For the past forty years, two-thirds of released convicts are rearrested for a serious crime they have not committed before and more than half of released prisoners are re-incarcerated over a three year period which has led to former convicts making up 20% of all adult arrests (Petersilia). The high incarceration rate ruins American…
In the book, A place to Stand, by Jimmy Santiago Baca, Baca writes about prison and how being incarcerated can have impact on a person and their family. With the most beautiful, strong and poetic language, Baca tells us the story of all the people who faces difficult times in order to find their place in the world. Baca always felt like he had no place to stand in society because, all of his life he was put down by his family and friends. From the age of five Baca experienced his dad and uncles going in and out of jail from being addicted to alcohol. Baca knew he would eventually end up in jail sooner or later because that’s what he had experienced all of his life. Baca writes, “Whether I was approaching it or seeking escape from it, jail always defined in some way the measure of my life” (3). Baca felt that his life would always head in the wrong direction because of his family issues. Baca shows being in prison can cause a lot of emotional impact on a person’s life, as well as affect the community.…
The Prison Service encompasses three central aims; holding prisoners securely, decrease risk of offending and lastly offer safe, well-ordered institutions in which prisoners are treated humanely, decently and lawfully (Cavadino and Dignan, 2007, p.193). When the state incarcerates, it must accept accountability for the basic care of those it detains. Although prisoners should not expect luxuries during their time of incarceration, they should not be deprived of the basic goods and comforts of life. Certification of access to enough goods should be available to help them develop as the citizens expected to be. Lord Justice Woolf (1991) claimed three necessities for the prison system to maintain steadiness: security, control and justice. In terms…
“Since the 1970s the rate of incarceration in the United States has quadrupled, after having been relatively flat over the prior half-century.”-Anthony Zurcher. The rate of prison incarcerations has increased so much over the years; the government can’t afford to incarcerate that many people. Karen Thomas’s article “Time to Invest in Schools, Note Prisons” shows that United States incarcerates too many criminals violent and non-violent. Joan Petersilia said in her article “Beyond the Prison Bubble” that, the United States has the highest incarceration rate of any free nation. This also supports the idea that The United States incarcerates too many people.…
This memorandum serves as a proposal and examination about a significant issue; that has influenced the United States prison system. Because criminal activities are at an incomparable high, an expansion inside the prison population has incurred, resulting in a financial burden within the system. According to a review directed by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), they anticipated by 2018, overcrowding would move to over 45% over the BOP's maximum capacity. In addition, the prison cannot keep up such influx making a consequential problem for prison guards and inmates. As communicated by James, the quantity of the detainees housed in state and government correctional facilities climbed faster than facility capacity expanded. The…
In society today, it is commonly known that crime rate has increased dramatically by the years. This is where many of us look for ways to solve such issue. It is the last place anybody would want to be in. but unfortunately we have hundreds of thousands of them, if not millions around the world. Thousands in just the United States, Those are prisons. Just hearing that word makes us think bad things right away. Murder, theft, violence, and everything bad that happens in this world. We live in a world where prisons and jail are very important and almost every country, state, county, or city must have at least one. Prisons now are much more crowded than they were 20 years ago. The number of inmates in just the United States has doubled between the years of 1992 and 2011. The question many of us should ask ourselves is why do we need prisons? Are prisons effective in any way? Are prisons causing economic issues? Are prisoners getting proper treatment while incarcerated?…
The United States has the largest prison population of any western developed country. The United States has almost 700 people per 100,000 in prison. As a result of this large prison population 600,000 people are released from prison every year. Currently more than fifty percent of parolee’s become incarcerated again. As a nation we must provide the services to help them return to society in a successful way (White House Fact Sheet). Services need to be offered while in prison and after their release from prison. Offering counseling and rehabilitation while in prison and continuing to assist them once they are no longer incarcerated. If these services were well funded and given to all prisoners the nation would see an immediate decrease…
