ipl-logo

Rehabilitation In The Criminal Justice System Essay

1022 Words5 Pages

1K Essay Draft Cindy Sun S3C3
The Use of Rehabilitation in Criminal Justice System
Subtitle: In the scale of whole society, is rehabilitation better than retribution for the criminals?

Living in a highly developed society, people now care about not only their basic living standard, but also their living quality. For example, many people are not just satisfied with having basic food but with tastier food. Similarly, even criminal incarceration method has developed from simple retribution to a new one -- rehabilitation.

Let us first make an identification. Rehabilitation, as a way of incarceration, is a treatment or treatments designed to facilitate the process of recovery from injury, illness, or disease to …show more content…

Retribution spurs up deterrence effects which not only reduces recidivism but also lowers down first-degree offense. According to Dr. Larry Siegel, Ph.D. in Criminal Justice of State University of New York (2009), deterrence theory implies a psychological process whereby individuals are deterred from committing criminal acts if they perceive legal sanctions as severe. In other word, deterrence effect can be seen as a natural psychological action after committing a crime. Given the opportunity to commit a criminal act, the person presumably weighs the costs and rewards of doing so in comparison to other behavioral options. The more the individual perceives legal sanctions as severe, the greater is the perceived cost of crime and thus the probability of deterrence (Dr. Kirk Williams, Ph.D. in Philosophy from University of Arizona, 1987). What is more, incapacitation directly proves the rationality of retribution. According to Dr. David Green, Ph.D. in Economics at University of Newcastle, (2006), crime levels fall when more offenders have been sent to prison. Statistics show the average inmate committed 140 crimes in the 12 months before his admission into custody. If we locked up 10,000 more offenders a year, we could prevent 1.4 million offenses, saving a fortune and reducing aggravation for citizens. To sum up, retribution can substantially improve citizen safety, and reduces harm of crime beard by the

Show More
Related

  • A Comparison Of Brute Force And Escape From Alcatraz

    1692 Words  | 7 Pages

    Ponder this: should prisons be designed for rehabilitation, retribution, or both? Many people might say rehabilitation, as the goal of many prisoners is to make it out of prison alive and free. However, not all prisons are designed for rehabilitation, and not all officials attempt to prepare prisoners for the world outside the prison walls. According to many films, brute officers are often the cause for prisoner escape attempts. Rather than help the prisoners leave freely, they employ strict and harsh punishment and attempt to make good prisoners rather than good people out of inmates.

    Read More

  • Are Prisons Obsolete By Angela Davis

    1097 Words  | 5 Pages

    The consequences of this means that when inmates are released back into society, they are unable to function as productive citizens and are more likely to be repeat offenders. In essence, the emphasis on retribution within prisons actually makes society more dangerous by releasing mentally and emotionally damaged inmates without a support of system or medical treatment. Angela Davis addresses this specific issue within her book, Are Prisons Obsolete? In her effort to analyze the harmful effects of incarceration, she recognizes that many people within prison suffer emotional and mental illnesses but are not helped or treated for them. In addition, solitary confinement, which can cause people severe and lasting mental distress after only 15 days, breaks individuals down and leaves them with lasting negative ramifications.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Caging Of America By Adam Gopnik

    1285 Words  | 6 Pages

    It is clear that we have not embraced the theory of rehabilitation because we still use prisons to “warehouse” offenders. The concern with “warehousing” is that the offender will more than likely end up back in prison. We have learned that recidivism is a major concern facing society today because offenders have little chance of employment, no funds or housing, and often time’s very little support from family or friends. I stand behind rehabilitation for offenders because I feel like it is the only way to truly stop crime. In

    Read More

  • Should American Prisons Be Rehabilitated

    199 Words  | 1 Pages

    Cody henry English 121 Professor Karle 22 October 2015 American prisons and Rehabilitation A prison is a place where people are held legally for punishment of a crime that they have been sentenced for. One of the goals of prisons should be the rehabilitation of prisoners. The United States is currently facing an overcrowding problem in there prison system (Rader). The American prison system has a poor approach to the rehabilitation of prisoners.

    Read More

  • Donness Johnson Research Paper

    461 Words  | 2 Pages

    Donness Johnson was held captive for the joint between his two fingers. Homeless since the age of seven, Johnson state 's “ ...Prison was like the home I never received… three meals a day..a bed...shower... personal gym… [man] prison was luxury... the only reason I looked forward to going back on those streets where because of that one thing that got me here in the first place..” Three years and twenty-five weeks later since his release, Donness found himself back in luxury with an account of statutory rape of a thirteen year old girl.

