“Expert Frank Porporino summarized some of the literature on prison affects stating ‘the evidence indicates that imprisonment is not generally or uniformly devastating’.” When even experts think that prison overcrowding is not devastating the prisoners that shows a lot. This means that not only is it not cruel and unusual, it isn’t going to change them any more than a smaller populated prison
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.
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.
Some might argue that solitary confinement is actually effective and has its benefits, however this is not the case since this punishment only seems to make criminals much more dangerous when they leave prison than they were before and research shows that inmates who left solitary confinement experience increased anger and end up committing the kind of criminality that society is looking to prevent by using this method of punishment. Thus, solitary confinement ultimately fails as a rehabilitative measure, and as a way to "settle down" problematic
The placement of so many people into prisons for general, popular, frequent non-violent crimes has lead to such an extravagant number of people inside the walls used to punish people of horrific
First you hate them, then you get used to them. Enough time passes, you get so you depend on them. That 's institutionalized.’ A prison should aim at retribution, incapacitation, deterrence and rehabilitation. I am very well convinced that prison has served its first three purposes by depriving offenders’ freedom, but the
Hi I agree with your cost assessment involving jailed inmates, but not as most people imagine prison cost. My concern is with the private corporations that profit from jailing US citizens, it is business model aimed at legally embezzling American taxpayer dollars, these corporations deploy few ethics in their day to day business practice. Being only concerned with keeping their facility at, or near capacity. Consequently, unsavory governing officials scramble to meet contractual “lockup quotas.” Taxpayers pay for any empty beds should crime rates fall under quota.
No, prisons should not be abolished. They should not be abolished but they to be more specific in the crimes that are considered federal. Also they need to reevaluate the amount of time given to certain crimes. Criminals need to be reprimanded for their own actions but some actions need other alternatives to imprisonment. Rapists receive years of imprisonment for the crime they have committed as far as discipline.
One possible alternative route to the prison system could be a boarding school type system where convicts are required to participate in an educational program that gives them the knowledge and ability to be released and given the needs to go make something better of the life they have been given. This system where they are required to participate in educational training would come along side a strict rule system that would encourage them to make the decision to choose something better. The debate is whether or not prison is beneficial or not for those who will be convicted, sentenced, and released. Whether we change the system or not there will always be crime and
The movie Bronson is a really good example of how prison is for some inmates. There are a lot of prisoners that feel that prison is home for them. They make a living of it and sometimes they refuse to be free and experience real life. Prison can be an escape from their problems and they find a way to work and be recognize during their time on the institution. Prison can have benefits from some prisoners, because they learn skills that can help them to find a job after they are done with their time.
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.
To determine success in the prison system, the considerable resolutions are reducing incarceration rates and reducing recidivism. Fewer prisoners means fewer crimes are being committed. Fewer returning prisoners means the prison system is effective. The value of the prison system is not in locking away citizens permanently, but instead to keep people out of prisons by creating the conditions for a law-abiding life. By both measures, the status quo is yielding questionable results.
Unless prisons are planning on keeping inmates in isolation for their entire sentence, prisons are causing more problems for themselves because of the problems. The aggression and resentment built up by the prisoner towards the prison and other inmates/officers can be detrimental with the flow of prison due to rule breaking and violence (Weir, 2012; Dingfelder, 2012; Constanzo, Martinez, Klebe, Torrence & Livengood, 2012). There are no rehabilitation results from isolation, so whenever a prisoner is sent, they are delaying the obvious problems that will occur once
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).
Prison is a very harsh and bad place that no one should want to be in. Little freedom can make a person really aggravated. Nobody wants to be away from their family with little contact allowed. Little space and little privacy can only go for so long. Personally I think prison doesn't reform people because there are many repeat offenders, some people act worse when they get there, and also some people just don't like help and never want to change.