Proponents of the supermax systems argue that these new state of the art prisons help control the violence among prisoners by isolating the most violent inmates. By isolating the violent inmates, the rates of staff assaults and inmate on inmate assaults are lower. “Prison officials…
Although criminals should pay the consequence for their behavior, it should not mean that they should live in overcrowded prisons. An example of an overcrowded prison is shown in Angola, where the max occupancy was for 800 prisoners, yet they had 1,750 prisoners (Stern, 2006). When this happens, the lack of resources, space, and training from needed officers increases. Therefore, conditions become hazardous and prisoners and officers are at higher risk for diseases such as HIV and Tuberculosis (Stern, 2006). Although society feels safe with criminals locked up, they have to realize that a main purpose for prisons is to help reduce crime by showing prisoners that breaking the law will cause them the loss of freedom. Ultimately, leading those criminals who are able to get out, to come out with a sense of a change behavior. However, the system that puts these women, men, and young people in overcrowded prisons are not even worried about the criminal. Instead, they keep increasing the definition of “crime”, which increase the number of criminals in an ineffective prison…
First, we have the safety concern that critics bring up when the topic of private prisons is mentioned. Secondly, we have the dependency issue they bring up when talking about data relating to the industry’s growth in the last decade. Finally, we have the issue of keeping inmates locked up in order for the private prisons to make more money. Since private prisons are in the business of making money, they are always tempted to cut corners to turn a greater profit each quarter. They do this by hiring people who are not properly trained when compared to a staff member who is employed by a publicly prison ran by the state. In fact “private prison employees receive 58 hours less training than their publicly employed counterparts” (Mason). A nationwide study found that “assaults on guards by inmates were 49 percent more frequent in private prisons” (Smith). The study also saw that inmate-on-inmate assaults were “65 percent more frequent in private prison” (Smith). Given these statistics, those who are critics of private prisons have a valid reason for concern. These statistics allow for critics to show that there is a strong possibility that the lack of training given by private prisons. Leads to a higher risk of violence within the prison walls. Since their staff members are not adequately trained to handle the duties they are required to perform on a day to day basis. Furthermore, dependency is an issue…
Would you believe me if I told you that prisons were originally built to reform prisoners? With they way the criminal justice system works and how high the rates of mass incarceration are, in today's day and age, I, myself, would not believe that prisons were built with a positive outcome in mind. If someone would have told me that in the eighteen hundreds prison were used as a place to reform individuals, I would have given them a nasty looking face full of disbelief. But now that I have this information, the question is, what changed? Why is this method still not being practiced in today’s society? However, while asking these question, I realize that it is absolutely amazing the way things change and how easily things are tainted.…
I know one fellow who was arrested for participating in a Quaker peace vigil and was jailed in lieu of paying a ten-dollar fine. In a forty-eight- hour period, he was savagely raped and traded back and forth among more than fifty violent prisoners. That was twenty years ago, and since then he has had years of therapy, and yet he has never recovered emotionally. His entire life still centers around the decision of one prison superintendent to place him in a violent cellblock in order to "teach him a lesson." Most nonviolent offenders do in fact learn a lesson: how to be violent. Ironically; we spend an average of $20,000 per year, per inmate, teaching them this. For less than that we could be sending every nonviolent offender to college. None of us, including prison staff, should accept violence as a fact of prison life, and it would be easy not to. We could designate certain facilities as zero-violence areas and allow inmates to live there as long as they don't commit-or even threaten to commit-a single violent act. The great majority of prisoners would sign up for such a place, I…
Due to increasing crime rates and the extensive belief that rehabilitative programs for inmates do not work, a new and harsher method for prisons is being utilized. Instead of scattering the worst criminals, they are being consolidated into Supermax prisons. Supermax prisons are state of the art penitentiaries meant to hold only the worst of the worst criminals and inmates that cannot be trusted in regular prisons. There are strict regulations and policies to control inmates’ time for communication, recreation, visiting, religious practices, and education even more than regular prisons. More often than not, “inmates in supermax prisons spend 23 hours of every day locked in a small cell” (Hickey pg. 160). Supermax prisons work upon the premise that the most violent and disorderly inmates can be better controlled “by separation, restricted movement, and limited access to staff and other inmates” (Hickey pg. 167). While supermax prisons are believed to reduce crime and increase safety, there are questions of whether or not this is actually the case.…
Generally, most people that are coming out of prison are going to face all kinds of issues, first and foremost, because they are a convict. They will have issues getting a place to live, possibly government assistance and employment. Most prisons do provide inmates with programs to assist them with integration back to society. Most inmates in prison, based on their race or ethnicity, tend to stay with their racial group, but these reintegration programs should be race-neutral. When the convicts are released back to society, more than likely they will go back to their communities where they are all the same race/ethnicity, however, some of them will try to get employment elsewhere or even try to live somewhere other than were they came from.…
