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how effective are prisons
effectiveness of prisons
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If I were to tell you that a group of federal inmates guilty of a variety of crimes that included, embezzlement, drug manufacturing, child pornography, and murder were in your community, the average person would want to know where those criminals were located and shut that location down. In many cities across the United States, there are facilities that house these convicted inmates. The facilities are called halfway houses, and they were created to help an inmate that is released from prison transition into a community under supervision. The halfway house program can be a beneficial step in the process of an inmate’s release, and can reap lasting rewards for the inmates, the correctional system, and the communities they reside in.
First, the inmate themselves benefit greatly from the opportunities given to them by a halfway house. The first time an inmate walks through the door, they are given a place to sleep, eat, and clean themselves up. The inmate is assigned a case manager, who is trained to help these individuals in the steps they take to become a productive member of society. The inmates at halfway houses are helped in obtaining a job, going to school if available, and finding a suitable residence. The steps of the program also help the inmates by requiring them to save 30 percent of their earnings allowing them to get a vehicle, pay for deposits on utilities, or even a deposit on a residence. When they are released, a resident will have found responsibilities, routines, and a way to leave their old life behind them.
The next benefit is to the Bureau of Prisons and the correctional system in general. Every year there is an increase in the prison population, and many convicted felons are required to wait to ente...
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... Springfield, Missouri. The halfway house employees 25 people, and it is in a stable aspect of the job market. It also purchases food from a local grocer for over 50 inmate’s meals. All the installations and repairs for the building are done by local small businesses. The bedding and hygiene supplies are all purchased at a local department store. These are just a few examples of the financial benefits that are brought to the communities by halfway houses.
Having a halfway house in your community may not seem like an ideal situation, but given the success to the inmate, the financial savings to the Bureau of Prisons, and the financial benefits to the community, it seems likely that in the future there will be many more of these facilities. Its kind of like the waste water plant, you may not want to live next to it, but I would not want my town to go without it.
The purpose of a halfway house or also called a recovery house is generally to allow people to begin the process of reintegration with society, where monitoring and support will be provided. This is to reduce the risk of recidivism or relapse where in most cases ex-convicts would be released directly back into society. The halfway houses that is being purposed is meant solely for the reintegration of persons who have been recently released from prison or jail, others are meant for people with chronic mental health disorders, and others are for ex-convicts with substance abuse issues.
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.
...es and cautions of jail diversion programs include safety of the public and the potential cross-purpose goals of the treatment services industry and the criminal justice system. Public safety is paramount when discussing jail diversion programs. Whatever has caused the offender to commit crime, be it substance abuse or a mental illness, does not negate the fact that the crime was committed and the public must be protected from the offender is some form or fashion. Jail diversion programs have various tracking methods of offenders but they do provide enough freedom and opportunity for recidivism. Also, treatment services and incarceration do often work at cross purposes and unless integrated successfully can cause barriers to coordination and solutions (SAMHSA, 1993). One organization emphasizes treatment and the other emphasizes public safety and punishment.
Private prisons have a negative effect on states and local governments. Unfortunately, the number of private prisons has been increasing since their inception in 1983 causing further problems. For-profit prisons offer no real benefits and are bad investments for states. Furthermore, private prisons beleaguer communities with high turnover rates that hurt local economies. The demands of these institutions put an excessive burden on the local community’s infrastructure. Similarly, private prisons strain the county and city legal systems. More often than not, spin-off industries and economic benefits promised by the for-profit correction industry fail to appear. Additionally, private prisons are allowed to cherry pick the least expensive inmates, leaving the more expensive inmates for the state. A number of studies financed by the private prison industry give the misconception that they save states money. More importantly, the need to make a profit is an incentive for private prison industry officials to engage in nefarious activities.
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 weight of evidence to date demonstrates that halfway house are cost-effective and more humane regarding expenditure of the public funds when compared to institutional placement and besides halfway houses have been a part of correction since the early 1800s. (Latessa & Smith, 2011) Halfway houses address devastating economic and psychological effects of prisonization on most inmates. Therefore, first, I must take into consideration that a halfway house can be seen as an eyesore or a public service. I would like for a survey of some sort to be conducted to determine how many if any of my neighbors engage in drug or alcohol usages that they feel is out of hand. I would also like the survey to analyze if there are any real problems within the households before considering opening a halfway house. There are several pros to opening a halfway house to those in need
The U.S is only 5% of the world’s population and houses a quarter of its prison inmates; well over 2 million people. In the past decade the war on drugs has filled many state and federal prisons with a numerous amount of inmates. Building new prisons is not the answer to tackling the prison overcrowding dilemma. The U.S doesn’t have the money due to economic strains, and it will not solve this issue head on as needed. “California may be forced to release up to 33,000 prisoners by 2013” (Shapiro & Wizner, 2011, p.1.). Some women and men do not belong in prison, and should be given other opportunities to sought help. Prison overcrowding is a growing concern in the U.S today. There are many different alternatives to end prison overcrowding versus releasing them into the community. For example by launching a parole support group or treatment or rehabilitation programs for inmates as well as ex-offenders, house arrest or probation are other routes to explore.
