The Pros And Cons Of Prison Life

1032 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Prison reform research essay

As the average teenager, you often fantasize of achieving the American Dream with the hopes of being accepted into society in which you contribute such efforts of success and happiness. It also can be said, that America is made up of opportunities and second chances to better ones life, yet some over others are born into a life full of set backs. In today’s society, committing one mistake against the law is too many and what follows can change a life. In the United States, the criminal justice system holds accountable for those who commit a crime in efforts to discipline disorderly behavioral acts and to protect society from such danger. For the inmates who are eighteen and younger that have a life ahead of themselves, post-prison life becomes …show more content…

Once incarcerated, the everyday lifestyle of a human being is taken away and adapted by a new life separate and restricted from reality. All while adapting to prison life; disrupting human behavior is deemed and prisoners are disciplined, including a prison transfer, solitary confinement, or confiscation of visiting hours and personal items. Solitary confinement, also known as one of the cruelest punishments a prisoner can receive, is relocating the inmate into an isolated cell for up to 22 or more hours a day restricting them from human interaction. Solitary confinement allows inmates to be left for days, weeks, or years abandoned alone in a cell. To already be restricted from the outside world, and then to become isolated alone in a cell has drawn attention to prison policies in efforts to eliminate the overuse and potential of mental health issues among the …show more content…

In June of 2015, President Obama called for a ban on solitary confinement for juveniles, but also for prisoners who committed nonviolent offenses in the federal prison system. Furthermore, such policies in the criminal justice system come after the reform, including the amount of time a prisoner can spend in solitary confinement, improved treatment for the mentally ill, increased time spent outside of their cells. The announcement of the reform from President Obama is aimed towards correcting practices of the past to ensure the care of the prisoners and their rights as an

Show More
Related

  • The Pros And Cons Of Solitary Confinement In Prisons

    1530 Words  | 4 Pages

    Solitary Confinement is a type of isolation in prison which a prisoner is segregated from the general population of the prison and any human contact besides the prison employees. These prisons are separated from the general population to protect others and themselves from hurting anyone in the prison. These prisoners are deprived of social interaction, treatments, psychologist, family visits, education, job training, work, religious programming and many other services prisoners might need during the sentence of their imprisonment. There are roughly 80,000 prisoners in solitary confinement but 25,000 are in long term and supermax prisons. According to the Constitution, “The Eighth Amendment [...] prohibits the federal government from imposing excessive bail, excessive fines, or cruel and unusual punishment”(US Const. amend. VIII). Solitary confinement is suppose to be the last straw for inmates to be in. If they don 't follow it, they can be on death row. Taxpayers pay roughly $75,000 to $85,000 to keep prisoners in solitary confinement. That is 3 times higher than the normal prisons that taxpayers pay for them to be in prison. Solitary confinement was established in 1829 in Philadelphia for experimentation because officials believed it was a way for

    Read More

  • Research Paper On Solitary Confinement

    1033 Words  | 3 Pages

    Solitary confinement has the ability to shatter even the healthiest mind when subjected to indefinite lockdown, yet the mentally ill, who are disproportionately represented in the overall prison population, make up the majority of inmates who are held in that indefinite lockdown. Within your average supermax prison in which all inmates are subjected to an elevated form of solitary confinement, inmates face a 23-hour lockdown, little to no form of mental or physical stimulation that is topped off with no human interaction beyond the occasional guard to inmate contact. It is no wonder ‘torture’ is often used synonymously to describe solitary confinement. For years, cases arguing against solitary confinement have contested against its inhumane

    Read More

  • Is Parole Ineffective of Effective in Curbing Recidivism?

    2253 Words  | 5 Pages

    Losing Generations: Adolescents in High-Risk Settings. Washington, D.C.: National Academy of Sciences. Petersilia, Joan. 1999. Parole and Prisoner Reentry in the United States. In Prisons, edited by M. Tonry and J. Petersilia. Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press.

    Read More

  • The Pros And Cons Of Mass Incarceration

    958 Words  | 2 Pages

    Mandatory minimums for controlled substances were first implemented in the 1980s as a countermeasure for the hysteria that surrounded drugs in the era (“A Brief History,” 2014). The common belief was that stiff penalties discouraged people from using drugs and enhanced public safety (“A Brief History,” 2014). That theory, however, was proven false and rather than less illegal drug activity, there are simply more people incarcerated. Studies show that over half of federal prisoners currently incarcerated are there on drug charges, a 116 percent percentage rise since 1970 (Miles, 2014). Mass incarceration is an ever growing issue in the United States and is the result of policies that support the large scale use of imprisonment on

    Read More

  • Beyond Bars

    2133 Words  | 5 Pages

    The book titled Beyond Bars: Rejoining Society After Prison offers invaluable lessons of how both men and women may successfully depart prison and return to society. The book was written by Jeffrey Ross and Stephen Richards, both of whom are college professors and criminal justice experts. The population of prisons across the United States has increased dramatically in recent decades despite overall crime rates decreasing during the same time period. Approximately seven million American people are in some form of correctional custody. Between the years1980 and 2000, America’s prison population increased by 500 percent. During the same time period, the number of prisons grew by 300 percent (Ross and Richards, xii). Close to 50 percent of people admitted to confinement have previously served time, exemplifying that the criminal justice system “recycles” inmates through the system again and again (Ross and Richards, xi). Unfortunately, many convicts simply do not remember how to or are ill-equipped to return to society once their sentence ends. Ross and Richards, through their valuable lessons within their book, seek to lessen the problems that ex-prisoners may face when released from prison.

