A shift is happening in America. The pendulum is swinging from the ideals of get tough and mass incarceration. The swing has both positive and negative affects on the prison system. On the plus side, prison populations are decreasing. By shifting away from incarcerating any who break the law, there are fewer drug dealers and fewer violent offenders in the system. The other side of this trend is that many who make these choices are likely to become repeat offenders.Individuals also may escalate their negative behaviors to more violent or disturbing crimes. The punishment may not do enough to deter these actions in the future. Opinions on the best way to handle criminals are as vast as the varying crimes committed. Some say that these individuals …show more content…
This caused a rapid increase in prison populations across the country. Unfortunately the system was not completely prepared for the astronomical influx of prisoners, which caused other issues to arise that needed attention. Lack of resources, space, and qualified personnel became new problems that had immediate impacts to prisons, counties, and states. Moving farther from this practice has both positive and negative impacts. Prison populations are no longer growing exponentially and are beginning to recede, which in turn can cause states to shift away from privatizing prisons. This action signifies that money is not more important than anyone's rights. At the same time, the public could become outraged because those who are committing crimes are being let out sooner, or not incarcerated at all, This brings them into contact with the general public, most of which who live by a moral and legal code and don’t commit crimes and who expect to be safe in their homes, streets, town, and schools. Many parents are likely to be vocal about their disagreement with this policy. Parents want the best for their children and know that gangs, drugs and violence are environments that lead to danger, destruction and death. Parents want their children safe above all else, and allowing drug dealers, degenerate gang member and violent …show more content…
Inmates who want to change their lives and priorities have the opportunity to learn a trade, go to school, enter drug rehabilitation programs have more opportunities to do so. This can be seen as a positive affect to the shift. At the same time. it is negatively affecting the prison system because inmates who don't want to take advantage of the programs, are getting a less strict time in prison. If one is not serious about making changes in their lives, it is likely they will change their ways and not become repeat offenders and re enter the prison system after they have served their time for a certain crime. The system may be a better place for these individuals. Their lives are simpler with less temptations and situations that entice them to commit crimes again . In conclusion, there are both positive and negative effects on the prison system in America due to the shifts in sentencing of criminals. The positive effects outweigh the negative effects as America is less about mass incarceration and more about rehabilitation. By lowering the incarceration rate and lowering the over population of the prisons we are able to take more severe offender and try to get them the rehabilitation that they need. Resources are not as thinly spread, which allow the system to more adequately meet the needs of those who spend time in
Thesis: It is very important for the sake of Americans tax dollars that we change the way that prisons are run and increase the productivity of inmates so when they are released from jail they are ready to be a productive member in society and have the confidence to achieve new goals. Introduction: Day after day, millions of inmates sit in jail doing nothing productive with their lives. We are paying to house inmates that may not even have a good reason to be there. For example, drug offenders are being kept with murderers and other violent offenders.
It means reducing recidivism and imprisonment. It means giving more opportunities, care, and treatment to all Texans. Crime prevention can be achieved by making alternatives to imprisonment more available, not behind a barrier of high
Why the prison system is flawed The american prison system is flawed and should be changed because it is very expensive to keep it running the way it is, the prison system is helping gangs grow and it can be fixed it is possible. I believe that it needs to change so that cities will have more tax money to fix other things and the people who don't deserve to get released won't be. The prison system is very expensive for taxpayers because they have to pay to employ the officers, they have to pay for the building, the tools, the food for them to eat, there clothing and bedding.
In the last thirty years, incarceration rates have skyrocketed to four times of that in 1980, with 1 in every 31 adults being under some form of correctional control. (“Criminal Justice Fact Sheet”) The US now houses 25% of the world’s prisoners, despite containing only 5% of the world’s population. (Khalek) Many factors have contributed to this sharp increase in incarcerations, including zero-tolerance policies, and the school-to-prison pipeline and the War on Drugs (“Criminal Justice Fact Sheet”). However, the largest contributors are the prison industrial complex, which targets and criminalizes minority groups, and the dependence of for-profit prisons on inmate count and prison labor.
