Essay On Criminal Incarceration

For the last few decades the criminal incarceration rate has risen as well as the prison inmate population. Many prisoners have very few privileges in these prisons and have very awful experiences during their incarcerations. Unfortunately, many prisoners in the United States are receiving excessive prison sentences for nonviolent crimes due to our current justice system. Laws are indeed laws and should never be broken by any individual. However the primary goal of our criminal justice system should not be to punish but to rehabilitate the individual. Rehabilitation is the act of restoring something to its original state and in this case we want criminals to become better people. The creation of rehabilitation programs for criminals should
Criminals can be incarcerated for all types of felonies from drug offense to homicide. The difference between these two crimes is that drug offenders are usually nonviolent criminals and murders are obviously very violent criminals. Non-violent crimes are crimes that do not involve the use of any force or injury to another person. The seriousness of a non-violent crime is usually measured in terms of economic damage or loss to the victim. Even though the severity of the crime committed should fit the criminals sentences, no non violent criminal should receive a sentence of over 15 years. The way I see it, violent criminals are the ones committing crimes worthy of punishment of over and beyond 15 years depending on the seriousness of the crime. Although the nature of a crime should receive different sentences, all criminals should be required to attend a rehabilitation program that suits their crimes. A drug offender should go to a drug addiction rehabilitation program. A killer should go to a psychological rehabilitation program. All criminals must receive some sort of education to make them better people and to prevent those people from
Punishment is the inflection of a penalty as retribution for an offense and crime often demands just punishments. Many view punishment of the criminal as a necessary means to serve justice and to avenge those harmed by the perpetrator. This ideal of punishment against the punished often does not resolve anything and in the case of prisoners, it only makes them more rotten and violent individuals due to their resentment to the criminal justice system. The problem with prisons today is we have an excessive prison population that is costing more and more money. If we keep the ideal of punishment in the justice system rather than institute rehabilitation programs then we will never get the prisoners out of the system and the prisons will virtually be recycling those prisoners. For example, In Germany the prisoners are given many privileges and their prison is basically a required rehabilitation program away from the public. These prisoners don't leave prison resenting the justice system, they leave refreshed to start a new beginning. The reincarceration rate in Germany is much lower than here in America. The concept of rehabilitation programs for prisoners is a much more beneficial for the prisoners and for the taxpaying citizens. Rehabilitation will have start up costs that must be compensated with our taxes however, if these programs are successful there would be less future prisoners,