ipl-logo

Correctional Philosophies

546 Words3 Pages

Everyday, America is constantly forced to see that one strand of punishment doesn’t work well for the whole society. This particular idea can be concluded seeing that even after our correctional system implemented the philosophies of: deterrence, just desert, restorative justice, incapacitation, and rehabilitation crime still continued to occur. I believe America’s dominant correctional philosophy should be deterrence; the other philosophies mentioned before should be included as well to help reach the main goal of lowering our crime rates. With this thorough concept of applying all the philosophies to power deterrence, this will not only create a balance, but fill the void in the shortcomings of each individual correctional philosophy.
The …show more content…

Within incapacitation, the general population may be deterred when this theory is implemented being that it imprisons offenders by physically removing them from the society when a criminal offense is committed. This punishment could possibly deter individuals because if someone knows they will be imprisoned for a crime that they’ve committed then that could possibly be deterred away from that crime. For those who are not affected and continue to reoffend, to deter them just desert or retribution should be applied. The implementation of what we know today as “an eye for an eye” could help decrease the recidivism rate. Deterrence can be gained through just desert/retribution; individuals may be deterred after if our correctional system takes on a just desert mindset of for “stubborn offenders”. Deterrence along with the other theoretical theories can help change how we view our correctional system. With deterrence as the face of the operation, the other theories can assist in achieving the main goal of lowering the crime rate. These theories aren’t perfect but together they can be a power house within our justice system.
Since the beginning of this course, my idea on our correctional system has changed tremendously. This course helped me to understand theories and concepts of punishments that we have once implemented in our history, and are still being implemented today. History of Corrections has really opened my eyes as to why our society and justice system is what it is today. I have learned so much from this course and hope I will be able to teach these concepts I have learned to other young criminologist in the

Show More
Related

  • The 1970s-1980s: The War On Drugs And Changes In Sentencing Policy

    687 Words  | 3 Pages

    Over the past 40 years U.S. incarceration has grown at an extraordinary rate, with the United States’ prison population increasing from 320,000 inmates in 1980 to nearly 2.3 million inmates in 2013. The growth in prison population is in part due to society’s shift toward tough on crime policies including determinate sentencing, truth-in-sentencing laws, and mandatory minimums. These tough on crime policies resulted in more individuals committing less serious crimes being sentenced to serve time and longer prison sentences. The 1970s-1980s: The War on Drugs and Changes in Sentencing Policy Incarceration rates did rise above 140 persons imprisoned per 100,000 of the population until the mid 1970s.

    Read More

  • Dorothea Dix: The Role Of Prison Reform In America

    312 Words  | 2 Pages

    Prison reform has been an ongoing topic in the history of America, and has gone through many changes in America's past. Mixed feelings have been persevered on the status of implementing these prison reform programs, with little getting done, and whether it is the right thing to do to help those who have committed a crime. Many criminal justice experts have viewed imprisonment as a way to improve oneself and maintain that people in prison come out changed for the better (encyclopedia.com, 2007). In the colonial days, American prisons were utilized to brutally punish individuals, creating a gruesome experience for the prisoners in an attempt to make them rectify their behavior and fear a return to prison (encyclopedia.com, 2007). This practice may have worked 200 years ago, but as the world has grown more complex, time has proven that fear alone does not prevent recidivism.

    Read More

  • Why Do Prisons Increase Incarceration Rates?

    915 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Pros And Cons Of Correctional Professionals

    2163 Words  | 9 Pages

    In this sense, advocates of rehabilitation see the opportunity to use the criminal justice system as part of a larger social welfare”(Wright, 2012, p. 1.6). Correctional professionals can use criminal theory to help them understand why certain criminals do and commit the crimes they have. With criminal theory there are many different theories as to why criminals become criminals. If correctional professionals were to take a class on understanding criminal behavior or criminal theory I honestly believe that it would help them in understanding how to help certain inmates achieve rehabilitation or self confidence. When trying to understand why people commit crimes, correctional professionals should have an understanding on how to treat and take care

    Read More

  • African American Incarceration Analysis

    1485 Words  | 6 Pages

    The retribution part is to punish the person for the crime that they permitted against society, and the incapacitation part is to remove that person out of society so they do no further harm. Deterrence means the prevention of future crime, and the rehabilitation teaches life skills and in the betterment. However, author Sandiford says that instead of solving crime, mass incarceration has infected our communities and striking them with devastating symptoms, and prison costs have skyrocketed, inmates ' families have been torn apart, and the system is overwhelmingly stratified by race and class (Sandiford,

    Read More

  • Recidivism Vs Incarceration

    1738 Words  | 7 Pages

    Incarceration-many struggle personally, but all are affected, even if indirectly. The US prison system brings a sense of grief, lament, and even cynicism. Recidivism, “the tendency of a convicted criminal to reoffend” (Wikipedia), concentrates the pressing issues of incarceration. When felons are released back into society, their chances of recidivism are over fifty percent (Bureau of Justice Stats). jthreatens society and justice.

