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Analysis Of The Caging Of America By Adam Gopnik

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Recommended: Studies conducted on mass incarceration

The article The Caging of America by Adam Gopnik was published in 2005 and explains that mass incarceration can be divided into two theories, the Northern and the Southern. The Northern theory “focused on the inheritance of the notorious Eastern State Penitentiary and its ‘reformist’ tradition” (Gopnik, 2012). William J. Stuntz, who was a criminal justice scholar and professor at Harvard University, believed that the Enlightenment Era played a role in the prison system and shaped what it is today. He states that “the scandal of our prisons derives from the Enlightenment Eras procedural nature of American Justice” (Gopnik, 2012). More so, Stuntz did not approve of the Bill of Rights which he described as inferior to The French Declaration of …show more content…

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 …show more content…

Last semester, I enrolled in the Organized Crime course here at St. John’s University and the professor was an active member of the New York Police Department. He taught us that a key factor to policing is maintaining a presence. Throughout the class he mentioned an area in Staten Island that is ravished with drug use, and how increased and noticeable police presence in the area allowing the drug users and sellers to know they are “on the spot”. An increased police presence benefits the safety and reassurance of the residents as well as allows for deterrence and accountability for the criminals. As far as stop-and-frisk it has since been deemed unconstitutional since the publication of this article. However, some people still feel that it should be reinstated, me being one of them and President Donald Trump being another. During the first presidential debate President Trump was quoted as saying that stop-and-frisk worked very well in New York City and that it “bought the crime rate way down and you take the gun away from criminals who shouldn’t be having it” (Shabad,

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Introduction: We as a society face many issues. Due to our diversity as a country, the values and beliefs of one culture battle against another. II. We must address the current standing issues that we face, but before we can do that, we must understand them.

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1. What is the definition of custody and treatment? a. Custody: the activities within a prison that control inmate behavior and maintain order. b. Treatment: “is the creation of an environment and provision of rehabilitative programs that encourage inmates to accept responsibility and to address personal disorders that make success in the community more difficult.” 2.

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Tiana McCroskey Criminal Procedure Jamal Lopez 04, March 2016 Stop, Question and Frisk policy Stop, question, and frisk is an NYPD policy where a police officer can detain a suspect, question them and frisk them by patting down the suspect’s clothing based off reasonable suspicion. (Washington post).Stop and frisk policy is a controversial issue due to the rise of disagreement with in the public. Are the reforms to stop and frisk policy making New York City dangerous again? In order to answer that question we must first have to analyze the pros and cons of the policy to determine a proper answer for the question. Let’s first take a look at some positive attributes of this policy.

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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.

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It is stated in Broken Windows Theory that if you deal with the small crimes then it will help deter the larger ones. Stop and frisk is supposed to help deter the smaller crimes, however, many believed that there was too much emphasis on Broken Windows and that 's what lead to the stop and frisk procedures getting out of hand. While the city has all but stopped doing stop and frisk, broken windows still remains. It is unclear if Bratton and de Brasio will budge on broken windows. For example, the city will no longer arrest people for publicly possessing under 25 grams of marijuana which is a common broken windows

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The article “Prisoner Reentry in a Small Metropolitan Community: Obstacles and Policy Recommendations” by Brett Garland, Eric J. Wodahl, and Julie Mayfield explains how the study proves that rehabilitation services provided during imprisonment for inmates that are going to reentry society are beneficial. In the study 43 male offenders were asked to identify which programs help them or that can help them to reentry society. It is mention in the article that the main obstacles male offenders face after reentering includes employment and reconnection with their

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Stop-and-Frisk violates that right of citizens by frisking them on the streets. They do not stop to show them a permit or anything like that. “Under the Fourth Amendment to the US constitution adopted as a part of the Bill of Rights in 1791. ‘The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizure, shall not be violated and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.’ Stop-and-Frisk fails to abide by the rights of others, and that is unfair and unreasonable.

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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).

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Life after incarceration, here today gone tomorrow. 95% of adults sentenced to prison will return to our communities, and reentry will be their first step back into society. Imagine have a thousand questions flooding one’s mind all at once. Where will I live, how will I survive, and contribute to the family, while maintaining to the stipulations of one’s parole/ probation, without risking freedom. The number one goal for those newly released back into society by way of the reentry program is to never return to the inside of a prison cell.

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When the American prison system began, it was believed that rehabilitation, the act of restoring one’s character, could be beneficial for criminals to start over. According to Tom Wicker, “The system…began as a reform impulse, the idea that if offenders were isolated, shielded from the public mockery that had accompanied hangings and the stocks, given time to repent, and worked hard, they could be turned away from crime and transformed into useful citizens” (xii). Criminals could become better citizens and have a positive outlook for a future if they worked hard and were secluded from the outside world. Although this idea seems more humane, it did not last long in the prison system because many people believed that any crime committed deserved

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Arguments: One of the most convincing arguments is that it drastically decreases crime rates according to the statistics. Numerous studies have shown that this method “stop and frisk” has actually decreased crime rates. This fact is opposed by many saying that police are targeting minorities and meaningfully stop and frisking them. However, according to Jay Stalien an African American officer “it will ALWAYS have a higher rate of blacks getting stopped, and will ALWAYS have a higher rate of blacks getting killed … The statistics will follow the same trend for Asians if you go to China”.

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While "tough on crime" policies may be effective in incapacitating offenders, little consideration has been given to the impact this mass incarceration effort has had on offenders following their release from prison. Every year more than 600,000 people are released from jails and prisons to face the challenge of re-entering society in a productive capacity (Geiger, 2006; Travis, Solomon, & Waul, 2001). Due to the collateral consequences of a criminal conviction, reintegration is often met with a host of daunting and unnecessary barriers. Black Americans comprise a major segment of the neglected population and when they are released from prison the barriers to reintegration are often compounded by the stigma of their racial classification and the mark of a criminal

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Talks about is the stop-and-frisk legal in the United States and they have the fourth amendment on this situation. Terry v Ohio case resulted in the stop-and-frisk issue. HISTORY: Stop-and-frisk also known as “stop-and-search, began in the 1950’s. It gave police the legal right to search someone warrantless, if it had something to do with the law.

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The theories of Restorative Justice and Utilitarianism seem to have much in common. Both aim to reach a virtuous response to crime, and therefore they are positive and forward looking. Utilitarians argue that punishing offenders crimes are likely to be reduced. Jeremy Bentham identified two objectives for punishment that share the same idea. Specific deterrence and general deterrence purpose are to increase the "price" for a criminal act in order to discourage potential offenders from choosing to commit crimes.

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The concept of ‘recidivism’ is central to understanding the criminal justice system. Recidivism occurs when a person commits a crime again despite having been punished before. One of the main goals of the criminal justice system is to reduce recidivism but in fact longer sentences may increase the probability of recidivism (Griffiths & Cunningham, 2000). One reason is that the climate within a prison is not helpful to the inmate in making personal changes that can lead to reduced recidivism. However, psychologists are trying to develop intervention programmes that in fact lead to such personal changes so as to reduce recidivism.

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