There are many subjects in the book “The Essentials of Criminal Justice.” Through the fourteen chapters, the chapter I will be discussing is chapter eleven. Chapter eleven talks about the history of correctional institutions, jails, prisons, and alternate correctional institutions. In this paper, I will be discussing only part of chapter eleven. It will be discussing the history of the correctional Institutions which includes the following: the history of the correctional institutions, the origin of corrections in the United States, the development of prisons, the New York and Pennsylvania systems, and the comparisons of the 19th and 20th century correction systems.
In “Are Prisons Obsolete,” Angela Davis, an American activist who served 16 months in prison before being acquitted, argues that today's prison systems fail to address the root causes of crime. Despite their intended purpose, prisons lack the structure needed to rehabilitate inmates. We become so quick to assume that imprisoning criminals leads to a safer environment. As prisons continue to expand and their inmate population rises, they become embedded in society's norms without the consent of the people or critical examination of their effectiveness. Davis argues for reform, noting that the current system has serious flaws in addressing criminal behavior, as she believes crime will continue to persist and keep growing exponentially within
Since the 1940’s, incarceration included three models according to Cole, Smith, and De Jong (2014). Incarceration is based upon the custodial model, the rehabilitation model, and the reintegration model. The custodial model presumes that every inmate is incarcerated because of the idea of deterrence, retribution and incapacitation. Within the model order, discipline, and security are accentuated all throughout incarceration. During the 1950’s, the rehabilitation model was developed to highlight and design treatment programs for offenders.
Over the past 40 years U.S. incarceration has grown at an extraordinary rate, with the United States’ prison population increasing from 320,000 inmates in 1980 to nearly 2.3 million inmates in 2013. The growth in prison population is in part due to society’s shift toward tough on crime policies including determinate sentencing, truth-in-sentencing laws, and mandatory minimums. These tough on crime policies resulted in more individuals committing less serious crimes being sentenced to serve time and longer prison sentences. The 1970s-1980s: The War on Drugs and Changes in Sentencing Policy Incarceration rates did rise above 140 persons imprisoned per 100,000 of the population until the mid 1970s.
However, the penalty stands to be only temporary. Studies have shown that only seventy-one percent of those released from prison are convicted of a serious crime within only three years after their releasement ( ). Is prison housing the criminals or teaching them? A correctional facility is built to correct and rehabilitate, however prison systems in America appear to be only a short stop before the production of the criminals grand plan. The majority of those who are sentenced to prison have a high rate of returning due to their difficulty in gaining a position with a self-sustaining wage and a lack knowledge on a life without crime.
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.
From an incapacitative through retributive and to what it is today, the U.S prison system has endured. This institution has for years served as a tool for coping with evil and crime through various measures such as retribution, deterrence, and rehabilitation. However, some major challenges still exist. The overreliance on prison as the paramount means of handling the offenders has led to a system that is overburdened. Still, the history of the U.S jail shows an institution that has gone through changes and challenged its functions and practices in the effort to achieve justification and bring order in the
With drug treatment, more probation, and community service, inmates will get the true chance to change for the better without having to face imprisonment. Cullen’s research says “... Sometimes, longer stays can even increase recidivism” (Cullen). Sometimes, serving a long sentence for a small crime makes the inmates worse off instead of better. This is why alternatives to incarceration are so important not only for the inmates, but it helps with overcrowding. Although the alternatives solve mass incarceration, it does not solve the agendas being pushed out that cause a lot of people to be arrested.
The sophisticated process of how offenders are processed through each stage of the criminal justice system reveals a complex network of policies, steps, and perspectives that aim to maintain social harmony and reduce crime rates. In this narrative essay, I will delve into the journey of an inmate through the system, evaluate the effectiveness of “Get Tough on Crime” measures, analyze the role of the corrections system in rehabilitation, and discuss mandatory minimum sentences. It also explores and questions the concept of punishment for theft, defines deterrence and discusses its types, considers the Three-Strikes Laws, and examines the advantages of moving from fixed to flexible
Community corrections were introduced in the 1970’s and provide sanction programs designed to decrease on jail or prison incarceration rates. It is a range of alternative punishments for nonviolent offenders. This program was referred to as front end sentencing because they allowed judges to sentence offenders to a community based punishment rather than jail or prison. Community corrections are starting to affect our prisons and jail houses in many ways. One of the ways community corrections affects the prison population is by decreasing overcrowding and provides less expensive alternatives to prisons and jails.
Criminal legislation and incarceration have long been used as a means to control "powerless" and disadvantaged groups in America. These groups are socially and politically neglected and only receive attention when they are perceived to be a threat to the larger society and then the attention comes in the form of control and punishment (Page, 1993). The control generally manifests itself through crime legislation and the punishment through incarceration. By the end of 2005, there were more than 7 million people under some form of criminal justice supervision (Glaze & Bonczar 2006; Harrison & Beck, 2006a). With such a large and growing number of people under correctional control during a time in which crime rates had either fallen or were stabilizing raises important questions about the purpose and consequences of this institutional intervention.
The Restorative Justice Program is a widely accepted reform in the criminal justice system that aims to repair the harm caused by criminal behavior and restore the relationships between the offenders and the victims. The Restorative Justice Program is designed to provide an influential alternative to the punishment-based system we have now. This program has been implemented (to a varying extent) in many countries with overwhelming success, including the United States, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom. I will examine the design and function of the Restorative Justice Program, its target populations, and its components in the corrections system. I will also explore the reasons why we should show interest and its potential as a promising
In 2013, the total federal prison system had a capacity rated to hold 132,221 inmates, yet there were 176,484 inmates behind federal bars that year. In some correctional institutions, the inmate population has been 50 percent over the rated capacity. This is number is only expected to be larger in the present day. This over capcity
Overview Incarceration systems are referred to as being schools for crime. There is a general idea that the incarceration of offenders creates a more
A community model of corrections provides offenders with the necessary support to reintegrate successfully in to the community. Although some offenders are successful during reentry some become homeless, violate terms of their parole of re-offending out of desperation; financially they have no means or they’re looking for a faster way to obtain
