Do Prisons Make People Worse?

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I claim that prison does not necessarily make people worse. This claim of imprisonment not making people worse can only be justified to a certain extent. Taking consideration of the various and diversified prisons, inmates, crimes committed, contextual situations, not all inmates in prison will support my claim. I assert my claim speaks for a majority of inmates in prisons right now.

What societies view on prison is for offenders to serve their sentence of a previously committed crime, and to come back into society a righteous individual. Prisons serve as a form of incapacitation, to remove an offender from the public to prevent them from committing a crime in society. Through imprisonment, they are open to serve their time reflecting, rehabilitating, …show more content…

The Classic Strain Theory is a theory developed initially by Robert Merton, which implicates some individuals and groups within our society are subject to special pressure for a crime. They need strain to become motivated to commit a crime when striving to achieve the goals of "American Dream" and for monetary success. Inequality of opportunities among individuals in our society results in anomie, strain or tension between the goals and means which produce unsatisfied aspirations. The most significant barriers to successful reentry include the difficulties faced in obtaining satisfactory employment and housing, arranging successful family reunification, and obtaining health care and transportation (e.g., Travis, 2005). These barriers that face might be overwhelming for released prisoners, which will likely lead to strain, and then those who innovate will commit a crime. Which contributes to the higher recidivism …show more content…

It discusses specific kinds of proactive programs of prison rehabilitation can be effective in neutralizing or even reversing the otherwise criminal effects of interaction. Such as risk-need-responsivity or RNP (Andrews and Bonta 2006), cognitive-behavior therapy (Dobson and Khatri, 2000, p. 908), or medical treatment. These programs improve post release outcomes in some studies. Its proven that prisons have taken an initiative to aid prisoners during their sentence, and into their release. However, all prisons vary in conditions of confinement, commitment to the goal of rehabilitation, and presenting meaningful programs to their

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