The old adage of “eye for an eye” has defined the way societies across the world approach crime and punishment ever since the age of Hammurabi. Prisons in particular are designed to punish people who disobey laws, and return them to society as upstanding citizens. However, 75% of people released from prisons in the United States are re-arrested within five years of release (Goldstein, 2014). The fundamental problem with prisons is that they fail to address the economic and social circumstances that make crime the choice of highest utility, emotionally rehabilitate the criminals or dissuade people from committing crime; in fact, they return convicts to those exact circumstances or worse, in the same psychological circumstances or worse. …show more content…
It is certainly undeniable that the decision to commit a crime is ultimately individual, despite the fact that circumstances may make crime the option with greatest utility. It is also undeniable that central motivations for certain crimes are purely psychological or personal, like sexual assault without theft, or school shootings. Reform and rehabilitation, then, must be conducted individually, with respect and consideration of the emotional and psychological needs of criminals. The question is: can prisons meet these kind of needs? This is certainly a component of the governmental motivation behind nearly all prisons, or perhaps more of a justification for the stringent regulations placed upon the liberties of prisoners, such as physical confinement, structured time, manual labor, etc. It is suggested that these rules are for the good of the prisoners, but while these regulations are convenient for directing prisoners institutionally, the deprivation of liberties and dehumanization could have serious impacts on an individual’s psychological state. The physical and sexual violence most prisoners face from fellow inmates and from guards (Villines, 2013) compounds their punishment on a psychological level. Given that the justice system causes these psychological trauma to inmates, it …show more content…
My first refutation of this statement is that in many circumstances, the high possibility of bountiful financial reward without consequence triumphs over fear of punishment, as I stated previously. Another important reason is that as mass incarceration consumes a greater percentage of the conversation, some of the social stigma around prisons will dissipate (Gendreau, Goggin, & Cullen, 1999). This is especially true for convicts, who, under poor economic and psychological conditions, may not be intimidated enough by the prospect of returning from prison to abstain from crime. As more people in individual networks of family, friends, colleagues and acquaintances enter and are released from prison, prisons as an institution may lose some of their mystery and soul-eating reputations. Certainly, the sheer incidence of conviction and incarceration has not made prisons desirable, but becoming incarcerated has become an imaginable and plausible reality that one can survive. The sheer number of individuals that have been consumed in prisons has caused the emergence of prison-related references in pop culture, from the Netflix sensation Orange is the New Black to the rap smash hit “Hot N*gga” by Bobby Shmurda. To some extent, the omnipresence of mass incarceration in our culture has normalized it as part
" With violence affecting so many lives, one can understand the desire driven by fear to lock away young male offenders. But considering their impoverished, danger-filled lives, I wonder whether the threat of being locked up for decades can really deter them from crime" (305). Hopkins is definitely not our stereotypical prisoner. Most generally, our view of prisoners is not that of someone who has this profound use of wording and this broad sense of knowledge.
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.
The book titled Beyond Bars: Rejoining Society After Prison offers invaluable lessons of how both men and women may successfully depart prison and return to society. The book was written by Jeffrey Ross and Stephen Richards, both of whom are college professors and criminal justice experts. The population of prisons across the United States has increased dramatically in recent decades despite overall crime rates decreasing during the same time period. Approximately seven million American people are in some form of correctional custody. Between the years1980 and 2000, America’s prison population increased by 500 percent. During the same time period, the number of prisons grew by 300 percent (Ross and Richards, xii). Close to 50 percent of people admitted to confinement have previously served time, exemplifying that the criminal justice system “recycles” inmates through the system again and again (Ross and Richards, xi). Unfortunately, many convicts simply do not remember how to or are ill-equipped to return to society once their sentence ends. Ross and Richards, through their valuable lessons within their book, seek to lessen the problems that ex-prisoners may face when released from prison.
The United States has a larger percent of its population incarcerated than any other country. America is responsible for a quarter of the world’s inmates, and its incarceration rate is growing exponentially. The expense generated by these overcrowded prisons cost the country a substantial amount of money every year. While people are incarcerated for a number of reasons, the country’s prisons are focused on punishment rather than reform, and the result is a misguided system that fails to rehabilitate criminals or discourage crime. The ineffectiveness of the United States’ criminal justice system is caused by mass incarceration of non-violent offenders, racial profiling, and a high rate of recidivism.
