Jail And Prison: The Middlesex House Of Corrections

Jail and Prison Paper
Kerri-Ann Pimentel
CJA/204
September 29, 2014
Erica Veljic

Jail and Prison Paper The United States has approximately four types of penitentiaries. These correctional facilities are: Juvenile, federal prison, county jail and state prison. Generally, county jails are regarded as a facility that remands convicts for a moment before they are transferred to a penitentiary. In addition, county jails are used to detain convicts who have been imprisoned and have a prison term of less than two and a half years. This paper looks at the comparison between Middlesex House of Correction jail and a maximum security prison called Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center. The Middlesex House of Corrections was constructed
more than eight decades ago in the town of Billerica. It only had 300 inmates but now it can hold up to 1000 convicts. Middlesex House of Correction is a county jail. Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center (SBCC) was constructed on 19th of November, 1996 and is located in a Shirley Correctional Complex in Shirley, Massachusetts. Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center is a maximum security prison. Major differences between the Middlesex House of Corrections and the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center The two correctional facilities that I have chosen (Middlesex House of Correction and SBCC) have a number of differences. While Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center (SBCC) is a maximum security prison, Middlesex House of Correction is a county jail. Middlesex House of Correction incarcerates prisoners who are serving a sentence of less than two and a half years. Its main goal is effective rehabilitation which helps the inmates become more fruitful people when they are freed. Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center (SBCC) offers its inmates a full range of scholastic, occupational as well as substance abuse programming. Jail and Prison culture and subculture Jail and prison culture and subculture are contemporaneous. Prisons and jails are always congested. This leads to poor prisoner to prisoner relations and in turn promotes institutional practices that generate a demeaning environment (Haney, 2009). There is a lot of violence in the two facilities due to understaffing, which creates poor morale and increased turnover (Taylor, 2008). Both jails and prisons are meant to impact good morals to the convicts and make them more productive citizens upon their release. Jails and their role in the Criminal Justice system Jails perform a significant role in the criminal justice system because they isolate convicts from the rest of the public so as to enhance the safety of both the convicts and the public (Haney, 2009). The criminal justice system has an opportunity and time of figuring out who should be moved to a prison when inmates are in jails. They also play an important role in shaping the character and behavior of the inmates. An inmate in a jail can undergo some trainings and behavioral change while in there. The criminal justice system needs jails so as to avoid overcrowding the main prisons. This helps the system to keep pace with the arriving criminal populaces. Community-based corrections programs Community based correction programs play a vital role.
These are programs that are overseen to deal with persons who have been sentenced either in jail or prisons, or are facing sentence. Parole and probation are commonly the way of community correction programs. Others include home confinement, community service, day fine programs among others. Jail and prison have an effect on an individual’s psychology and can cause negative toll on the inmate’s self-esteem which ultimately leads to insouciance in a normal life. These programs help in solving the problem of congestion in jails and prisons (Ezine, 2006). They as well yield positive results in terms of the offender eventually realizes his or her mistake and accepts it thus helping other offenders as well as themselves to learn from their
mistakes. Violent behavior that occurs in jails and prisons There are a number of violent behaviors that occur in jails and prisons. One potential violent behavior is confrontation between convicts and staff. This is so due to lack of proper qualifications in staff members. Most inmates undermine the staff thus leading to violence. Understaffing is another factor that leads to violence in jails and prisons. Jails and prisons are so overcrowded. This creates poor sanitation, lack of safety and poor food service. All these factors aggregate to violence in correctional facilities (Camp, 2002). Role of probation parole and probation Parole and probation have always been a way of community correction thus making it have a significant role both to the community, offenders as well criminal justice systems.
What is the difference between these two terms? Probation is a situation where the court places offenders under observation in the community. Parole refers to convictional offenders who are released from a penitentiary on conditions to complete the remaining part of their prison term in the community. The role of probation and parole is to involve other stakeholders such as families, employers as well program service providers in helping to offenders to avoid the offences they had committed earlier. Parole and probation help officers to manage caseloads of adults as well as juvenile convicts. These officers are in charge of assessing every criminal’s dangers as well as essentials in order to cultivate personal plans aimed to deal with their criminal conduct. The role of probation is not only to the offenders but also officers as
well.

References
Ezine. (2006). Community Based Corrections. Ezine Articles, 267-270.
Haney. (2009). Evolving Function: Early use of Imprisonment as punishment. The Prison Journal, 101-123.
Taylor. (2008). Soft Budget Constraints and the Property Rights . Economics Letter, Vol. 100, No, 3, 425-427.