ipl-logo

The Pros And Cons Of Prisons In Tennessee

555 Words3 Pages

Five of prisons in Tennessee are presently over capacity with another eight currently operating over 95% of assigned capacity (Malcolm, 2014.) “When prisons become overcrowded, there is less money and manpower to provide much-needed treatment, educational, and skills-enhancement programs in prison, and inmate-to-staff ratios can grow to levels that are unsafe for prison staff and other prisoners” (Malcolm, 2014, paragraph 11.) I believe a way to fix that issue it through using different reforms to affect the overall percentage all together. These reforms include limit sentencing, more programs, more parole and probation officers, and specialized courts. In 2014 there were 215,000 people incarcerated in federal prisons, almost half were there for drug-related offenses with the enactment of mandatory minimum sentencing laws for drug offenses in the 1980s, increasing the population by more than 800 percent (Malcolm, 2014.) “Moreover, drug offenders make up the single largest category of incarcerated offenders in Tennessee, serving an average sentence of 9.7 years” (Malcolm, 2014, paragraph 21.) By limit sentencing, we can address the issues of high cost, by using probation and parole for more misdemeanor …show more content…

Tennessee has 759 probation and parole officers who are responsible for supervising 13,546 parolees and 57,234 probationers (Malcolm, 2014.) These demonstrate how unmanageable caseloads they have and how because of that can limit their abilities to effectively supervise offenders (Malcolm, 2014.) One way to achieve the goal of more probation and parole officers is to encourage the job and giving an incentive in receiving the job. Having more will allow lower caseloads and more opportunities to monitor and help the probationer and paroles to achieve outside of prison and hopefully not return to the

Show More
Related

Pros And Cons Of Texas Prison System

589 Words | 3 Pages

The Texas prison systems have many pros and cons that can be easily observed. A beneficial thing about the prison system is that they provide an added level of protection for the public. Every single day there are a variety amounts of criminals who are incarcerated to not only serve their time but to also keep them all under one roof so that they cause no harm to the public. The crime rate in Texas has risen up; from un-resolved homicides to sexual assaults; therefore, when they are incarcerated they will be locked up and the public’s safety will be at ease. Another factor that contributes to the pros of the Texas prison system is the satisfaction that the interests of the victim’s family and members of the public are happy with the result

Read More

Drug Court Model

448 Words | 2 Pages

Similarly, Brown found that in a matched cohort study comparing traditional prison sentencing to drug court programs it was shown that there was significantly less recidivism in the drug court participants than in the offenders that were sentenced to jail or prison time. In this study 137 drug court participants were matched with offenders that had been sentenced traditionally. It was shown that the recidivism rate for drug court participants was only thirty percent, whereas the traditionally sentenced participants had a forty-seven percent recidivism rate. Brown also examined the time between program completion and participants committing a new crime. In the drug court participants, the mean time was 614 days, and in the traditionally sentenced participants the average time was 463 days (Brown,

Read More

Summary: Mandatory Minimum Sentences For Drug Trafficking

53 Words | 1 Pages

Federal Policy makers have focus on “ mandatory minimum sentences for drug trafficking, and the length of prison sentences in general. Cutting lengths of stay 50 percent for drug trafficking offenses would reduce the federal prison population 18 percent by 2023” Ryan King, Bryce Peterson, Brian Elderbroom, and Samuel A. Taxy (October

Read More

Arguments Against Mandatory Minimums

766 Words | 4 Pages

The initial thinking behind the creation of minimum mandatory sentences was created by congress to aim in the capture and imprisonment of high level drug traffickers, and deter others from entering into drug trafficking or using illegal substances, which would create a safer society. However, the nation prison has been expanded with low level street drug dealers, and the accessibility to illegal drugs is more obtainable then before the enactment of the mandatory sentencing act. In fact, the number of drug offenders in federal prisons has increased 21 times since 1980. Contrary to what congress has believed in the past about the dangers of crack cocaine compared to that in powder form has been proven to be untrue, but little has been done to reduce the number of prisons affected by that belief.

Read More

Essay On Mandatory Minimum Sentencing

1798 Words | 8 Pages

Defined as a public policy that imposes an outlined amount of prison time based on the crime committed and the defendant’s criminal history, these sentences dictate that a judge must enact a statutory fixed penalty on individuals convicted of certain crimes, regardless of extenuating circumstances. Such laws have removed discretionary sentencing power from judges, instead focusing on severe punishments in line with national drug and crime concerns. While the original goal of mandatory minimum sentences was to deter potential criminals, reduce drug use, control judicial prudence, the policy has had extreme consequences such as sentencing imbalances and

Read More

Drug Reform In Prisons

409 Words | 2 Pages

As of September 26, 2015, there is a total of 93,821 inmates in prison for drug offenses, which is equivalent to 48.4 percent of the prison population. The use of illegal narcotics has been an issue within the country for decades; however, is incarceration the way to solve this problem? I think not. During the late 1960’s, poverty was a substantial issue within urban cities and secluded rural areas. On the other hand, recreational drug usage promoted by fashionable young, white Americans as a symbol of social upheaval and youthful rebellion coincided with the deprivation within many of these areas.