    Read More

  • The Prison System: Solitary Confinement

    1476 Words  | 3 Pages

    Since the early 1800s, the United States has relied on a method of punishment barely known to any other country, solitary confinement (Cole). Despite this method once being thought of as the breakthrough in the prison system, history has proved differently. Solitary confinement was once used in a short period of time to fix a prisoners behavior, but is now used as a long term method that shows to prove absolutely nothing. Spending 22-24 hours a day in a small room containing practically nothing has proved to fix nothing in a person except further insanity. One cannot rid himself of insanity in a room that causes them to go insane. Solitary confinement is a flawed and unnecessary method of punishment that should be prohibited in the prison system.

    Read More

  • Why Confinement Is Solitary Confinement

    707 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) has deemed solitary confinement as an unconstitutional form of punishment. It expresses that solitary confinement should be classified as torture because it inflicts potential physical and mental damage on inmates. Being confined to a cell for over 22 hours a day with absolutely no human contact is an inhumane practice and cannot be beneficial enough to overcome the consequences that an inmate must face upon release. Solitary confinement clearly violates the Eighth Amendment, which prohibits “cruel and unusual punishment.” Solitary confinement is the epitome of torture. Inmates often recall not being able to distinguish the time they spend in confinement; hours feel like days, and days feel like months. Certain prisons use solitary confinement differently than others. The Pelican Bay Security Housing Unit (SHU) is known as the “most restrictive prison in California.” It is one of the harshest “super-maximum” prisons in the country, meaning that inmates may be subjected to solitary confinement for a set amount of time or an indefinite duration. This is known as the ‘supe...

    Read More

  • Diversion Programs Vs Incarceration Essay

    1047 Words  | 3 Pages

    In recent years, there has been controversy over mass incarceration rates within the United States. In the past, the imprisonment of criminals was seen as the most efficient way to protect citizens. However, as time has gone on, crime rates have continued to increase exponentially. Because of this, many people have begun to propose alternatives that will effectively prevent criminals from merely repeating their illegal actions. Some contend that diversion programs, such as rehabilitation treatment for drug offenders, is a more practical solution than placing mentally unstable individuals into prison. By helping unsteady criminals regain their health, society would see an exceptional reduction in the amount of crimes committed. Although some

    Read More

  • The Harmful Effects Of Long Harm Segregation In Prisons

    1018 Words  | 3 Pages

    If a person convicted of a crime shows no signs of being mentally ill when entering a prison which enforces the long-term use solitary confinement, by the time they completed their sentence and are released, their mental health will have been severely compromised. Studies have shown that the long-term use of segregation in prisons can cause a wide variety of phycological effects such as anxiety, psychosis, depression, perceptual distortions, and paranoia, often leading to a desire to self-harm or in more severe cases suicide. Not only is it wrong to hold a criminal in solitary confinement for any longer then fifteen days, it is unconstitutional. Although many believe the use of solitary

    Read More

  • Solitary Confinement and the Effects on Inmates

    2039 Words  | 5 Pages

    Metzner, J. L., & Fellner, J. (2010). Solitary Confinement and Mental Illness in U.S. Prisons: A Challenge for Medical Ethics. The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, 38(1), 104-108.

    Read More

  • Essay On Administrative Segregation

    1149 Words  | 3 Pages

    Many have been imprisoned, then subject to the horrors of torture known as solitary confinement or administrative segregation (AS) in the Canadian prison system. No matter the crime, it is a harsh punishment to inflict on any human being. The practice typically involves confining a prisoner to a single cell 23 hours daily with no meaningful human contact. Administrative segregation can last for months to years at a time. It is non-rehabilitative as it has negative effects on human beings causing symptoms of depression and self-harm, cognitive disturbances, and psychosis. Additionally, inmates in AS are more likely than the general population to commit suicide. Punishment through administrative segregation is paradoxical to the Canadian prison

    Read More

  • The Dehumanizing Effects of Solitary Confinement

    1115 Words  | 3 Pages

    Solitary confinement ranks as one of the most controversial forms of governmental punishment. The controversy regards the constitutionality, or in other terms the humaneness of prolonged isolation. The justice system regards prisoners who are assigned solitary confinement as potentially too dangerous to be permitted any form of interaction with other inmates or prison guards. Solitary confinement is the isolation of a prisoner in a small, artificially lit cell that is generally about eight by four feet in dimension. This containment lasts for approximately 23 hours a day, and when permitted to exit the cell for an hour, the prisoner still receives no amount of significant social interaction and is simply allowed to pace in a longer isolated

    Read More

  • The Negative Effects Of Solitary Prisonation In Prisons

    1427 Words  | 3 Pages

    Thousands of people statewide are in prisons, all for different reasons. However, the amount of mental illness within prisons seems to go unaddressed and ignored throughout the country. This is a serious problem, and the therapy/rehabilitation that prison systems have do not always help those who are mentally ill. Prison involvement itself can contribute to increased suicide (Hills, Holly). One ‘therapy’ that has increased throughout the years has been the use of solitary confinement, which has many negative effects on the inmates.

    Read More

  • Pros And Cons Of Alternatives To Prison

    731 Words  | 2 Pages

    Not everyone loves the ideas of alternatives to prison because alternatives to prison seem to work only when there is a limited number of cases that adhere to the sentence, However, when places like California is spending more money on their prison systems than on actual education, alternatives to prison seem to be the best choice (David, 2006).

    Read More

  • Pros And Cons Of Reform Vs. Punishment

    1601 Words  | 4 Pages

    Many people idealized the relevancy of living in a civilized world, where those who break the law are reprimanded in a less traditional sense of punishment in today’s standard. Instead of just doing hard time, programs and services could and should be provided to reform and rehabilitate prisoner. Despite standard beliefs, many individuals in prison are not harden criminals and violent offenders, many of these people suffer mental illness and substance abuse Hoke

    Read More

More about The Pros And Cons Of Prison Life

Open Document