Assignment 1: The Prison Experience And Programming

742 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Effects of prison on inmates

#1 The Prison Experience & Programming When individuals are sent to prison for committing a crime, the goal is to incapacitate, to punish the offender and to protect society (Beccaria, 1764; Class Discussion). That is the immediate outcome of incapacitation and the focus of prison programming. However, the longterm outcome of prison is more concerning. Prison programming is focused on punishment, by restricting the individuals autonomy and using their availability to the maximum benefit of the state. The state benefits from free labor and with limited social support for providing additional services to inmates, such as education and mental health, the state invest funds into more prisoners for more labor (Reckdahl, 2004; Class Discussion). Free labor is as any …show more content…

That is the working outcome of prison, though, the social environment has a larger impact on the offender. In a box, filled of criminals, how can one expect to act other than criminal or violent, without proper guidance as provided by health services that the prison program lacks. The outcome; rather than realizing the wrongfulness of the criminal act, as results of the social environment of prison, the offender becomes more efficient in tactics to survive in the box. Therefore, disregarding all structures of life outside the box and if granted release, the offender is without the guidance needed to readjust to the external world. Soon, to behave criminally, to report back to the environment learned best, prison (Peterslia, 1998). The results of the prison programming and experience, indicates the breeding of more criminal behavior than productive citizens, proving the

Show More
Related

  • Analysis Of 'The Prisoner's Dilemma'

    1019 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Western cultures imprisonment is the universal method of punishing criminals (Chapman 571). According to criminologists locking up criminals may not even be an effective form of punishment. First, the prison sentences do not serve as an example to deter future criminals, which is indicated, in the increased rates of criminal behavior over the years. Secondly, prisons may protect the average citizen from crimes but the violence is then diverted to prison workers and other inmates. Finally, inmates are locked together which impedes their rehabilitation and exposes them too more criminal

    Read More

  • Jeff Jacoby’s Bring Flogging Back

    1009 Words  | 3 Pages

    Many young criminals are less likely to become career criminals if punished through public embarrassment than through prison. Prison can be a sign of manliness or a “status symbol” (Jacoby 197). He says “prison is a graduate school for criminals”, providing evidence that criminals want to be convicted and be in prison, to strengthen their status (Jacoby 197). Jacoby knows how to properly get his view across to the reader, by saying that prison is not as effective now, as it used to be.... ... middle of paper ...

    Read More

  • The Rise of America’s Prison Empire

    1930 Words  | 4 Pages

    Throughout his novel, Texas Tough: The Rise of America’s Prison Empire, author and professor Robert Perkinson outlines the three current dominant purposes of prison. The first, punishment, is the act of disciplining offenders in an effort to prevent them from recommitting a particular crime. Harsh punishment encourages prisoners to behave because many will not want to face the consequences of further incarceration. While the purpose of punishment is often denounced, many do agree that prison should continue to be used as a means of protecting law-abiding citizens from violent offenders. The isolation of inmates, prison’s second purpose, exists to protect the public. Rehabilitation is currently the third purpose of prison. Rehabilitation is considered successful when a prisoner does n...

    Read More

  • Will Work for Room and Board: Prison Labor in America

    1473 Words  | 3 Pages

    American prisoners receive free medical attention, housing, meals, utilities, use of exercise equipment, and laundry services. The cost of these services amount in the billions of dollars a year and government budgets are straining to accommodate these fiscal requirements. “There’s special urgency in prisons these days,” “As state budgets get constricted, the public is looking for ways to offset the cost of imprisonment” (Brown). This economic concern requires work programs to aid in the relief of financial burdens incurred from convicted criminals. Once found guilty of a crime the prisoner needs to take responsibility for the costs incurred. Prison labor has evolved from the day of hard labor, breaking rocks, and making license plates to manufacturing, data processing, electronics, farming, construction, and even customer relations. Prisoners in America need to work, not to be confused with slavery, for economical, recidivism, and responsibility concerns. Work programs are crucial if taxpayers are tired of paying the cost for prison's financial liability, prisoner's family support, and release support programs.

    Read More

  • Life After Prison: In Life After Prison

    1301 Words  | 3 Pages

    Once released from prison, he or she is deemed a felon. Losing the right to vote, not being able to serve on a jury, and inability to enforce his or her second amendment is just a few of the disadvantages of serving time, but this is just the textbook interpretation. There is no much more that is at stake when you step foot behind bars. Once a person gains their freedom the better question to ask is what wasn’t taken form them? Their job if there was one in the first place, their children, their family, and most importantly the part of the person that made them a member of society.

