Prison systems around the world have similar goals - to ensure public safety, to enforce the expectations and laws of a society, to punish offenders and to rehabilitate the convicted. While the goals may be similar, the philosophy of individual systems and the means through which they either achieve their objectives differ. The United States has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world, with approximately 1.6 million imprisoned in 2010, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics CITE. Further, the United States has one of the highest rates of recidivism, which would draw one to conclude that the structure currently in place does not facilitate rehabilitation. The purpose of this paper is to examine an alternative view of the
These prisons have little security and few staff. Medium security prisons serve a wider population of inmates with different sentence types. Security here includes perimeter fencing and armed vehicles. High/Close security prisons are for those offenders who have a history of violence or who are a threat to others. Security here is greater with several perimeter fences and towers staffed with armed guards. These prisons house prisoners in cellblocks. Maximum-security prisons are reserved for the most serious offenders who exhibit the most disturbing and disruptive behavior. This is often referred to as a locked down facility, where inmates are closely monitored and activities are restricted. Inmates in these types of prisons spend the vast majority of their time locked in a cell, with one hour allowed for recreation and showering. Finally, there is the Supermax prison is known as a control unit prison which is the most secure level of custody in the US prison system. The objective of these types of prisons is to inflict the absolute physical and psychological control over the prisoners (Viano, 2006, p. 146 –
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Dunec, Joanne L. "Incarceration and Recidivism: Lessons from Abroad." Pell Center for International Relations. Salve Regina University. Salve Regina University, Mar. 2014. Web. 01 Oct. 2014.
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Kazemian, Lila and Catrin Andersson (2012). The French Prison System: Comparative Insights for Policy and Practice in New York and the United States. New York, NY: Research and Evaluation Center, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York.
Monnery, Benjamin. "The Determinants of Recidivism among Ex-prisoners: A Survival Analysis on French Data." GROUPE 'D’ANALYSE 'ET 'DE 'THÉORIE 'ÉCONOMIQUE ' 'LYON '6 'ST 'ÉTIENNE, May 2013. Web. 01 Oct. 2014.
"Recidivism." National Institute of Justice. US Department of Justice, 17 June 2014. Web. 01 Oct. 2014.
Viano, Emilio. "America 's Prison System." L ' Execution Des Sanctions Privatives De Liberte Et Les Imperatifs De La Securite = The Implementation of Prison Sentences and Aspects of Security ; Actes Du Colloque De La FIPP, Budapest, Hongrie 16-19 Février 2006 ; Proceedings of the Colloquium of the IPPF, Budapest, Hungary 16-19 February 2006. 139-84.
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
Wormith, J. S., Althouse, R., Simpson, M., Reitzel, L. R., Fagan, T. J., & Morgan, R. D. (2007). The rehabilitation and reintegration of offenders: The current landscape and some future directions for correctional psychology. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 34(7), 879-892.
The United States has a larger percent of its population incarcerated than any other country. America is responsible for a quarter of the world’s inmates, and its incarceration rate is growing exponentially. The expense generated by these overcrowded prisons cost the country a substantial amount of money every year. While people are incarcerated for a number of reasons, the country’s prisons are focused on punishment rather than reform, and the result is a misguided system that fails to rehabilitate criminals or discourage crime. The ineffectiveness of the United States’ criminal justice system is caused by mass incarceration of non-violent offenders, racial profiling, and a high rate of recidivism.
This paper explores the advantages of the German correctional system and the changes that could be made to the current American system to improve its efficiency. Several different comparison studies as well as statistics obtained from credible online sources aid in highlighting the advantages of three key components of the German penal system which make it more successful in crime inhibition and recidivism prevention than the current American counterpart. Reintegration and rehabilitation as the primary aspect in a judge’s choice of verdict are discussed first, following the availability and condition of programs existing in prison for offenders that have been sentenced to incarceration, as well as the ongoing care and help available for parolees and offenders sentenced to alternate disciplinary methods such as community service or house arrest. The paper concludes with suggestions on how to implement the discussed advantages in the quickest and most undisruptive way into the American system and discovers how recidivism rates could plummet as a result.
Prisons exist in this country as a means to administer retributive justice for those that break the laws in our society or to state it simply prisons punish criminals that are to receive a sentence of incarceration for more than one year. There are two main sub-cultures within the walls of prison the sub-culture of the Department of Corrections (which consists of the corrections officer, administrators, and all of the staff that work at the prison and go home at the end of their day) and the actual prisoners themselves. As you can imagine these two sub-cultures are dualistic in nature and this makes for a very stressful environment for both sides of the fence. While in prison, the inmates experience the same conditions as described in the previous
It is easy to turn a blind I when there is no direct personal experience. Mass incarceration is an issue that influences other issues within the correctional system. The more people under correctional supervision means, the more individuals who can potentially be sexually victimized or placed in solitary confinement. Both are issues within the correctional system. Moreover, studies have shown that sexual victimization and solitary confinement have adverse side effects on inmates. If any of these variables are going to change for the better, then policy needs to change. Those in society, especially those with power who can affect policy in the penal system need to see these issues as a major problem. Some of the proposed solutions to reduce the incarceration rate and not new ideas, but a change in approach. Heroux (2011), suggested possible policy solutions to reduce the mass incarceration. Some of these solutions are earlier release, a change in mandatory minimums, transfer to non-institutions facilities, the diversion from institutional facilities, and doing away with mandatory minimum laws. This could be the next step towards reducing mass
Drago, F., Galbiati, R. & Vertova, P. (2011). Prison conditions and recidivism. American law and economics review, 13 (1), pp. 103--130.
Harris, H. (2017, March). The Prison Dilemma: Ending America's Incarceration Epidemic. Foreign Affairs, pp. 118-129.
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
Western, Bruce , and Becky Pettit. "Disadvantages of America’s prison boom: Scholar’s research brief." Journalists Resource RSS. N.p., 20 Feb. 2014. Web. 24 Feb. 2014. .
In 21st-century America, detainment is turning into a multibillion dollar industry every year, and will keep on increasing in extension in the coming decades. The “prison industrial complex" incorporates not just those organizations specifically included in conveying discipline (courts, adjustments,
Not only do prisons separate the criminals from the innocent, to be effective, according to Lappin and Greene, they must also separate the criminals from the worse criminals. Convicts in prison for non-violent offenses are not supposed to be housed with violent offenders. “Unfortunately, our prisons are becoming more and more overcrowded maki...
Firstly, in order to gain a better understanding of the problems that plague or correctional system we must fully understand the enormous overcrowding problem that exist in the majority of or state and federal prisons. Since 1980 the prison population has quadrupled and only the numb...
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.
Foucault, M. (1995) Discipline and Punishment The Birth of the Prison [online]. 2nd ed. USA: Penguin Books, Ltd. [Accessed 01 January 2014].