In addition to the negative purpose of a retributive punishment system, the current prison conditions help explain why this model is severely damaging to convicts. The United States prison condition is plagued with brutal violence, increased rate of sexual abuse, mistreatment of convicts, and overcrowding of prisons at an alarming rate. This coincides with the retributive-model, considering this dogma fails to view these criminal offenders as socially ill individuals and leading to extensive imprisonment periods. In 2005, a research was conducted about the current prison condition in the U.S. Results showed that “the population of convicts has risen by nearly 4x in the last 20 years, accumulating close to 2 million convicts” (Jeffrey Smith,
In the article "A Jail Sentence Ends. But the Stigma Doesn't." , James Forman argues that in the US there is not enough forgiveness to those who have been incarcerated. Forman brings the debate on the life of an inmate who is released and then trying to get back into the sway of life.
From healthcare to personal safety, inmates are suffering illnesses, abuse, excessive sentences, and maltreatment at an astronomical rate. There has been a vast debate on the issue. There are many arguments for lesser prison sentences and better prison conditions. Mass Incarceration on Trial, A Remarkable Court Decision and the Future of Prisons in America, written by Jonathan Simon, illustrates how our nation has become far removed from treating prisoners as human beings who deserving dignity and our nation has failed to properly address this grossly flawed prison system; particularly California. We as a society know very little about mass incarceration and the atrocities that happen behind the concrete walls of the numerous prisons in
My findings focused on the points that mass incarceration substantially affects families and jobs, which then become factors in the issue of recidivism. Moreover, these problems especially target minorities at high rates. To strengthen these points, I could have done more interviews, especially with past convicts or convicts who have returned to jail in order to get more first-hand experiences. As well as interviews with different ages of children exposed to incarceration to see if or how the effects differed. In the future, I hope to expand on the other ways incarceration affects lives, such as through health, especially mental health, or college opportunities.
Mass incarceration is somewhat overlooked by those on the outside and those who are on the inside are considered forgotten about and viewed as less than. But the reality is, these high rates of imprisonment effect many areas of the community. Not to mention the social costs linked to the communities from which these immense population of felons come from. Pattillo, Weiman, & Western, 2006 analyzes how this disregarded population can sometimes increase criminal statistics after the prisoners return into the same community they left – which is another point rarely ever talked about. Other than the invisible consequences that mass incarceration provides, there are even more myriad studies offered surrounding this topic, identified in The Prison
The literature answers the issues of incarceration rates increasing by giving us the product such as legislative decisions that were the primary reason that led to the increase of charging and imprisoning more offenders as well as increasing sentences, limiting prison release, and expanding the prison capacity. Higher incarceration rates were not the sole reason for the increase in crime. Prisons were continuing to be built even though crime had been declining. Later resulting in the sharpest decrease in crime in American history. Essentially every states incarceration rate was increased by 150 percent from 1970 to 2000, and the median state increasewas 390 percent, which was taken from the Bureau of Justice Statistics in 2012.
The United States has the highest rate of incarceration in the world (Walmsley, 2013). One of the greatest known factors that indicate the potential for an individual to be incarcerated is a previous incarceration. Rates of recidivism are as high as 78% can occur within five years of release from prison (Jonson, 2010). Many programs have been reported such as drug courts, electronic monitoring and treatment programs to lower recidivism rates; however many do not include statistics over a two-year period (Jonson, 2010). As costs of incarceration inhibit another public spending, focusing on reducing recidivism would lessen the burden to taxpayers while providing offenders with the ability not to offend.
The 19th century brought a change in the dynamic of the prison system. Public offense and shaming gave way to penitentiary to “prepare for life as law-abiding citizens.” This change is now clearly seen as the just move, extending dignity and a second chance to most inmates. However, there would be certain drawbacks, as were witnessed in later years. As John Esperian writes, correctional thinking always “reflects the ideas and values of the societies and governments which mandated it.”
In the article “Even Prisoners Must Have Hope”, Richard Stratton (the author) talks about his thoughts on the federal prison system in America. Stratton himself had served 8 years in jail for smuggling marijuana. He strongly advises not to make the prisons even worse than they already are. The harsh conditions and other peoples’ vengeful attitudes toward criminals only make the violence and crime continue. According to Stratton, instead of improving the harsh conditions and trying to rehabilitate and help prisoners that could lead to peace, our society inflicts more pain and punishment, enforcing a violent cycle.
Cullen, Cullen elaborates the consequences that arose from the penal harm movement. The decline of rehabilitation programs, inmate amenities, and sentencing disparities are also discussed. Cullen further reviews the evolution of punishments throughout time, and the distinctions of the corrections system in each historical era. He strongly argues toward the necessity for a corrections system where resources are allocated efficiently, in helping the poor and the minorities climb out of poverty stricken areas. Which in return will remarkably benefit society as a
Prison reentry is the reintroduction of ex-offenders into society. Recidivism is the onset to jail, as a consequence of another crime committed. In modern society, reintegration and recidivism has increased and represents a more prominent issue. After reintegration into the general public, there is no assurance that there will not be a deterioration. In light of this, prison reentry and the recidivism are challenging things to be moving in a more positive direction, particularly in the United States.
Today our justice system has a multitude of options when dealing with those who are convicted of offenses. However, many argue that retributive justice is the only real justice there is. This is mainly because its advantage is that it gives criminals the appropriate punishment that they deserve. The goals of this approach are clear and direct. In his book The Little Book of Restorative Justice, Zehr Howard (2002), illustrates that the central focus of retributive justice is offenders getting what they deserve (p. 30).
The United States has a larger percent of its population incarcerated than any other country. America is responsible for a quarter of the world’s inmates, and its incarceration rate is growing exponentially. The expense generated by these overcrowded prisons cost the country a substantial amount of money every year. While people are incarcerated for several reasons, the country’s prisons are focused on punishment rather than reform, and the result is a misguided system that fails to rehabilitate criminals or discourage crime. This literature review will discuss the ineffectiveness of the United States’ criminal justice system and how mass incarceration of non-violent offenders, racial profiling, and a high rate of recidivism has become a problem.
Through the decades, crime and crime control have been analyzed in an attempt to find the causes of crime and decide how to combat them. The United States showed an increase in their prison population in the 1970s when the country turned towards a more punitive justice system. Referred to as just deserts theory of crime, the aim is to inflict as much pain on the offender through harsh prison sentences, in hopes to cause as much pain as the crime they committed. The worse the crime is, the worse the punishment the criminal will endure. The issue surrounding just deserts theory is the vast amount of offenders who return to prison after being released, also known as the recidivism rate.
Examining Problems and Their Solutions in The Parole System The United States of America contains the third largest population in the world, which contradicts the fact that the United States has the largest prison population in the world (Aliprandini, and Finley). The fact that their prison population is so large alludes to the reason they would have a strong parole system. Due to contrary belief, this is not the case.
Recidivism refers to the repetition of criminal behavior (James, 2011). According to the United States Bureau of Justice 2010 statistics report, three-quarters of released prisoners are constantly rearrested for new crimes and more than half of these go back to prison in a period of two to three years after their release. Ex- inmates account for an approximated 19 percent of all arrests (Phelps, 2013, p.55). Criminals who return to the community are also most of the times worse off after a period of confinement than when they entered. It is attributable to the fact that these inmates learn antisocial and criminal attitudes from other