Read More

Essay On Mandatory Minimum Law

662 Words | 3 Pages

The rising population in prisons became a major concern. In 2010, a prison reform expert explained that putting drug addicts to incarceration cost too much estimating eighty billion of dollars a year (Childress, 2014). Thus, congress's proposal is to shorten the sentencing of nonviolent offender. Some report explained that "there are many people serving time for violent offenses who haven’t actually committed violent acts and might be good candidates for reduced sentences." (Neyfakh, 2015).

Read More

Pros And Cons Of Prison Reform

852 Words | 4 Pages

Reduce sentence lengths and ensure consistent sentencing practice. 10. Develop opportunities for parole or other forms of early release and assist prisoners on release to prevent their return to prison. These are some measures to prevent the overcrowding of prison which is major root cause of many problems in the prisons.

Read More

Persuasive Essay On Prison Reform

707 Words | 3 Pages

In 1972, former President Richard Nixon made his infamous statements regarding crime and drug abuse. In this speech, he declared a war on crime and drugs and intended to decrease the number of people using drugs and the amount of crimes that were committed. Since this declaration, incarceration rates in the U.S. have gone up by 500%, even though the amount of crime happening has gone down. One of the reasons why I feel our rates have risen, is because sometimes, we put people in jail when they don’t need to be there in the first place.

Read More

The Decriminalization Of Drugs In The United States

1077 Words | 5 Pages

Only 18.3% (337,882) were for the sale or manufacture of a drug” (p. 23). Therefore, the individuals who are likely to enter the already overcrowded prisons may be users and the actual not distributors themselves. Thus, prison space that is intended to be reserved for murders and sexual predators is instead being occupied by substance

Read More

Mandatory Sentencing Laws Essay

1509 Words | 7 Pages

With the economy in the turmoil that it is in America cannot continue to support these sentencing guidelines. The Mandatory Article Sentencing declares that the laws are becoming a huge drain on the Justice Bureau’s budget, and in 2012 the United States had far beyond more people incarcerated than any other country. Most of these prisoners are low-level drug offenders sentenced under mandatory sentencing guidelines with a cost draining on American taxpayers $6.8 billion a year, as of 2012. These costs do not seem to have a ceiling and continue eating up about twenty-five percent of the federal justice system’s yearly budget.

Read More

Pros And Cons Of Ab109

686 Words | 3 Pages

County jails have had to manage this increased population while ensuring safety and security of both staff and inmates. The need for additional space, staffing, and resources has been a challenge for many county jails, with some struggling to meet the

Read More

The Pros And Cons Of Aging Prisoners

627 Words | 3 Pages

The growing dilemma of aging prisoners is a very important thing that needs to be fixed. Those prisoners have been in jail for a really long time for crimes that they committed a long time ago. They are old now and they already passed the age of offending and now they would not do anything bad. Not only is it sad and inhumane to keep them there for that long but it also cost a lot of money keeping them there.

Read More

Mass Incarceration Literature Review

1728 Words | 7 Pages

The current system that incarcerates people over and over is unsustainable and does not lower the crime rate nor encourage prisoner reformation. When non-violent, first time offenders are incarcerated alongside violent repeat offenders, their chance of recidivating can be drastically altered by their experience in prison. Alternative sentencing for non-violent drug offenders could alleviate this problem, but many current laws hinder many possible solutions. Recently lawmakers have made attempts to lower the recidivism rates in America, for example the Second Chance Act helps aid prisoners returning into society after incarceration. The act allows states to appropriate money to communities to help provide services such as education, drug treatment programs, mental health programs, job corps services, and others to aid in offenders returning to society after incarceration (Conyers, 2013).

Read More

Essay On Prison Reform

422 Words | 2 Pages

When discussing prison reform, success is often difficult to measure. One measure of success that the government uses is the recidivism rate. If the rate is lower it means that more inmates are adjusting to life outside of prison. If the rate is higher, like it is now, then prisoners are struggling to gain a footing in society and are going back to prison. As a current measure of success, a recidivism rate that is upwards of fifty percent in most states shows that prison reform and the prison system is failing.

Read More

More about The Pros And Cons Of Prisons In Tennessee

Open Document