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Correctional Philosophies

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Everyday, America is constantly forced to see that one strand of punishment doesn’t work well for the whole society. This particular idea can be concluded seeing that even after our correctional system implemented the philosophies of: deterrence, just desert, restorative justice, incapacitation, and rehabilitation crime still continued to occur. I believe America’s dominant correctional philosophy should be deterrence; the other philosophies mentioned before should be included as well to help reach the main goal of lowering our crime rates. With this thorough concept of applying all the philosophies to power deterrence, this will not only create a balance, but fill the void in the shortcomings of each individual correctional philosophy.
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Within incapacitation, the general population may be deterred when this theory is implemented being that it imprisons offenders by physically removing them from the society when a criminal offense is committed. This punishment could possibly deter individuals because if someone knows they will be imprisoned for a crime that they’ve committed then that could possibly be deterred away from that crime. For those who are not affected and continue to reoffend, to deter them just desert or retribution should be applied. The implementation of what we know today as “an eye for an eye” could help decrease the recidivism rate. Deterrence can be gained through just desert/retribution; individuals may be deterred after if our correctional system takes on a just desert mindset of for “stubborn offenders”. Deterrence along with the other theoretical theories can help change how we view our correctional system. With deterrence as the face of the operation, the other theories can assist in achieving the main goal of lowering the crime rate. These theories aren’t perfect but together they can be a power house within our justice system.
Since the beginning of this course, my idea on our correctional system has changed tremendously. This course helped me to understand theories and concepts of punishments that we have once implemented in our history, and are still being implemented today. History of Corrections has really opened my eyes as to why our society and justice system is what it is today. I have learned so much from this course and hope I will be able to teach these concepts I have learned to other young criminologist in the

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The deterrence theory suggests that “the severity of criminal sanctions dissuades other potential offenders from committing crimes out of fear of punishment. ”4 That is applicable to the individuals that are punished and to people in the community. Nevertheless, prison’s effectiveness is often questioned as an effective deterrent to crime. Studies have shown that longer sentences have a small effect on whether offenders commit crimes or not, and the National Academy of Sciences determined that “insufficient evidence exists to justify predicating policy choices on the general assumption that harsher punishments yield measurable deterrent effects.

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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.

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In today’s society, it seems as though everybody has their own theory as to what makes a criminal act the way they do, but also the perfect solution and sentence needed to correct it. History has proven that not all methods of incarceration are successful when given to every criminal, instead it is necessary that each model also be compared with theories of criminal behavior to assess the course of treatment which will allow the convicted individual the highest chance of success and rehabilitation. Before I begin it is imperative that we fully understand each correctional model and behavioral theory, therefore, we can truly gain an understanding of their strengths and weaknesses. There are currently five correctional models: The medical

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In this sense, advocates of rehabilitation see the opportunity to use the criminal justice system as part of a larger social welfare”(Wright, 2012, p. 1.6). Correctional professionals can use criminal theory to help them understand why certain criminals do and commit the crimes they have. With criminal theory there are many different theories as to why criminals become criminals. If correctional professionals were to take a class on understanding criminal behavior or criminal theory I honestly believe that it would help them in understanding how to help certain inmates achieve rehabilitation or self confidence. When trying to understand why people commit crimes, correctional professionals should have an understanding on how to treat and take care

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Incapacitation refers to removing an offender’s capacity to commit further criminal offences (Carison et al). Incapacitation focuses on two approaches, selective and collective. Selective incapacitation is reserved for repeat offenders. It has emerged from the ideal that the overall crime rate would be reduced if chronic

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The punishment is that they are with us” (Paragraph 2). Instead, prisons focus on rehabilitation. Most citizens understand that in order to have long term effects, it take long processes that take a while to get used to. “The country’s well-education population [appreciate] that almost all prisoners will return to society. They understand [...] that the more the penal system can do within the small window of opportunity during a prisoner’s incarceration, the better it will be in the long run” (Paragraph 15).

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This is the belief that criminal sentences should be designed to protect society by removing dangerous offenders from the community. It is closely aligned with imprisonment and, in some cases, capital punishment (Legal Information Institute, 4). The idea is that if dangerous offenders are removed from society, they will be unable to harm others. Supporters of incapacitation argue that it is necessary to protect society from dangerous criminals and that imprisonment is the most effective way to do

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Through the decades, crime and crime control have been analyzed in an attempt to find the causes of crime and decide how to combat them. The United States showed an increase in their prison population in the 1970s when the country turned towards a more punitive justice system. Referred to as just deserts theory of crime, the aim is to inflict as much pain on the offender through harsh prison sentences, in hopes to cause as much pain as the crime they committed. The worse the crime is, the worse the punishment the criminal will endure. The issue surrounding just deserts theory is the vast amount of offenders who return to prison after being released, also known as the recidivism rate.

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Instead of following classical criminology’s form of punishment, specific deterrence. The punishment must be severe in order to overcome the pleasure and benefits from committing the crime. Although in this case, the inmates’ health will remain the same or

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Criminological theories have been created by numerous scholars in an attempt to have a better understanding on how to manage crime. The Classical theory is, without a doubt, one of the most significant theories established for the criminal justice system development. Theories, such as the classical theory, facilitate people’s comphrension about crime and all of its aspects. And, at the same time theories may benefit authorities who are able to create, modify and enforce laws based on research. Basically, this theory is the foundation of the current criminal justice system practices in the United States.

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General and Specific deterrence have good and bad effects on citizens. It prevents crime and some cases and fuels the rage in some. General deterrence focuses on preventing the crime before it happens. The thought of spending life in prison for committing a murder is very scary to me. You would think that could deter criminals from committing that crime.

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In the criminal justice system, the corrections component is also responsible for the rehabilitation of the convicted individual. It is their duty to attempt to make the defendant a productive member of society once again. Based on the individual’s behavior while incarcerated, the court and corrections officials may decide to place them on parole, which ensures that the individual will comply with the rules of society once they are fully released from the system. The criminal justice system is an essential role in the organizational structure of not only the United States but also in countries around the world. If there were no criminal justice system to administer punishment, the world would be unstructured, disorganized, unjustified, cruel, and not to mention a chaotic place for it citizens.

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This approach also prevents overcrowding in prisons because it also deals with rehabilitative

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