The Importance of Prison Reform

Prisons serve two main functions; separation and rehabilitation. Criminals cannot be allowed to walk around with everyone else without being punished; they must be separated from society. The thought of going to prison helps deter most people from crime. Rehabilitation is the main goal of prison; making a bad person into a good person by the time they are released. These seem like cut and dry functions, but as of late some believe that prisons in the United States have failed in their attempts to separate and rehabilitate.

Prisons are intended not only to hold prisoners, but, also to rehabilitate them and turn them into productive members of society. Though it seems prisons are not doing their job correctly, most prisons, either due to budget constraints or corrupt officers, do not try to rehabilitate them. They serve their time and then are thrown back into the world worse criminals than before. The prison system, in its current form, is flawed. It is nearly impossible to truly rehabilitate someone after prison time.

Also, they view imprisonment as a deterrent against future crimes. For example, if a law-breaker sees his friend imprisoned for a crime he committed, then the other party will be less willing to break the law and end up in prison as well. Furthermore, punishment itself would satisfy most of society when the criminal is imprisoned. Prison offers law-breakers a chance to receive drug treatment, educational benefits, and as stated before, a chance at rehabilitation. Also, incarceration costs less than leaving criminals out of prisons because the cost of housing inmates is less than the cost of their crimes incur.

From here the cycle of crime, arrest, jail, and return to society continues, solving absolutely nothing. Therefore, placing drug-addicted offenders in jails fails to confront the major problem at hand which is that of the drug abuse. If drug-addicted offenders were placed in drug treatment centers instead of being incarcerated, the problem of drug abuse would have a much higher opportunity to be flushed from the offender's life. Thus, the chance of that the offender would commit another crime for drugs would be reduced. The felonies that were committed by these drug addicts are usually due to the fact that they want to help fill their cravings for the drug.

For example, in the outside world most people separate themselves from felons because society knows that the person’s behavior or actions placed them into prison and society frowns upon breaking the rules. People in society to don’t run around announcing that someone they know are in prison because it is not seen as a positive thing. The norms within prison are very different than the outside world society, prisoners will place bets on things such as who will win a fight or will make it thru the first night in prison, where as the rest of society might bet on a football game or a horse race. Society separates themselves from the prison culture, which is why we have prisons is to separate them from society, thus causing prisoners to create a subculture within their society. Also, they make up a subculture because they have the least amount of power in the prison.

5) While that sounds great in theory, the problem arises when the public is unaware of these laws. If the punishment for breaking a law in unknown, than the fear for breaking the law is nowhere to be found. According to Dr. Mulhausen, mandatory minimum drug sentences are necessary for combatting indeterminate sentences done by judges. With these indeterminate sentences, Dr. Mulhausen feared that judges were giving criminals a second chance at life at the expense of the safety of the ppublic. By doing this, criminals who should have been spending time in jail, were let free and often went on to victimize others instead of using their second chance for good.

Doctors sometimes misinterpret injuries and causes of death and this can really alter a case's outcome significantly. Finally, witnesses may report false sightings, or report something that they thought they heard but misinterpreted it entirely. More laws should be put into place to protect the innocent suspects, and to insure that nobody goes to prison that really does not deserve it and more citizens should be trained to accurately give a description of a suspect to decrease the wrongful conviction rate. It is understandable why a criminal would lie about committing a crime which they did commit to get out of trouble and stay out of jail. In majority of prisons worldwide, 90% of convicted criminals claim innocence.

Carl Hart talks about the negative effects of the criminal justice systems and how programs such as restorative justice has a more positive effect. He speaks about data that shows criminal justice is not the best way to deal with these types of offense because they are not trained educators or counselors; they are trained to minimize damage and dole out punishment. On the other hand, officials in restorative justice are trained educators and counselors and our better prepared to help drug offenders. Another negative effect of the criminal justice system is the cost to incarcerate an individual. Putting someone in prison cost a numerous amount of money and restorative justice is by for a cheaper option.

Help! Rehabilitation and Its Importance When it comes to criminals and being incarcerated, we as a society tend to forget about prisoners once imprisoned. It is more common that once a person is labeled a prisoner, we as a society treats them as if they do not deserve help. In debate, I wholeheartedly disagree with what society believes about prisoners. I found through my research, politicians and the citizens they serve, are beginning to believe that prisoners do deserve help.

In the past, minimum sentencing laws were useful due to the fact that crime rates wer... ... middle of paper ... ...e goal or objective. With the change to prisoner reentry programs, the high recidivism would drastically decrease due to the fact that the programs would be federally funded and supported therefore, inmates would have a higher chance for success. After all, we are all human, and no one deserves to be tricked into plea bargain due to the prosecutor’s pushing their own agendas, or because of mental issues derived from solitary confinement. Most of all, how is someone supposed to support himself or herself if they don’t have a backbone support from reentry programs. The criminal justice system needs to undergo reformation and address the real reasons to high crime rates and inmate failures to sustain a successful life after the time they served.