    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

  • Incarceration And Prison Overpopulation

    683 Words  | 3 Pages

    Traditionally, crime has been viewed as a violation against the state. Still too little attention is given to the fact that criminal acts are also violations of the victims and the communities. Punishing and correcting offenders’ criminal behaviors should not only be conducted using the concepts of retribution, incapacitation, and deterrence, it should also be designed to repair the damages done to the victims and the communities. Many benefits are associated with shifting to the restorative justice model, for the victim, the offender, and the community. Restorative justice benefits the victims by giving them a voice regarding the accountability of the offender.

    Read More

  • Rational Choice Theory: The Foundation Of The School Of Criminology

    1467 Words  | 6 Pages

    According to Siegel (2018), deterrence theory plays a part by stating that if people commit crimes, there will be the emotion of fear of punishment (p.114). In layman's terms, deterrence advocates for the minimizing of crime through certain methods. Some examples of deterrence that are pretty successful when preventing crime are the establishment of neighborhood watch parties, increased police patrols in high crime areas, and breaking routines and adding variety to one's schedule to not fall victim to the Routine Activities theory. While some might argue that these are "pros" to essentially reduce crime in some areas, others argue against the notion that the deterrence theory barely has much of an impact, if not, influences even more crime to

    Read More

  • Criminal Justice System: Retribution, Deterrence, And Rehabilitation

    370 Words  | 2 Pages

    If you punish an offender with jail time and prison time they will not want to re-commit the crime again. In my opinion, I do not think that it is the best option but it works sometimes. Deterrence is behavioral psychology about preventing and controlling actions of behavior through the fear of being punished. It is kind of similar to retribution because of punishment. With deterrence, you are certain of the punishment and you know how severe it will be.

    Read More

  • United States Prison System

    827 Words  | 4 Pages

    This trend needs to be changed. I believe prisoner rehabilitation

    Read More

  • Four Primary Goals Of Corrections

    1521 Words  | 7 Pages

    Retribution is punishment inflicted as a form of vengeance. Deterrence is the instillation of fear of punishment in a potential offender. Incapacitation in the context of corrections is setting punishments that prevent crime but not necessarily deterring it. Lastly, rehabilitation in corrections refers to the restoration of someone who is convicted back into society. Currently, the main focus of our corrections system is a crime-control model.

    Read More

  • Disadvantages Of Rehabilitation State Prison

    1678 Words  | 7 Pages

    However, crimes are committed whilst in prison, such as drugs and assaults. Some critics say the ‘three strikes and you are out’ law where repeat offenders get a longer sentence are wrong, as the third strike could be a lesser crime such as public disorder. Nevertheless, if just incapacitation and no rehabilitation some critics say will be costlier to society as they will go out and reoffend and, they are not employed and pay taxes. Rehabilitation is also a punishment which should improve the offender's behaviour and stop them committing crimes. Advocates of rehabilitation state prison does not work; however, critics of rehabilitation state prison does work as the criminal cannot commit a crime against the public while incarcerated (Cavadino, 2007 p 36/56).

    Read More

  • Capital Punishment Without Parole Essay

    1937 Words  | 8 Pages

    Therefore, barring this invalid study, no research, to date, has managed to yield findings of the death penalty having more of a deterrent effect than life imprisonment. This fact has also been corroborated by Amnesty International in their report Death Sentences and Executions 2014, where they claim that, “there is no evidence that the death penalty has a greater deterrent effect on crime than terms of imprisonment” (Lancet, 2015, p. 1262). This is due to the fact that many variables out of our control may as well be responsible for the fluctuations in crime rates. However, as many abolitionists emphasize, deterrence is best achieved by the assurance of retribution rather than the harshness of the penalty (Henderson, 2006, p. 15). Fear incited by the capital punishment is reduced by the time lag between conviction and administration of punishment, in addition to the fact that most executions take place behind closed doors, as mentioned in Henderson (2006, p. 15).

    Read More

  • Recidivism And Prison Rehabilitation

    1926 Words  | 8 Pages

    The prisons that do rehabilitate use programs that are Catholic or Non-religious. Definition: Rehabilitation is the re-integration into society of a convicted person and the main objective of modern penal policy, to counter-habitual offending, also known as criminal reoffending. (Rm.coe.int. 1984). (Rm.coe.int. 2016).

    Read More

  • Essay On Harsh Punishment

    1048 Words  | 5 Pages

    In the case of the death penalty, it has the added bonus in guaranteeing that the person would not offend again. Supporters of harsh punishments argue that the would-be criminal would consider the costs versus the benefits of committing a crime. If the costs outweigh the benefits, then it is assumed that he would stop what he is doing, effectively ‘deterred’. Furthermore, the usage of harsh punishments to effectively deter crime is ethically justified as it prevents more people from falling victim to crime. However it is extremely difficult to judge a punishment’s effectiveness based on its deterrence effect, consequently we must consider other variables that would entail a person to commit a crime.

    Read More

More about Rehabilitation In The Criminal Justice System Essay

Open Document