1. What did you think of the quality of prison life? Which conditions did you consider unacceptable? Why?
The quality of prison life shown in the film is dire compared to the life regular citizens live today. The senseless beatings, the complete disregard for the prisoners' lives, the disrespect from the correctional officers, and the anarchistic subsections of the prison hierarchy are all unacceptable as it does not help the rehabilitation of the prisoners in any way and instead puts them into a mental state where they become attached to the prison because they cannot adjust to life outside, shown later by Brooks.
2. Throughout the film, there are several instances of guard brutality. Do you think this still happens? Do you think physical punishment is acceptable in prisons?
As brutal and possibly disturbing as the beatings in the film are shown to be, the
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It may have been justice in a religious sense, but it does not help rehabilitate Bogs in any sense of the term so in turn it is unjust.
6. Brooks is referred to as an “institutional man.” What do you think that means? How did being an institutional man affect Brooks after he was released?
Brooks being referred to as an “institutional man” means that because Brooks has been in the system for so long, he had adjusted into staying there and had become too used to that life. This way of life affected Brooks as it ill prepared him for life outside the prison walls. Outside, he felt lost and alone, unable to live life normally pushing him to commit suicide.
7. Andy helped Warden Norton create a fake person, “Randall Stevens,” and helped him fix the books, illegally laundering money. Given that he was a prisoner and would be punished if he didn't, do you think it was ethical for him to do so? Why or why not? Did he have a choice? Why or why
Case Study Shane Bauer, an investigative journalist with Mother Jones, spent four months as a guard at Winn Correctional Center in Winnfield, LA from November 2014 to February 2015. Winn Correctional is a private, for-profit prison that is owned and operated by Corrections Corporation of America (CCA). It is also the oldest privately operated medium-security facility in the country (Bauer, 2016). During his time there, Bauer discovered just how terribly some of these prisons are run and the awful conditions that inmates are forced to suffer through. Bauer discusses his experiences at Winn, the horrible conditions of the prison that he witnessed, as well as the nonchalance of the other guards when it came to the prisoners and their safety.
The film on Connie Hanes shows how inmates are treated inn prison and how it can drive them to commit suicide. Even before Connie Hanes verdict she was treated like a prisoner. While in court she was bare foot and not allowed to wear her own clothes, they made her wear a cotton jail dress. In addition, it was in January in the didn’t allow her to have a coat. Connie describes her attorney as believing she was guilty of the crime and “they weren’t going to waste a lot of time” because “ it was a cut and dry case” and the judge and juror are going to believe she is guilty.
The prison system has evolved over time now that the truth from the past has been exposed. What caused the prison to become brutal was from the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment. Before the approval of the amendment, many prisons considered the idea of rehabilitation, or allowing convicted criminals to work and rebuild themselves into better people and citizens, but many believed that prisoners should be punished. When the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery, it only ceased chattel slavery. Slavery was legal only for punishment purposes in prison.
In 1968 Robin Woods was convicted of two counts of felony breaking and entering. He was sentenced to 16 years at Maryland Correctional Institute, a maximum-security prison, for his nonviolent crimes. He recalls the atmosphere of MCI being both tense and racially charged. Amid reports of overcrowding and brutality from guards, a severe riot ensued adding an additional charge and 7 more years to Woods’ sentence. Our prison system neglects people’s mental and emotional needs, and treats them with contempt, yet expects respect and obedience in return.
It’s rare for someone who was charged for murder and assault to live a normal life once let out to the real world after their experience. It was interesting to see how they act up by flooding their cells, throwing food, and spreading urine and feces on the floor is the inmate’s way to pass time. It had a great success on how their behaviors change. According to the warden, “If you punish them you can make them better, but the reality is the exact opposite happens.” Highlighting the drawbacks of solitary confinement, and how there needs to be something to change these prisoners and actually make them better.
