payne, B. (2009, August). Using Technology to Monitor Offenders: A Community Corrections Perspective. Corrections Today; KU Library. Retrieved December 15, 2013, from http://ehis.ebscohost.com.lib.kaplan.edu/eds/detail?vid=2&sid=443650d1-bb7e-47ff- add5- 130914066034@sessionmgr4005&hid=4103&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU=#db= f5h&AN=4 3827443

McVay, D., Schiraldi, V., & Ziedenberg, J. (2004, January). Finding 1: Treatment can be less expensive than imprisonment. Justice Policy Institute. Retrieved December 15, 2013, from http://www.justicepolicy.org/uploads/justicepolicy/documents/04- 01_rep_mdtreatmentorincarceration_ac-dp.pdf

Schmallager, F. (n.d.). Criminal Justice Today: 11/e Kaplan ebook. Bookshelf : Criminal Justice Today ; Ebook. Retrieved December 15, 2013, from https://online.vitalsource.com/

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