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The Pros And Cons Of The US Prison System

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It is no secret that the US relies extremely heavily on our prison systems to hold citizens that are not currently properly following rules set forth by the US government. The US currently has twenty five percent of the world's prisoner population, despite only having five percent of the world's total population (Incarceration Nation). This clearly displays a problem within our prison system and a disconnect from the values which our country claims to have as our prison rates are currently most comparable to North Korea (Incarceration Nation). The US prison system is in desperate need for reforms to better rehabilitate prisoners and be more ethically responsible towards them; the US could have a positive effect on the treatment of our prisoners …show more content…

Currently, sixty six percent of prisoners return to prison within three years, often with a more serious offense (Gilligan). Prisoners are also still in our communities with more than ninety percent of inmates returning to communities within just a few years (Gilligan). If a rehabilitation program would be put in place that could reduce the rate of returning prisoners, then this would consequently help reduce the rate of overcrowding which will lead to better treatment of prisoners as there could be more funding per person. This would then lead to even better rehabilitation with more individual attention. Over time, the program would just keep getting more personalized and better and it would also improve the returning members of society. It would better the prisoners so they could live meaningful and productive lives after returning to society. This process of rehabilitation has been tested in San Francisco jails on violent offenders and it reduced the level of violence to "zero for a year at a time"(Gilligan). If we implemented this system of rehabilitating prisoners it would benefit the individual and the US prison

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