Major Ethical Issues of Solitary Confinement Solitary confinement can affect a person’s physical and mental health simply because it deprives an individual of their need to interact with others on a daily basis. Solitary confinement, which is used to restrain violent and volatile inmates from the general prison population, is done in increments ranging from several months to years. In an article retrieved from the American Psychological Association, ‘Alone, in ‘the Hole’’, the author states that, “for most of the 20th century, prisoners' stays in solitary confinement were relatively short.” This was the standing rule, in which inmates visited what is known as ‘the hole’, for several weeks to months. As time went by, the average length of stay
Topic: Prison overcrowding General Purpose: To inform Specific Purpose: At the end of my speech, the audience will be able to identify and describe the key reasons and issues of prison overcrowding. Introduction Attention Getter Imagine being locked up in a confined space with little to no air conditioning, concrete walls, concrete floors, poor sanitation, rowdy peers, no soft comforts of a home, and a lack of the everyday basic needs.
Prison is not the best place to be in, you’re held in jail for breaking the law and you get punishment. Though the punishment is very cruel. Anyone would have felt unsafe being with other criminals and locked up with no way out. In the same article as the previous on, about St. Clair Holman in Alabama it stated, “On the night of March 11, prisoners’ frustration over living conditions at Holman finally boiled over. Aguard responding to a fight between inmates was stabbed.
Inmates are constantly violated by cellmates and prison guards, both physically and sexually. Violence is often associated with prison gangs and interpersonal conflict. Prison guards are bribable and all kinds of contrabands including weapon, drug, liquor, tobacco and cell phone can be found in inmates’ hands. Crime within the fence is rampant, only counting those with violent act, 5.8 million reports were made in 2014. If the prison is really what it claims to be, shouldn’t prisoners be serving their time with regret and learning to be obedient?
They also concluded that the environment of the prison played a vital role in the way the guards treated the prisoners. It is believed that this experiment changed the way some U.S. prisons are
The first being I view solitary confinement as psychologically harmful. As the documentary highlighted, there are a lot of psychological issues that arise when offenders are incarcerated in solitary confinement for a long period. Mental health is such a big issue in our society and is often overlooked in the prison system. I believe inmates still deserve the same access to good mental health services and solitary confinement is the opposite of that. Solitude is proven to cause mental health issues and social issues, such as depression, anxiety, antisocial behavior, etc.
What can be done The monitoring, prevention and treatment of mental disorders, as well as the promotion of good mental health, are part of the public health goals in prisons. According to World Health Organization (2017), even in resource-limited countries, measures can be taken to improve the mental health of prisoners and prison staffs, which can be adapted to the country’s cultural, social, political and economic environment (WHO, 2017). In the British prisons, some practices and policies have also been implemented, which reflect the positive impacts of prisoners’ mental health and wellbeing. Provide prisoners with appropriate mental health treatment and care.
Additionally, in an attempt to foster an increase in professionalism within the correctional community, care and consideration must be taken with the care and housing of inmates both privately operated and those operated by some branch of the government. “The quality of prisons has improved from the past, but there continue to be too many inhumane new prisons. New construction does not always result in a prison conductive to humane incarceration” (Bartollas,
In Adam Gopnik 's piece “Caging of America,” he discusses one of the United States biggest moral conflicts: prison. Gopniks central thesis states that prison itself is a cruel and unjust punishment. He states that the life of a prisoner is as bad as it gets- they wake up in a cell and only go outside for an hour to exercise. They live out their sentences in a solid and confined box, where their only interaction is with themselves. Gopnik implies that the general populace is hypocritical to the fact that prison is a cruelty in itself.
Poor living conditions in prisons emerged because judges were inclined to send more people to prison than the space that was provided. Therefore, prisons became over crowed and hard to handle. Living spaces in prisons got smaller and more prisoners has to share their place with someone else. Security at the prisons also fell downhill, as male guards saw the women and young children as prey for rape. Most prisoners were either brutally assaulted and/or rape while in