The United States prison system is not a suitable place for nonviolent drug offenders. The high rate of recidivism is caused by one thing and one thing only, prison sentences. Nonviolent drug offenders will have no choice other than to socialize with other inmates, some who have committed irreprehensible crimes, thereby greatly increasing their chance of becoming violent. The population of prisons in the United States is on a steady rise. One way to stop this is by reevaluating the three strikes law, because the proof that this law discourages repeat offenders is simply not there.…
America’s prisons have a major importance in modern society. They are a huge contributing factor to the safety of our country and allow for proper and humane punishment for those who commit crimes. While America’s streets continue to be plagued by crime and dangerous people, prisons help significantly in decreasing the crime rate and removing those people from society in order to create a safer place for people to live. Although there are many pros that come with prisons, a handful of cons come with them as well, which allow for arguments to rise about whether prisons should be allowed in America or not. Prisons are a necessity in modern society that punishes and rehabilitates those who commit crimes with the purpose of protecting…
Not only has mass incarceration contributed to the depletion of economic resources, but it has also not been proven as an effective means of lowering crime rates. Our current prison system is designed to spend massive amounts of money on warehousing and punishing criminal to then just place them back into society without any of the tools needed to become a constructive member of society, thus resulting in criminal behavior to reoccur. Multiple studies conducted have manifested that “rehabilitation programs, education, therapy, and vocational training have a profound effect on not only bettering the inmate as an overall individual, but on society as well” (….) because these offenders can now become productive citizens that can add to the community.…
In, “Beyond the Prison Bubble,” published in the Wilson Quarterly in the winter 2011, Joan Petersilia shows different choices about the imprisonment systems. The United States has the highest incarceration rate of any free nation (para.1). The crime rate over a thirty year span had grown by five times since 1960 to 1990. There are more people of color or Hispanics in federal and state institutions then there are of any other nationality. The prison system is growing more than ever; the growth in twenty years has been about 21 new prisons. Mass imprisonment has reduced crime but, has not helped the inmate to gradually return back to society with skills or education. But the offenders leaving prison now are more likely to have fairly long criminal records, lengthy histories of alcohol and drug abuse, significant periods of unemployment and homelessness, and physical or mental disability (par.12).…
America’s prison system is broken. The purpose of prison is to teach a lesson of wrongdoing. Taking away the freedoms of an individual is designed to change the behavior or at least that is the intention. However, America makes up 5% of the world population but 25% of the world’s prison population. The recidivism rate for federal prisons according to the United States Sentencing Commission is nearly half at 49.3% within 8 years of release (www.ussc.gov). That rate for state prisons is even higher 76.6% within 5 years of release according to National Institute of Justice (www.nij.gov). Tragically, the only lesson our current prison system is teaching offenders is how to become repeat offenders.…
When thinking of how America is leading the world the number of incarcerated citizens per capita does not come to mind. America is considered to be the greatest country in the world. It is known for its fight for freedom and its triumph in maintaining it. Because of this many Americans take pride in the country they have been apart of shaping just as they should. However, in recent years problems have arisen that have taken some of its beauty away. One of those is the shocking amount of people who are imprisoned. There are several causes for the sudden overpopulation in Americas jails but a problem like this is not only one that is embarrassing to our country but is also one that could possibly be eased with a few minor changes to the United States jail system. In order for there to be a positive change incarceration must be brought to light as an issue instead of being ignored and neglected as it has been in the past.…
The U.S. prison system was designed for a couple of reasons. First to keep cruel people off the streets and to punish people who have committed a crime. Next is Justice for the victims that have been violated, also revenge. Finally is to detest other crimes by setting sentence minimums and to rehabilitate people so they will come out a better person. It has changed a lot in the past 30 years due to the drug epidemic. 60% of people incarcerated are there for non-violent crimes. America is actually safer now then it was 30 years ago. For the first time more than one in 100 American adults are locked up. One in 36 Hispanic men are incarcerated along with one in 15 blacks. One in 355 white women along with one in 100 black women.…
The freedom can be anywhere you want outside prison or inside. Also freedom is not limited in places, the freedom sometime be in the mind by literacy. So Malcom was feel freedom while he incarcerated because he spent his time to rehabilitate himself in literacy. He want to be freedom in his thinking by learn reading and…