Throughout history, changes have occurred all around us. More specifically, our correctional facilities. As community members commit crimes, our jails and prisons provide the deterrence, punishment, retribution and rehabilitation needed to become a successful member of the community again. When offenders enter into the correctional facilities, restrictive housing and administration segregation play a role in providing safety to inmates and to staff members. By looking at how restrictive housing and administration segregation was established, evolved, and how it plays a role in today’s society, we as citizens can learn about our correctional facilities and the tasks they use to keep inmates safe and correctional staff.
It is undeniable that mass incarceration devastates families, and disproportionately affects those which are poor. When examining the crimes that bring individuals into the prison system, it is clear that there is often a pre-existing pattern of hardship, addiction, or mental illness in offenders’ lives. The children of the incarcerated are then victimized by the removal of those who care for them and a system which plants more obstacles than imaginable on the path to responsible rehabilitation. Sometimes, those returned to the community are “worse off” after a period of confinement than when they entered. For county jails, the problem of cost and recidivism are exacerbated by budgetary constraints and various state mandates. Due to the inability of incarceration to satisfy long-term criminal justice objectives and the very high expenditures associated with the sanction, policy makers at various levels of government have sought to identify appropriate alternatives(Luna-Firebaugh, 2003, p.51-66).
In the United States of America’s criminal justice system, both violent and non-violent offenders are imprisoned. This imprisonment has led to overpopulation of our prisons, both federal and state-owned. Overpopulation and overcrowding can cause stress on the average, everyday tax-paying citizen as it becomes very expensive to house the over one-hundred and fifty thousand sentenced prisoners each year (US Bureau of Justice Statistics). That number adds up, because even with the over six hundred thousand offenders released each year, there are even more that remain in the prison system (US Bureau of Justice Statistics). The total number of prisoners in the U.S. state and federal correctional facilities, which includes prisons, rehabilitation centers, and juvenile detention centers, is 1,574,700 (US Bureau of Justice Statistics). This cycle of overpopulation needs a long-term fix, not some cookie-cutter solution that will only alleviate the problem temporarily. Due to the
Sober living accommodations – After completing a residential treatment program, patients may not feel ready to re-enter his or her former community right away. Sober living houses, also known as transitional housing or halfway houses, provide an environment where they can benefit from a higher level of structure and stability while taking part in aftercare
With the substantial increase in prison population and various changes that plague correctional institutions, government agencies are finding that what was once considered a difficult task to provide educational programs, inmate security and rehabilitation programs are now impossible to accomplish. From state to state each correctional organization is coupled with financial problems that have depleted the resources to assist in providing the quality of care in which the judicial system demands from these state and federal prisons. Judges, victims, and prosecuting attorneys entrust that once an offender is turned over to the correctional system, that the offender will receive the punishment in which was imposed by the court, be given services that aid in the rehabilitation to those offenders that one day will be released back into society, and to act as a deterrent to other criminals contemplating criminal acts that could result in their incarceration. Has our nations correctional system finally reached it’s critical collapse, and as a result placed or American citizens in harm’s way to what could result in a plethora of early releases of inmates to reduce the large prison populations in which independent facilities are no longer able to manage? Could these problems ultimately result in a drastic increase in person and property crimes in which even our own law enforcement be ineffective in controlling these colossal increases of crime against society?
In the 1970s and 1980s, a massive amount of inmates began fillin up the United States prison systems. This huge rate of growth in this short amount of time, has greatly contributed to the prison overcrowding that the United States faces today. In fact, the prisons are still filled to the seams. This enormous flood of inmates has made it practically impossible for prison officials to keep up with their facilities and supervise their inmates. One of the main reasons why many prisons have become overcrowded is because of states’ harsh criminal laws and parole practices (Cohen). “One in every 100 American adults is behind bars, the highest incarceration rate in the world” (Cohen). The amount of inmates in corrections systems, throughout the nation, sky-rocketed to 708 percent between 1972 and 2008. Today, there are about 145,000 inmates occupying areas only designed for 80,000 (Posner). Peter Mosko, “an assistant professor of Law, Police Science and Criminal Justice at New York’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice” (Frazier) stated, “America, with 2.3 million people behind bars, has more prisoners than soldiers” (Frazier). There have been studies that have shown “there are more men and women in prison than ever before. The number of inmates grew by an average of 1,600 a week. The U. S. has the highest rate of crime in the world” (Clark). Because of this influx in inmates, many prisoners’ rights groups have filed lawsuits charging that “overcrowded prisons violate the Constitution’s 8th Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment” (Clark). It is clear that the United States corrections system needs to be reformed in order to eliminate this problem. Prison overcrowding is a serious issue in society due to the fact it affects prison ...
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
This model of corrections main purpose was to reintroducing the offenders in to the community. This Program was invented to help offenders in the transition from jail to the community, aid in the processes of finding jobs and stay connected to their families and the community. The needs of these individuals are difficult: the frequency of substance abuse, mental illness, unemployment, and homelessness is elevated among the jail population.