within the court of public opinion, other measures will most certainly be hindered if not…
It just doesn’t work! It is almost impossible yet still happens inside our prison’s. Prison officials make confused, angry, and psychotic individuals stay into a six-by-ten cell. (Pettiinico, George. 31) People who commit crimes are the product of society. They are a tell-tale sign that prison’s demand reform.…
Prison cells are far beyond just grimey, but often completely unsanitary: covered in urine, feces, and even vomit. Prison food often leads to nutrient deficiencies and is often described as utterly foul. Inmates on bad behavior are put on nutraloaf, a cruelly disgusting food used as punishment for days or months at a time. Prison life is also difficult because the guards are very rarely rebuked for being hostile to the inmates and incomprehensive to their needs or complaints. This negligence is made even more dangerous because of the threat of some potentially dangerous inmates. Prisons and jails, inevitably is a place where people have violent backgrounds and tendencies. In jail there are a spectrum of people there, from people who have done unforgivable actions to those who may have committed crimes out of necessity, to those who may have been incorrectly convicted. The negligence of guards coupled with this spectrum of people, in such unpleasant living conditions create a powerfully terrible and dangerous situation to be in. People have been stabbed, beaten, raped, and even learn how to become better crime, in a facility with the purpose of preventing people from evil actions. The United States has a recidivism rate of nearly 77%. The current dangerous and unwelcoming state of United States prisons have very evidently failed as correctional…
First of all, by reducing overcrowding in prison it will help reduce crime and murder within the prison facilities. Prisons right now have caused more aggressive, antisocial behavior that is causing a lot of violence (“Effects of Prison Overcrowding”, 2012). Because there are more prisoners than staff on the premises, there is also a rise in drug trafficking, abuse, terrible living conditions, and new gangs being started. The prisoners that do have violent histories are taking their frustrations and anger out on other inmates as well as prison officials (“Effects of Prison Overcrowding”, 2012). However, if we are able to take those inmates that are in the prison for lesser charges and put them on house arrest or in a rehabilitation program, this will give the inmates with bigger sentences to have the space…
Private prisons are made to save money, Therefore many unconstitutional acts take place to reduce costs within the facility. As Joe Davidson stated, “Like any business, private prison companies are in business to make money. That can lead to cost-cutting and understaffing that promotes dangerous and unhealthy conditions” (2016). It is extremely hard to establish a safe environment for inmates without cutting costs. Although, private prisons such as Walnut Grove made operating companies 100 million dollars in revenue (Booth Gunter,2012) it does not mean that the conditions of the prison are up to par. Additionally, it is time for individuals in today’s society to stop focusing on the money, half of individuals would not want their loved ones to live in some of the hazardous conditions that many of these inmates are forced to live in today. Even Though offenders are serving time for disobeying the law, they still deserve to have basic human rights. It is unfair to treat those individuals like they are less than human. Furthermore, Prisons are suppose to rehabilitate the offender and help them stay on the right path when the focus prisons change they began to be less effective than before. After doing research on the effectiveness and safety conditions of Lake City Correctional facility, Idaho Correctional center, Cheyenne Transitional center, Walnut Grove correctional facility to the effectiveness of Federal…
“The first five Criminal Justice Acts of the century were spaced out over nearly 50 years, from 1925 to 1972, whereas the last five have come in less than 20 years since 1972 and the current Act is the third in only five years” (Davies, et al., 2010:29). There have been many important legislative changes affecting the criminal justice system since the 1990s. Many of these provided numerous reforms to sentencing, creating a systematic process. There are three legislative changes that could be considered the most significant to the criminal justice system today: the Criminal Justice Act 1991, the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, and the Criminal Justice Act 2003.…
The United States of America has more than 2 million people in prison or jail, making it the country with the most inmates. There are almost as many prisoners in the U.S as there is inhabitants in a small or medium sized country. The high number of prisoners is due to regulations brought to the United States that stated that in order to keep the citizens safe, the government had to be “tough on crime.” Whether that meant keeping people in prison for a long period of time or incarcerating more citizens, some points were clear; it was meant to promote punishment and to install fear. Being “tough on crime” and trying to eliminate it could have meant trying different methods that would prevent prisoners from reoffending. Instead, higher authorities…
I don’t think one system is better than the other system both may have a positive effect on criminals. It just depends on what the crime is if is a less severe crime than prisoners should be put in the South Dakota system. Where they help prisoners find a good outcome out of the situation and lets them see that there’s so much more than going to jail. For criminals that have a severe crime than they should be put in the tent city system because they have to learn their punishment. Many of the people that are in jail for rape or killing I feel like there not to be trusted many of this people still do the same crime when they get of jail.…