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Paper on prison reform in the united states
Paper on prison reform in the united states
Things that can combat over crowding in prisons
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The U.S. corrections system has had a long history of being the most progressive in the world. It has been the model for many corrections systems around the world. From the invention of the modern prisons to the mission of Rehabilitation and modern probation. Even for most of the nineteenth and twenty century, the U.S. corrections remained in the lead for having the best ways to deal with offenders. However, even with all of the advances in the corrections system the U.S. is now know for having one of the most populated prisons in the world. In fact, since 1973, the U.S. imprisonment rate has increased from under 100 people per 100,000 to almost 500 per 100,000 (American Corrections, 2016).
Many believe, the rise in the prison population has
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The five core concerns within the corrections system; their mission, methods, structure, personnel, and costs. Problems that affect the clarity of their mission are the many clients that they work with. They are forced to try to meet the goals and expectations of the general public, offenders, and other government agencies alike. As a result, they are often faced with conflict. To overcome this problem, the corrections system must establish a clearer policy to guide its mission and create a set of priorities for handling conflict when they …show more content…
Beyond the conflict of methods to use, such as custody or treatment, is the fact that these methods are always changing. When one technique is deemed a failure they move on to the next hoping for immediate results to a problem. Another dilemma in corrections is caused by its internal and external structures. Internally the corrections system seems to be working against one another. Each process, jails, prisons, probation, and parole, all divided, become a juncture to the others. Externally the corrections system is comprised of the criminal justice processes demands and has little control over services provided. To improve some structural dilemmas, many agencies have begun forming “partnerships” to help improve coordination’s between them.
Personnel issues cause yet another dilemma in the corrections system. Corrections officer tend to receive lower pay compared to comparable jobs, such as a local law enforcement agent. Employees also have no incentive to remain on the job since most receive equal pay raises regardless of performance. To help bring in the “right kinds” of people the corrections system needs to innovate methods of selection and promotion, offer incentives and involve staff in the operation of the
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.
For years now, incarceration has been known to be the center of the nation’s Criminal Justice Center. It’s no secret that over time, the criminal justice center began experiencing problems with facilities being overcrowded, worldwide, which ended up with them having to make alternative decisions to incarceration that prevent violence and strengthen communities. These new options went in to plan to be help better develop sentencing criminal offenders.
Prison Reform in The United States of America “It is said that no one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails. A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but its lowest ones” (Nelson Mandela, 1994). The United States of America has more people behind bars than any other country on the planet. The prisons are at over double capacity. It cost a lot of money to house prisoners each year.
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
Canada reached its utmost population rate in 2013, with 15,000 inmates; this is a drastic increase of 75% in the past decade. Incarceration rates are rapidly increasing as crime rates decrease. Upon release, former prisoners have difficulty adapting into society and its social norms. Criminologist, Roger Graef states that, "the vast majority of inmates, the loss of local connections with family, job, and home sentences them again to return to crime." Prisoners often result in lethargy, depression, chronic apathy, and despair, making them ultimately rigid and unable to assimilate back into the public. Depression, claustrophobia, hallucinations, problems with impulse control, and/or an impaired ability to think, concentrate, or remember are experienced by prisoners who are isolated for a protracted amount of time; research has indicated that prisons can cause amenorrhea, aggressive behaviour, impaired vision and hearing, weakening of the immune system, and premature menopause. With the lack of system programs, the constant violence, and the social isolation, the prison system fails to prepare prisoners for reintegration to society. Prisons do not provide the proper structural functionalism to rehabilitate former long-term prisoners into society.
Overcrowding in our state and federal jails today has become a big issue. Back in the 20th century, prison rates in the U.S were fairly low. During the years later due to economic and political factors, that rate began to rise. According to the Bureau of justice statistics, the amount of people in prison went from 139 per 100,000 inmates to 502 per 100,000 inmates from 1980 to 2009. That is nearly 261%. Over 2.1 million Americans are incarcerated and 7.2 million are either incarcerated or under parole. According to these statistics, the U.S has 25% of the world’s prisoners. (Rick Wilson pg.1) Our prison systems simply have too many people. To try and help fix this problem, there needs to be shorter sentences for smaller crimes. Based on the many people in jail at the moment, funding for prison has dropped tremendously.
