Essay On Prison Recidivism

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Introduction
In the United States of America, the assumption is that all citizens are equal under the justice system. If a person breaks a law, they are punished according to their crime. Once their time has been served and their debt paid to society, the person is allowed to rejoin the community as a productive member of society. What truly happens when a person leaves a prison setting? What makes a person commit another crime, thus making them reenter the criminal justice system and prison, leading to a life of recidivism?
A significant concern arises from these questions. Even more so when the numbers in the United States are compared to the rate of recidivism in countries such as Finland. Finnish prisons are seeing a continuous …show more content…

With the prison system structured as it currently is, incarceration fails to rehabilitate prisoners, effectively forcing those impacted to re-offend. This failure allows for negative impacts within society. While is does also provide some with a positive outcome, the larger scale society suffers while this social issue goes without a …show more content…

One such reason is simply that there are no effective resources within the walls of a prison in order to effectively prepare the inmate for life once leaving. It has become the norm in America that funds for prisons are set up for more walls and more bars, as opposed to more services. The general public objects to funds being put forth for resources, or anything above the bare minimum for prisoners (Stasio Jr., 2010). Those is favor of a “no frills” prison system advocated that incarceration is meant to be a punishment, and that providing luxuries to inmates would only encourage laziness within the confines of the prison walls. The argument is made that taxes should not be paying for services such as treatment programs, family time, and GED services. It is the lack of these things that should motivate offenders to stay out of prison. Based on this mentality, programs are not implemented in any large scale efforts into prison systems. Any services that are in place are overwhelmed, and fail due to the lack of support, thus further “supporting” the idea that the rehabilitative programs do not work. This mentality continues into the community supports, as many ex-convicts cannot manage meeting with a parole officer, maintaining minimum wage employment, and trying

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