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Prisons are for the people that committed a horrible crime and get sent to prison. Most people get a sentence with many years that leave them in prison for a long amount of time. Prisons cost about $30,000 a person per year, which is quiet expensive. The programs are offered to the inmates when they first are sentenced. The programs are a variety of different things such as classrooms or just regular programs to help them learn how to make better choices. Environment in the prisons are not the best and full of crime. Do you think that prisons rehabilitate inmates? My position is that prisons do not rehabilitate inmates because the programs don’t work effectively, the environment inside of the prisons encourage crime and is not the best for …show more content…
Prisons protect the public’s safety and keep the bad people out of the normal society. However, it may keep the horrible people away but it costs a lot when prisons do not solve the main purpose. When people are sent to prison, they are sent there just to die. Some inmates actually want to be rehabilitated so they can go back into the normal society. People around the world already thought of getting rid of prisons and making a different residence so that they can learn better ways of rehabilitation. If they did make this separate residence with the normal society like living styles, they would have a better chance of being rehabilitated. James Gilligan stated “ The only mystery is: Why is this program not being adopted by every jail and prison in the country? Why are taxpayers not demanding that this be done?”(2). Statistics show that in 36 months, 65% of inmates are rearrested and about 35% are reincarcerated. Prisons do not serve the main purpose and it just costs the taxpayers to pay taxes for something that does not even …show more content…
When it is full of crime, the inmates that actually want to be rehabilitated do not have the choice to do so since the environments do not give them the chance. James Gilligan stated, “More than 90 percent of prisoners return to the community within a few years. That is why it is vitally important how we treat them while they are incarcerated.”(3). The security in the prisons need to be more strict so that the really bad inmates can learn how to behave and give a chance to the inmates that want to be rehabilitated a greater chance of achieving that. When inmates are bad, the cops inside of the prisons break up whatever the dispute is and then they just put them somewhere bad. However, when they get out of the worse cell, they would just do that again since that is how inmates know how to act in there. Prisons need to hire cops that have experience in the field that need in the prison field. The people around the world want to make a different design for prisons or residential areas for inmates that want to learn how to
What are prisons for? This is a question that must be asked in order to understand the problems facing prisons. 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.
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.
Prisons and correctional facilities in the United States have changed from rehabilitating people to housing inmates and creating breeding grounds for more violence. Many local, state, and federal prisons and correctional facilities are becoming more and more overcrowded each year. If the Department of Corrections (DOC) wants to stop having repeat offenders and decrease the volume of inmates entering the criminal justice system, current regulations and programs need to undergo alteration. Actions pushed by attorneys and judges, in conjunction current prison life (including solitary confinement), have intertwined to result in mass incarceration. However, prisoner reentry programs haven’t fully impacted positively to help the inmate assimilate back into society. These alterations can help save the Department of Corrections (DOC) money, decrease the inmate population, and most of all, help rehabilitate them. After inmates are charged with a crime, they go through the judicial system (Due Process) and meet with the prosecutor to discuss sentencing.
There are many pros and cons to trying to reducing the number of overcrowding of prisons in the United States. Many would be opposed to the early release of those who have committed even menial crimes without thought to the issue of overcrowding. The solution isn’t to keep building new prisons, but to have prisons, law makers and rehabilitative programs all work together for the main goal of public safety. In order to maintain public safety, certain measures need to be taken to make sure those who are being released are no threat and that those who would pose a risk, are kept behind bars. Between the costs that are associated with imprisonment, parole and probation and the programs needed to rehabilitate, the problem of prison overcrowding
The “Tough on Crime” and “War on Drugs” policies of the 1970s – 1980s have caused an over populated prison system where incarceration is policy and assistance for prevention was placed on the back burner. As of 2005, a little fewer than 2,000 prisoners are being released every day. These individuals have not gone through treatment or been properly assisted in reentering society. This has caused individuals to reenter the prison system after only a year of being release and this problem will not go away, but will get worst if current thinking does not change. This change must be bigger than putting in place some under funded programs that do not provide support. As the current cost of incarceration is around $30,000 a year per inmate, change to the system/procedure must prevent recidivism and the current problem of over-crowed prisons.
“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.