    Read More

  • Mass Incarceration In Prisons

    894 Words  | 4 Pages

    A shift is happening in America. The pendulum is swinging from the ideals of get tough and mass incarceration. The swing has both positive and negative affects on the prison system. On the plus side, prison populations are decreasing. By shifting away from incarcerating any who break the law, there are fewer drug dealers and fewer violent offenders in the system.

    Read More

  • African American Prison System Essay

    1529 Words  | 7 Pages

    The punishment is that they are with us” (Paragraph 2). Instead, prisons focus on rehabilitation. Most citizens understand that in order to have long term effects, it take long processes that take a while to get used to. “The country’s well-education population [appreciate] that almost all prisoners will return to society. They understand [...] that the more the penal system can do within the small window of opportunity during a prisoner’s incarceration, the better it will be in the long run” (Paragraph 15).

    Read More

  • The Three Branches Of The Criminal Justice System

    709 Words  | 3 Pages

    This is the belief that criminal sentences should be designed to protect society by removing dangerous offenders from the community. It is closely aligned with imprisonment and, in some cases, capital punishment (Legal Information Institute, 4). The idea is that if dangerous offenders are removed from society, they will be unable to harm others. Supporters of incapacitation argue that it is necessary to protect society from dangerous criminals and that imprisonment is the most effective way to do

    Read More

  • The New Jim Crow Summary

    1517 Words  | 7 Pages

    The deterrence theory suggests that “the severity of criminal sanctions dissuades other potential offenders from committing crimes out of fear of punishment. ”4 That is applicable to the individuals that are punished and to people in the community. Nevertheless, prison’s effectiveness is often questioned as an effective deterrent to crime. Studies have shown that longer sentences have a small effect on whether offenders commit crimes or not, and the National Academy of Sciences determined that “insufficient evidence exists to justify predicating policy choices on the general assumption that harsher punishments yield measurable deterrent effects.

    Read More

  • Just Deserts Theory

    1782 Words  | 8 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Criminal Justice System Essay

    721 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the criminal justice system, the corrections component is also responsible for the rehabilitation of the convicted individual. It is their duty to attempt to make the defendant a productive member of society once again. Based on the individual’s behavior while incarcerated, the court and corrections officials may decide to place them on parole, which ensures that the individual will comply with the rules of society once they are fully released from the system. The criminal justice system is an essential role in the organizational structure of not only the United States but also in countries around the world. If there were no criminal justice system to administer punishment, the world would be unstructured, disorganized, unjustified, cruel, and not to mention a chaotic place for it citizens.

    Read More

  • Disadvantages Of Restorative Justice

    2091 Words  | 9 Pages

    This approach also prevents overcrowding in prisons because it also deals with rehabilitative

    Read More

  • Specific Deterrence Essay

    447 Words  | 2 Pages

    General and Specific deterrence have good and bad effects on citizens. It prevents crime and some cases and fuels the rage in some. General deterrence focuses on preventing the crime before it happens. The thought of spending life in prison for committing a murder is very scary to me. You would think that could deter criminals from committing that crime.

    Read More

  • Essay On Harsh Punishment

    1048 Words  | 5 Pages

    There is a worldwide trend in the use of penal imprisonment for serious offenses as capital punishment has been renounced by an increasing number of countries. Harsh punishments include capital punishment, life imprisonment and long-term incarceration. These forms of punishments are usually used against serious crimes that are seen as unethical, such as murder, assault and robbery. Many people believe that harsher punishments are more effective as they deter would-be criminals and ensure justice is served. Opposition towards harsh punishments have argued that harsher punishments does not necessarily increase effectiveness because they do not have a deterrent effect, do not decrease recidivism rates and do not provide rehabilitation.

    Read More

More about Correctional Philosophies

Open Document