As I mentioned above, since the War on Drugs era, the prison population has increased at an alarming rate. Overcriminalization has most of the responsibility for this problem. Along with the overcrowding of prisons, the obstacle of overcriminalization also brings sentencing reform to the table. It puts citizens that had no criminal intent in their actions and non-violent offenders in prison for unjust lengths of time. Serving
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.
Another reason why we’re in this era of mass incarceration is because people started making money off of it. Private prisons emerged, and now people were making millions of dollars off of locking people up. This is like how we’re dealing with Big Pharma today, how medications and treatments cost a fortune, just because these businesses are making millions off people’s suffering. Robert Martinson’s “Nothing Works” article completely changed the trajectory of our correctional policies and the overall purpose of
Imagine being placed into an old run down building with thousands of men or women. A mixture of murders, rapist, drug dealers and just plain criminals, not having enough space to do anything. Welcome to prison. Prisons nationwide face many issues such as overpopulation which can lead to violence and millions of dollars being plunged in these institutions.
"Some are highly predatory, highly psychopathic and have repeated offenses, making them more likely to re-offend," he explains. In the last 10 years, psychologists have made substantial advances in clearly identifying factors that increase an offender 's risk of committing an offense after release, Hanson says. These factors include the number of offenses, intimacy deficits, sexual
Fewer people will get harmed or robbed because felons will realize that 's wrong. Also, With education to prevent recidivism can help the community by lower taxpayer cost for prisons and inmates. Overpopulation rates have been a problem and the cost to create a jail cell is more than a hundred thousand dollars. So imagine the cost to build an entire prison. The taxpayer is paying the increasingly high amount for the maintenance of the prison and for the inmates.
Another example of how the prison system harms the economy is that ever since 1950, the number of people in the prison system has increased exponentially over the last 40 years. There are around 1.46 million people in the United States prison system and 39% of them were in prison for no public safety reason and could have been punished in a less costly and damaging way (such as community service) (Source B). Having low-risk offenders do community service helps the environment and gives the offender a less harsh
Now, overcrowding is a major issue in the United States prison system. According to the FBI Releases Preliminary Semiannual Crime Statistics for 2015, the most common crime was possession drug crimes, followed by property crimes. This shows that majority of those incarcerated in prison are there for nonviolent crimes. The government should change their drug law policies and instead of doing prison time, be forced to pay a hefty fine. This way, it can reduce jail and prison populations and thereby reducing recidivism
Those who find themselves sentenced to time in a penitentiary, jail, or prison are at risk of either being broken or strengthened by the time they spend behind bars. There is a great debate of whether or not the prison system in the United States is positive or negative. The following will briefly highlight the positives, negatives, and possible alternatives for our nation's prison system. First, there is a long list of negatives that the prison system in America brings. The prison system is filled with crime, hate, and negativity almost as much as the free world is.
The blunt facts of mass incarceration for criminal offenders in United are very well known as they house the world’s largest prison population (Raphael & Stoll 2011). As of March 2010, the incarceration population in United States are as high as 2.3 million, making them the world leader in incarcerating its citizens. The jurisdiction believes that prison has an important role to play in protecting the community against offenders and in punishing them for their crime (Foucault, 2009). However, research and evidence have shown that the use of imprisonment has many disadvantages. The rate of growth in criminal justice system has slowed in recent years and the call for prison reforms have largely fallen on deaf ears (Raphael & Stoll, 2011).
This issue led to what is now resulting in mass incarceration. Mass incarceration has been shown to affect mostly poor and minorities. Individuals living in poverty are not afforded the same royalties as those who are not in poverty. They are more willing to commit crimes because of their lack of fortune. The crime rate is more prone to be in urban communities, which hold a significant number of minorities.