The role of prisons and prison wardens in reducing recidivism is a major concern today. With programs initialized in the prison systems, recidivism rates still have stayed about the same for forty years. Almost two-thirds of prisoners will be arrested after their release, and of those, half will return to prison for a new crime. The obstacle faced by professionals to change behavior is a multi-layered complex problem that needs to be addressed in our society today. Different views and opinions are given, and they do not lesson the impact of each other, but a multi-dimensional program should be utilized to achieve the goal of recidivism.
Punishing criminals by putting them in a correctional facility such as prisons can be successful in repenting the criminal as they would reflect on their own actions, allowing the guilt to make them better people, probably even seeing their own faults through other prisoners. Prisons give criminals a chance to rehabilitate themselves by using the facilities there present such as the counseling and seminars given. The fact that prisons house a lot of criminals that associate with each other has created a “criminal community”, an atmosphere where crime inhibits; therefore criminals can only aid each other out to become better “crims”, learning the tricks of the trade as well as toughening each other up through the highly abusive nature of the criminals there. Health wise, prisons can highly be dangerous and lethal to the prisoners; such diseases as AIDS from homosexual relationships and drug use is prevalent, as well as male rape, and even female rape, even some become mentally insane. In general however, prisons aren’t a nice place to be.
“Doing projects really gives people self-confidence. Nothing is better than taking the pie out of the oven. What it does for you personally, and for your family 's idea of you, is something you can 't buy." - Martha Stewart. Rehabilitated prisoners programs, for example, in the prisons are one of the most important programs in prison to address the causes of criminality and restore criminal’s self-confidence. Therefore, many governments are still taking advantage of their prisoners while they are in prison. However, some people believe that prison programs ' can improve and develop the criminals to be more professionals in their crimes. In addition, rehabilitated programs help inmates in the character building, ethical behavior, and develop
Although it may not seem like a major problem to most people in the United States, prisons are becoming overcrowded, expensive to maintain and have little to no effect on the moral discipline of inmates. The current prison system is extremely inefficient and the purpose of prisons has been completely forgotten. According to Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, the primary purpose of prisons is to punish, to protect, and to rehabilitate. Not only is there an increase in prisoners, but there is a rise in the number of repeat offenders. Alternatives such as counseling, drug rehabilitation, education, job training and victim restitution must be better enforced and organized. People do not understand the severity of the problem mainly because
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.
On April 9, 2016, 60 minutes aired the interview of Bill Whitaker with Joerg Jesse, a psychologist and the director of prisons in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. He explains that the main objective of the German prison system is rehabilitation; restoring prisoners back into a normal life. Specifically, he claims that the goal is to integrate prisoners into the community; teaching them alternate methods when approaching to situations and a life without further violations. As the interviewee said, “The real goal is reintegration into society, train them to find a different way to handle their situation outside, life without further crimes, life without creating new victims, things like that.” Jesse asserts that this system of counseling and training is the cause of better results in crime rates decreasing and prisons spending less money;
Prison inmates, are some of the most disturbed and unstable people in society. Most of the inmates have had too little discipline or too much, come from broken homes, and have no self-esteem. They are very insecure and are at war with themselves as well as with society. Most inmates did not learn moral values or learn to follow everyday norms. In order to rehabilitate criminals we must do more than just send them to prison.
middle of paper ... ... Prisons need to be structured, orderly, isolated and individualized in order to really rehabilitate the offender. Despite the very strict methods needed in order to accomplish prisoner reformation, this type of punishment was still a far cry from the public executions that were popular in earlier history. Policy makers, the public and a new generation of thinkers are now focused on stabilizing American society and improving the conditions of mankind (Rotham), particularly when it comes to the criminal justice system rather than simply demonstrating power and control to try and maintain deterrence.
It is often said “prison works”. It is less often said what it means for a prison to “work”. Traditionally prisons have been argued to serve at least one of three functions: to punish the prisoner, to protect the public, and to rehabilitate the offender to prevent them committing another crime. However, on closer inspection, the reasons given seem to have secondary important to the need for society to feel like something is being done, that justice is being served, that law and order is being kept, with near-total disregard for those who find themselves shut out of society with no hope of redemption.