It is said that prison should be used for more serious crimes such as rape, assault, homicide and robbery (David, 2006). Because the U.S. Prison is used heavily for punishment and prevention of crime, correctional systems in the U.S. tend to be overcrowded (David, 2006). Even though prisons in the U.S. Are used for privies on of crime it doesn 't work. In a 2002 federal study, 67% of inmates that
Right now in our criminal justice system, there are issues with ethical conduct of correctional professionals abusing their power and discretion in ways that negatively impact the quality of life of the people they have control over. Correctional professionals have a difficult job, often dealing with unhappy persons and having a fear of inmate/client violence, or struggling to keep their relationships professional with the people they interact with daily. Due to this, correctional officers can sometimes misuse their discretion with persons who cooperate with them, while abusing their power with persons who make their job difficult. With this in mind, the book suggests that it is difficult to work in corrections, where the goal is to help people in a system that is punitive, and there truly needs to be more correctional professionals who care about the rehabilitation of
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...
“The history of correctional thought and practice has been marked by enthusiasm for new approaches, disillusionment with these approaches, and then substitution of yet other tactics”(Clear 59). During the mid 1900s, many changes came about for the system of corrections in America. Once a new idea goes sour, a new one replaces it. Prisons shifted their focus from the punishment of offenders to the rehabilitation of offenders, then to the reentry into society, and back to incarceration. As times and the needs of the criminal justice system changed, new prison models were organized in hopes of lowering the crime rates in America. The three major models of prisons that were developed were the medical, model, the community model, and the crime control model.
Corrections strive on professionalism. Even though prisoners are sometimes ruthless it is important to remain professional in many ways. One reason it is important to be professional is because it provides an example for the inmates. If an inmate watches an officer conduct himself in such a way for a long time the inmate might get the urge to change his ways. Even though corrections has been very professional it has had some help making it preform at a higher level. One way professionalism has improved is by adding training, implementing gender and racial integration, and adding an emphasis on ethics and integrity. Good training helps every officer know the do's and don'ts on the job. It is important that all of these are intergraded in a correction
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.
There are many problems that are in the corrections system. A few problems are violence, suicide and homicide and these problems in the facility lead to other problems. Violence has been broken down into two categories. The first category is collective violence and the second category is interpersonal violence. Collective violence revolves around an interference that is very serious and disrupts control and order within the system of corrections. An example of collective violence are riots. There are many contributing factors that lead the collective violence. Factors that lead to the violence are: gang violence, conditions of the prisons, race discrimination, and joint frustration. Suicide and Homicide are also major issues in the corrections facility. Although these issues can be stopped, violence, homicide and
Correctional Work today is said to be one of the hardest, most exhausting, and mentally draining fields of work. A correctional officer is said to be the voice of authority in the institution, as well as the one who is ensuring the safety and welfare of prisoners. Corrections is a critical component of the justice system, the rewards of working in this system can be highly favorable in the end. Working in corrections can be a lifelong profession as well as life changing. You have opportunities to grow in this field of work, you are required to keep up training and leadership skills as well as strive to your highest potential. Sometimes you are even allowed to make a difference in one person’s life. Without this some would have a reoccurring pattern in life and never see the outside of a jail cell.
This website has information on a vast number of topics about the corrections system. The website has a daily news feed of correction news. There is also a small section on the website for corrections jobs and criminal justice programs. The main portion of this website is the topic section. Many of the topics listed are problems the corrections system faces. Some of the problems listed are escapes, ethics, gangs, misconduct overcrowding, and recidivism. The website provides a list of articles, videos, and news about each topic. The website itself does not provide any original content it mainly serves as an information hub about the listed topics.