Inmate Reflection Paper
On January 26, 2017, I attended a seminar in the Burns Wellness Center at the College of Saint Scholastica about inmates at the local prison camp who all committed a white-collar crime. These three inmates came in to discuss how they committed these crimes what punishments came from them. Due to me having a meeting with one of my nursing professors, I came in late and had to get some notes from fellow classmates about the first two inmates that I missed. Listening to the cases of fraud that each of these men committed was scary. Most people do not want to believe that it is as easy as it sounded to get into fraud within today’s business world. They all seemed like good people, but admitted that good people can do bad
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After working there for a couple years, he decided he should open his own financial planning company that he ran for 17 years. Auggie grew the business to 2,500 clients, and started working in venture capital to help raise money for small businesses. Like all of the men stated, Auggie said he made a series of bad decisions, which were outside of his value system. He began to make more money than he ever imagined. He lost everything financially and had a predicted loss of 22 million dollars and an actual loss of 6 million dollars. His crime has sentenced him to 190 months that originally started in 2005, so he will be able to go home this summer. One thing he specifically said and that I agree with is when something seems too good to be true it usually is and that crimes are not worth the punishment. Losing his family is what hurt him the most because he was unable to watch them grow up and missed many important events for his children. What I took away from this speech is that in the business world one has to always be aware and …show more content…
What really stood out to me was the fact that everything in the camp is so repetitive and can be very boring if one does not have a job to stop them from constantly thinking about what they are going to do when they finished their sentence. The prison camp is not fenced all they way around, so the inmates can technically leave whenever they want, but have a cost of a longer sentenced if they get caught. All of the inmates wake up around five o’clock in the morning to be counted, which is the prisons way to make sure that no one escaped. They then go to work if they have a job and pack a lunch for themselves and will return to camp around three thirty in the afternoon to once again be counted at seven thirty. They then will have dinner and be able to play games, but have to be back in their dorms by nine
After reading the book I have gained a new understanding of what inmates think about in prison. Working in an institution, I have a certain cynical attitude at times with inmates and their requests. Working in a reception facility, this is a facility where inmates are brought in from the county jails to the state intake facility, we deal with a lot of requests and questions. At times, with the phone ringing off the hook from family members and inmates with their prison request forms, you get a little cynical and tired of answering the same questions over and over. As I read the book I begin to understand some of the reason for the questions. Inmate(s) now realize that the officers and administrative personnel are in control of their lives. They dictate with to get up in the morning, take showers, eat meals, go to classes, the need see people for different reason, when to exercise and when to go to bed. The lost of control over their lives is a new experience for some and they would like to be able to adjust to this new lost of freedom. Upon understanding this and in reading the book, I am not as cynical as I have been and try to be more patient in answering questions. So in a way I have changed some of my thinking and understanding more of prison life.
He cares about people and believes that the safety of individuals is decreasing because criminals are not punished effectively by imprisonment and that some even receive a “sign of manhood” from going to prison (1977). Additionally, he is upset that the ineffective system is so expensive. His concern for his audience’s safety and his carefully argued grounds, which he uses to support his claim, create a persona of an intelligent person of goodwill. Jeff Jacoby does an excellent job informing his audience that the current criminal justice system is not any more humane than the physical forms of punishment used in the past.
Throughout history there have been many white collar crimes. These crimes are defined as non-violent and financial-based crimes that are full ranges of fraud committed by business and government professionals. These crimes are not victimless nor unnoticed. A single scandal can destroy a company and can lose investors millions of dollars. Today, fraud schemes are more sophisticated than ever, and through studying: Enron, LIBOR, Albert Wiggan and Chase National Bank, Lehman Brothers and Madoff, we find how the culprits started there deception, the aftermath of the scandal and what our country has done to prevent future scandals.
The nature and damage of white-collar crime can result in a variety of punishments for the offender. Some sanctions being time in prison, some being fines, and others being a combination of both. For example, Chalana McFarland who was a real estate attorney and was accused of fraud, money laundering and other crimes costing investors $20 million. She was charged with $12 million in restitution and thirty years in prison (Haury, 2012). Another example would be Bernie Madoff, who owned Madoff Securities, was involved in a Ponzi scheme. It is believed that investors lost $50 billion dollars. Curently Madoff is serving a 150-year sentence in a prison in Butner, N.C (Haury, 2012). As these white-collar crime cases show, the costs of these crimes can be quite serve and earn life sentences as well as very hefty fines. Moreover, white-collar crimes have huge economic effects on victims, often causing life altering losses. Under consideration white-collar crimes are quite high-cost actions that hold large possible punishments and large ethical issues. In a research experiment done by Christian Seipel and Stefanie Eifler, a theory branching from rational choice theory was tested in relation to crime. The theory they explored was referred to as high- and low- cost theory. This theory discusses the factors that influence low cost crime and high cost crime. Low cost being defined as crimes that have low
The men who played the role of prisoner, like the guards, were selected at random. The harassment they endured, while all voluntary, was by any means less than humane. They were treated with very little respect, and denied basic rights, such as use of the restroom, and were forced to sleep on cold concrete floors for many nights as a form of punishment. When they arrived to the prison, they were stripped down, and given a change of clothes, but the “change of clothes”, was anything but what they expected to receive. They were actually dresses. The dresses were meant to emasculate the men even more than what they had been already. Rendered powerless, with lack of control of their environment, what other choice did they have than to accept what
The documentary A Rock and a Hard Place, directed by Jon Alpert and Matthew O’Neill, is about a group of youth prisoners at boot camp to better themselves. There are 38 prisoners to start that did different crimes, including carjacking and armed robbery, who were sentenced ranging from 40 years to life. There only hope for freedom is boot camp at Miami-Dade County Corrections and Rehabilitation Boot Camp. The process take 16 weeks to complete and is very brutal. This story can be described as uplifting with the way that most of the prisoners are determined to graduate the system for their families, disappointing with how the prisoners who you would think would of stuck through the program failed, and alluring because
Over the past several decades there has been a wide debate about what the correct definition for white collar crime should be, and even today, there is still a lot of confusion regarding the meaning of white collar crime. Currently, the definition of white-collar crime is still hotly contested within the community of experts, and this essay will discuss what is meant by the term white collar crime, as well as its legal standing and its importance in criminology.
