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Prison education research essay
Effectiveness of community corrections
Importance of education in prison
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Corrections in criminal justice is a punishment to rehabilitation or improve offender’s behaviors. The correctional system has programs that include parole and probation that are set for inmates that qualify to improve themselves and become better people. There are also other programs that provide care and support for inmates that are making a transition from custody to society. Evidenced based programing are out there to help inmates and make a change in corrections. Evidenced based corrections manage offenders, increase public safety, and reduce recidivism. The programs that the correctional system offers will make changes in many different ways. Those changes will occur if everyone cooperate together, and allows everyone’s voice …show more content…
There will usually be programs that are made, that will not function correctly, or that there will not be such an importance to those type of programs. Many times people spend too much time on coming up with a program that will help inmates out, but if certain inmates don’t feel that they will get the help from them they will not want to be put in those programs. The purpose of those programs are to help inmates out and help them improve and be ready for society or a new housing unit. Correctional programs must be more effective and have a meaning to them. Like the probation program for example. Many inmates are eligible for probation during their time sentence. They are only granted probation if those inmates are good and have good behaviors. Probation helps inmates to get released from prison earlier than the time sentence they receive to, but they must follow the rules that they receive. Many inmates that don’t behave well during their probation time will end up back in prison; most likely receive a much longer …show more content…
What is needed for corrections to be changed is the time and the need for inmates to get the help. There are over 600 programs that are sent out to prisons for prisoners to attend. The main focus is do those inmates really want to attend and change their way of living and their behavior? Do inmates really want to better themselves and become part of society one more time? All that is questioned, because many offenders do not want to do anything for themselves. So if inmates did pay more attention to the help that these programs could offer them, there would be less prisoners in
...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.
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.
Corrections are a necessary tool to protect society from those who do harm to others or to others property. Depending on the type of crime that was committed, and if the crime is considered a state or federal charge, also depends on where the person sentenced will do his time. There are four main sentencing options available; prison, probation, probation and confinement, and prison and community split. When a person is sentenced to do their time in prison most likely they will go to a state or federal prison. If a person is ordered probation, it prevents them from going to jail but they have stipulations on their probation. This is called intermediate sanctions, which are the various new correctional options used as adjuncts to and part of probation. Some intermediate sanctions include restitution, fines, day fines, community service, intensive supervised probation, house arrest, electronic monitoring, and shock incarceration.
Community correction is a term that refers to everything ranging from diversion before the trial to the punishment that follows after the trial. This refers to any way ranging to non-inmates yet supervised ways used to deal with criminal offenders who are facing conviction or who have been convicted. Beck et al., 2001. Probation as well as parole are the two most common ways of dealing with the offenders, though there are many ways such as being confined at home, electronic surveillance, day fines, community service shock probation and residential community supervision to mention but a few. The following are some of the intermediate sanction actions in the criminal corrections.
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.
Maybe if I saw more reports on how prison has improved our society and the criminals who live among us, I would see why we should work on reforming our prisons. Until then, it does not seem to be working. We trust in the government to provide for our safety, but we must take responsibility among ourselves. To understand that the current system does work and that its intent is not to provide a safe society. History has shown us that. What we have done or continue to do will not make this a safer place to live. The problem is not to reform our prison system, for this won't stop criminals to commit crimes, but to find ways and means to deteriorate them from doing the crime.
Throughout history into today, there have been many problems with our prison system. Prisons are overcrowded, underfunded, rape rates are off the charts, and we as Americans have no idea how to fix it. We need to have shorter sentences and try to rehabilitate prisoners back to where they can function in society. Many prisoners barely have a high school education and do not receive further education in jail. Guards need to pay more attention to the well being of the inmates and start to notice signs of abuse and address them. These are just a few of the many problems in our prison systems that need to be addressed.
Rehabilitation also involves programs in prisons that have the goal of helping offenders return back to society (Goff, 2014, p.20). Prisons have also put in place programs to assist inmates, “the goal of these release programs are to ease the transition of offenders from the institution into the community while simultaneously promoting stable employment after release” (Cullen & Jonson, 2011, p.309). If a person has been in an institution for a long period of time it is often hard to adjust to life outside, which is why these programs are important in the justice
The correctional system is not a perfect system as it does not address the key issues that cause offenders to continue to be imprisoned after only one year of release. The system has been evolving from a punishment base system from the 1970s to a complex system designed to beyond the punishment to deal with the rehabilitation of the criminal mind. This allows the individual offender to recognize their faults, receive treatment and be released from the correctional system as a productive member lacking terminal deviant behavior.
In today's society, we are facing many changes. Our own family, neighbors, and countrymen are afraid of many dangers which influence their lives. Although many people have fear which resonates in their consciousness and unconsciousness, the United States has a comparatively low crime rate. Despite this low crime rate, America incarcerates it's citizens five times the rate of Canada and seven times that of most European democracies.(Slambrouck, Paul. 24) Our society needs to be changed. We cannot blame the individuals involved in wrongdoing but we can blame our society who raised these criminals. Of course someone who kills another human being needs to be put away in some form; but we need to make changes. We need to help as many maladjusted people as we can. There are some steps which really seem to work. There are many prison inmates who come from broken homes and have low self-esteem. What needs to be done to help these insecure people, who are at war with themselves and society, is to rehabilitate them. The problem is the prison officials do not try to teach the prisoners how to learn from their mistakes.(McGovern, Celeste. 42) What actually happens is that criminals tend to be better thefts, and have the ability to out smart the police. Our politicians need to stress how important vocational, educational, drug-treatment, and religious programs are, in order to improve the attitude and demeanor of these convicted felons. This is the only way to keep ex-con's from jail.(DeLuca, H.R. 38) Another problem with America's prison system is overcrowding. There is a huge amount of young conscienceless offenders who are entering today's prisons. Imagine trying to compact eight gallons of water in a five gallon con...
Still, W., Broderick, B., & Raphael, S. (2016). Building trust and legitimacy within community corrections. Retrieved from
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?
To support reintegration, correctional workers are to serve as advocates for offenders in dealing with government agencies assisting with employment counseling services, medical treatment, and financial assistance. They argued that corrections focal point should be increasing opportunities for the offenders, to become law abiding citizens and on providing psychological treatment. This model of corrections advocates avoiding imprisonment if possible for the offender and also in favor of probation, therefore offenders can obtain an education and vocational training that would help their adjustment in the community. In the community model corrections advocated for inmates incarcerated to spend very limited time in prison before been granted parole.
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.
It seems as though the prison system can’t even get a hold on their primary function, seeing that “two-thirds of prisoners reoffend within three years of leaving prison” (Gilligan). While placing offenders in prison effectively removes that threat from society for a time, what benefit is it if they cause the same problem upon release? What is the point of a federal prison if inmates aren’t given the opportunity to make use of their time and have rehabilitation? Not only would it be for the better of prisoners’ chances of returning to community, but also for the better of the nation economically. In James Gilligan’s article, “Punishment Fails. Rehabilitation Works” (2012), he discusses a study conducted regarding potential rehabilitation programs with prisoners, resulting in an impressive outcome that “reduced the frequency of violent reoffending after leaving the jail by 83 percent,” which “saved the taxpayers $4 for every $1 spent on it.” Warden Burl Cain supports this concept, claiming that “Everybody forgets what corrections means…If this person can go back and be a productive citizen and not commit crimes again, why spend the money to keep him in prison?” (The Editorial Board)