Perhaps the most important aspect of successfully reintegrating with society is establishing a strong and healthy foundation: family, friends, income, and housing. Without a strong foundation it becomes extremely easy to slip through the cracks again. Without a stable house with friends and family I would have to resort to moving around in order to live temporarily with whomever is willing to house me. Without a source of income I will be drawn into doing what I perceive to be easiest, which is involving myself in the same criminal activity that put me in prison in the first place. Unfortunately it is not as simple as simply establishing a foundation. The criminal justice system claims that its goals are retribution, deterrence, incapacitation, and rehabilitation. (Cole, Reiseg, and Petrosino, 2014). However, in the eyes of a prisoner just being released from prison the only goal that remotely resembles the difficulties of reintegration that lie ahead is incapacitation.
In the essay "Prison "Reform" in America," Roger T. Pray points out the much attention that has been devoted to research to help prevent crimes. Showing criminals the errors of their ways not by brutal punishment, but by locking them up in the attempt to reform them. Robert Pray, who is a prison psychologist, is currently a researcher with the Utah Dept. of Corrections. He has seen what has become of our prison system and easily shows us that there is really no such thing as "Prison Reform"
The United States has been known world-wide for entertainment surrounding the police, judiciary, and incarceration systems. These shows and movies are filled with violence - and at the end, the “bad guys” (criminals) always lose to the “good guys” (law enforcement). But this poses the question: should criminals be treated badly due to their offenses? It is common sense that when one breaks the law, they should be punished for it. However, do the crimes committed take away the humanity of the convict? Prisoners are still citizens of the United States and therefore have rights. America’s Incarceration System continues to fail to meet the needs and rights of prisoners due to issues such as overcrowding, lack of health care, discrimination, and sexual assault.
A prisoner incarcerated inside a private or public institution, will always face negligence and violence amongst other inequalities. Prisoners are people like you and me, therefore they deserve to be treated fairly instead of how they are treated now in many facilities. Society and most importantly the government, should take action and intervene in both private and public sectors of the prison system, in order to achieve a reform. I think, the government should eliminate private institutions and reform the system in order for all of the prisons to be just and equal. In return, this will lower the percentage of sentences, the number of inmates incarcerated and raise the number of inmates rehabilitated. There have been many similar reforms proposed
In the United States of America today, prison life is becoming worse as the years pass by. Offenders are steady re committing crimes even after initial release from prison. This has become a huge problem for the government of The United States of America and all of it’s residents. We must take different approaches to the way we imprison our inmates so that after their sentence is done, they are less likely to become a repeat offender. Different countries around the world, like China and the Phillipines, use different tactics to make sure that their prisoners are less likely to return.
“The history of correctional thought and practice has been marked by enthusiasm for new approaches, disillusionment with these approaches, and then substitution of yet other tactics”(Clear 59). During the mid 1900s, many changes came about for the system of corrections in America. Once a new idea goes sour, a new one replaces it. Prisons shifted their focus from the punishment of offenders to the rehabilitation of offenders, then to the reentry into society, and back to incarceration. As times and the needs of the criminal justice system changed, new prison models were organized in hopes of lowering the crime rates in America. The three major models of prisons that were developed were the medical, model, the community model, and the crime control model.
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.
Jails, prisons, and criminal institutions are defined as their own society. They all have an order that the inmates must abide to in order to survive their sentences no matter how long they are. In their society they have individual social groups, activities, limitations and theories. Rather than being an institution within society, it is a society within itself, the only contrast between the society that we live in and the society that convicts live in is that they are deprived of their freedom and they strive to fill the time that they have to spend behind bars. (Lucas, 1996)
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
Prisons in the United States seem to cause more problems then assistance in society. The prison systems found here are overcrowded, inefficient, expensive, and can be viewed as ineffective for prisoners living in them. Prisons, which are built for the reason of facilitating the rehabilitation of prisoners, are presently filled with hostility and violence. These facilities are created as a way of trying to control crime. It was thought that by separating criminals form the rest of society, it would protect people from these potentially dangerous criminals, however it is difficult to tell whether this is becoming more of a problem or working towards a solution.