Design Of Jails Essay

Section 1 The purpose of jails is to deter, punish, and reform inmates. Jails help in deterring those who are apt to commit more crimes than they have already committed. Those found guilty are housed in jails to serve a punishment sentence and hopefully they are acceptable to being reformed by programs and self-help groups. There are several designs of jails including the linear design which the guards can observe inmates through bars by walking up and down the corridor. This design consists of multi-man cells. The Indirect supervision design is the breakdown of cells into pods. A common floor space is shared. Instead of inmates being locked in their cells, they share the common area. The direct supervision design has correctional officer’s which are positioned in each pod in which there is no separation between the officer’s and the inmates. Section 2
Five
Functions of jails:
1. To hold accused offenders
2. To hold individuals waiting trial, arraignment, sentencing, or conviction.
3. To house inmates when prisons are overcrowded.
4. Punishment; serving a sentence
5. To hold those convicted of misdemeanors who are sentenced to less than two years. Section 3
Five present and future problems with jails:
1. Overcrowding
2.
Funding
3. Personnel
4. Modernization
5. Recreation
Section 4
Identify five solutions you feel can resolve these problems:
1. Those inmates who are eligible and who have earned the right to be on work release such programs could be released with mandatory check-ins or placed on home monitoring devices would help minimize the overcrowding of jails.
2. More use of the privately owned prisons could help with the funding of jails.
3. Hiring of more trained personnel would change the fact of understaffed jails.
4. I would not try to improve in modernizing; I believe that they are up to date.
5. Recreation could be improved by permitting approved inmates the opportunity to play sports. Sports teams created by jails, inmates could verse other jails.
Section 5
Do you feel that jails are effective? I do feel that jails are effective in most instances. There will always be those individuals who will never change their way of acting or thinking. Jails and prisons today offer education, rehabilitation, self-help programs, Bible study, as well as rehabilitation, and live
improvement. The purpose of jails and prisons is primarily for the punishment of wrong doers but while housing the inmate’s rehabilitation and programs are essential to maintaining health. Programs and rehabilitation also keeps the inmates from having idle time which results in there being less time for confusion and problems. Jails also help in protecting society from being victimized.