Crime comes in different ways, shapes, and forms. From corruption to murder, the seriousness and blameworthiness varies from crime to crime. The most common factor of all crime is that it is illegal. The problem with prosecution is that some crimes can find loopholes around the rigidity of the laws created. This is the hardest for white collar crimes. With so many types of white collar crimes, it is hard to understand where it belongs on the scale on seriousness and blameworthiness and how to prosecute. With white collar crimes, they are most commonly seen as “victimless” or “paper” crimes, since they do not involve physical harm to the people included. With so many types available to analyze, the purpose of this paper is to focus on bribery, perjury, and fraud. When it comes to white collar crimes, or any crime for that matter, we do not only need to focus on what causes it and society’s reaction to it. We need to look into prevention of it and being able to stop it before it even starts.
Over the centuries one of the most common forms of punishment is imprisonment. As times past by the prison has taken on various shapes and forms. The quality and most conditions of prisons have changed in order to provide better living conditions for the inmates, but the main purpose of the prison has never changed, the online article Welcome to Stop the Crime states that “ a prison have four major purposes, these include retribution, incapacitation, deterrence and rehabilitation” (stoptheaca.org). This shows that the prison is there to ensure that criminals pay back society for the crimes they have committed; it also serves as an area to keep criminals from hurting innocent civilians and it is also there to transform prisoners to law abiding citizens. The prison life is a common topic discussed between boys of all ages, and it is very common to hear past prisoners convincing them that the prison life isn’t hard at all and that it’s very simple. Although some prisoners try to make the prison life sound fun and carefree when it’s compared to the life of a free individual it can be clearly seen that the prison life is much harder.
Enron and their accounting firm Anderson Accounting brought what we know as “white collar crime” to the forefront. White-collar criminals are not known to be dirty criminals, because they use their heads to get what they want from society. White collar criminals do not use their muscle; instead they use their brain for mischievous way to manipulate people. These criminals are just as dangerous as the bank robbers and murderers in my opinion. In these times, even the most trusted people are being convicted of white-collar crimes, your neighbor, the banker you have trusted for ten plus years, the closest of family friends, no one can be ruled out. White-collar crimes can differ in the sort and magnitude of the crime. There are always new scams coming out every day that society falls victim
One aspect of the documentary that relates to class material was the inmate’s description of being trapped in their cells like animals in a cage. This description of imprisonment can be associated to the article written by Sykes entitled, “The Pains of Imprisonment”. In this article, the author elaborates about how an inmate’s liberty is restricted to a specific building but then reduced further to a specific routine where they are told where to go and what to do. “In short, the prisoner’s loss of liberty is a double one — first, by confinement to the institution and second, by confinement within the institution.” (Sykes, 65). This is similar to how the prisoners in segregation are confined to the prison, and additionally to their cell. Another feature of the film that reflected class material was the campus style design of the prison. The inmates were allowed to roam around cell area and interact with other prisoners. Furthermore, different styles of adaptation to the segregation unit can be linked to class material. For instance, one member of the isolation unit is focused on completing his GED, an adaptation called gleaning. This is when an inmate takes advantage of offered programs because they do not want to return to prison. Prisoners who have served longer sentence times in isolation, for instance over a year, reflected a “doing time” adaption. They were simply focused on
This case illustrated that there were real consequences to white collar crime. In addition to paying the fifty million dollar fine, he relinquished another fifty million dollars of his illegal trading profits. (He still had millions remaining, however, from his illegal gains.) His actual prison sentence was three years, yet he served only twenty-two months in the federal prison at Lompoc, California, which was known to have a “country-club” atmosphere.
In the media, prisons have always been depicted as a horrible place. The film, The Shawshank Redemption, is a prime example that supports the media 's suggestions about prison life. In the film we are familiarized with Andy Dufresne, who is a banker that is wrongfully convicted of murdering his wife and her lover. While trying to both remain discreet and find his prison identity, he assists Ellis Boyd 'Red ' Redding, a peddler, and Brooks Hatlen. In his attempt to fit into the rough prison subculture, Andy strategically starts a business relationship with the captain Captain Bryon Hadley and Samuel Norton. The film gives an insider 's look at various aspects of prison life. These aspects include prison culture; explicitly, guard subculture and inmate subculture.
The television show “OZ” on HBO, is another good example of how the mass media sugarcoats prisons. The inmates live in a fictional prison called Oswald Correctional Facility, in which they have created a test program called Emerald City. Emerald City is a part of the prison that is separate from the general population. The prisoners are allowed a great deal of freedom. They have television, games (i.e. checkers), computer facilities, a library, and a full gym. There are some ideas that are accurate from the show ...
Some in the business world would argue that the recently intensified sentencing guidelines for white-collar crime provide sufficient punishment for the criminals involved. However, with the increase if the promi...