    Read More

  • The Flaws of Prison Labor

    674 Words  | 2 Pages

    The debate over prison labor has existed as long as the concept it’s self. Opponents claim that it exploits prisoners, takes away jobs from the general population, and puts people in danger by allowing convicts access to their personal information. While supporters of prison labor argue that it helps the economy as well as benefits prisoners. On this issue I stand on the side of the supporters. By having prisoners work we are accomplishing several beneficial things. First, work keeps them occupied and out of trouble, instead of getting into confrontations with other inmates, they are actually doing something productive. Second, by working they are alleviating some of the high costs of keeping them incarcerated, thus reducing the amount the government has to spend for this purpose. And third, the opponent’s argument that prison labor puts the general population in danger is not a valid one since most perpetrators of identity fraud are not convicts, but regular people with no past criminal record. Even with these positive factors, still there is room for improvement in the institution of prison labor.

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay On Mass Incarceration

    1168 Words  | 3 Pages

    The past two decades have engendered a very serious and historic shift in the utilization of confinement within the United States. In 1980, there were less than five hundred thousand people confined in the nation’s prisons and jails. Today we have approximately two million and the numbers are still elevating. We are spending over thirty five billion annually on corrections while many other regime accommodations for education, health

    Read More

  • Alternatives to Incarceration

    1196 Words  | 3 Pages

    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).

    Read More

  • We Are Spending Too Much On Prisons

    1059 Words  | 3 Pages

    The basic concept of educating prisoners while they are in prison is logical and simple. It makes sense to make convicts' time in prison productive. This leads to a person that, when he leaves prison, knows a better way of life than committing crimes which would inevitably send him back to prison. While making perfect sense, this solution drastically changes the concept of prison. The effects of social programs integrated with prisons start with helping direct the taxpayers money to more prolific uses, and expand to making people in America smarter, more educated, less dangerous.

    Read More

  • Exploring the Stanford Prison Experiment: A Psychological Perspective

    715 Words  | 2 Pages

    The idea of experimentation of prison life achieved by the Stanford University students was intriguing and the results were interesting. Haney, Banks, and Zimbardo’s study due to a result of their curiosity of the reactions of subjects when placed in prisoner or prison guard roles. Their inspiration for the study was somewhat unclear; however, hypothetically reasoning was placed on determining aspects of the actual reality of incarceration. The experimenters also strived to test the theory on whether prisoners face abhorrent conditions due to their interpersonal evils, or do to the aggressive and deviant behaviors of prison guards (Haney, Banks, Zimbardo, 1973).

    Read More

  • Current Issues in the Correctional System

    1045 Words  | 3 Pages

    As the current prison structures and sentencing process continues to neglect the issues that current offenders have no change will accrue to prevent recidivism. The issue with the current structure of the prison sentencing process is it does not deal with the “why” the individual is an social deviant but only looks at the punishment process to remove the deviant from society. This method does not allow an offender to return back to society without continuing where they left off. As an offender is punished they are sentenced (removal from society) they continue in an isolated environment (prison) after their punishment time is completed and are released back to society they are now an outsider to the rapidly changing social environment. These individuals are returned to society without any coping skills, job training, or transitional training which will prevent them from continuing down th...

    Read More

  • Issues in Corrections

    851 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Prisons In The 19th Century

    365 Words  | 1 Pages

    In the 19th century two different and historical prison systems came into existence. Those prisons came to be known as Eastern State Penitentiary located in Pennsylvania and New York’s Auburn Prison. Both had different ways of working and philosophy of how to treat the prisoner. I find that an advantage for the way Auburn prison worked its institute was that they would have prisoners do hard work. It was the institute’s belief that the prisoner who learned to do hard labor in prison will be compelled to do them same once out of prison. Prisoners work consisted from growing their own foods, make their own attire, etc. In the case of the Pen State the advantage where in order to prevent any violent or hostile environments in the institute, prisoners

    Read More

  • Imprisonment is Ineffective as Punishment

    1773 Words  | 4 Pages

    The use of prison as a form of punishment began to become popular in the early 19th century. This was because transportation to colonies had started to decrease; transportation was the removing of an individual, in this case an offender, from its country to another country; usually for a period of seven to ten years and in some cases for ever. During this time prison was now being used as a means for punishment, this was in response to the declining of transportation to colonies. Thus, instead of transporting offenders to other colonies they were now being locked away behind high walls of the prison. Coyle (2005). To say whether using prison as a form of punishment has aid in the quest of tackling the crime problem one must first consider the purposes of the prison.

    Read More

  • Education In Prison Research Paper

    303 Words  | 1 Pages

    My freshman year of college, I had the opportunity to attend Alternative Spring Break in Ferguson/St. Louis, Missouri. That experience changed my life, I had the opportunity to work with students that were sophomores in high school and discussed how they can change their lives around. Many of the students would skip class and hang out in the hallways. But that week, the teacher stated that they had record breaking attendance. To this day, I am reading over these student’s applications as they prepare to embark on their journey to college.

    Read More

More about Assignment 1: The Prison Experience And Programming

Open Document