Recommended: Four goals of corrections
The current justice system is examined as well and is decided that many changes need to be made. The idea proposes that much of the punishment system is too forgiving and that our system should be more firm to assure a smaller crime rate. The second viewpoint presented stated that reconstruction should be lenient.
The prison system itself is corrupted and unfair to those individuals in it. Even though there are reform programs within the prisons, many prisoners return to prison due to inconsistent follow ups and the absence of these programs outside of prison. This creates high recidivism rates because they have a place to sleep and guaranteed meals and outside of prison it’s harder from them to have access to all of that. Elliot Currie states, “As we have crammed more and more offenders into prison, we have simultaneously retreated from the already minimal commitment to help them reenter productive society.” When the Eastern State Penitentiary was first opened in 1829, its main focus was to rehabilitate prisoners so they could reenter society (Eastern State Penitentiary).
The next goal of deterrence is that imprisonment is not so much a deterrent for the offender rather for others in society who are thinking of committing crimes and the fear of prison should deter them from going through with their actions (Sykes, 2007). The last goal of deterrence, imprisonment will keep offenders away from society thus they are not able to prey on the community (Sykes, 2007). The last justification for imprisonment is reform. The use of reform as a justification for imprisonment is based on the idea that prisons can eradicate the causal factors of crimes within an individual and imprisonment can be used as a mean to keep the offender long enough in order for that goal to be accomplished. Based on the entirety of the book, the ground punishment seems to be more closely aligned with the New Jersey State Prison in the 1950s.
During this time period, there was a large controversy over the purpose of prison – was it for punishment or atonement? After the war of 1812, there was a small campaign to put children who had committed crimes in juvenile detention centers rather than jails. However, that was not the biggest reform movement directed at the prison system at the time. Dorothea Dix and several others, including Francis Lieber and Samuel Gridley Howe, began to take action and revise the American Prison System. Their goal was simple: to transform prisons into ones that reformed rather than incarcerated their inmates (Faragher 440).
Corr_106_Unit2 / 1. The hands-off period when the courts did not respond to inmate claims. This was general practice in the early history of corrections and basically continued until the 1960s. Correctional Administrators were left to their own devices in how to deal with the inmate. Some methods were harsh.
Before the reform, punishments for crimes were harsh and unfair. Crimes as small as stealing a rabbit, being sneaky in the dark, and cutting down a tree could get someone sent to Australia, branded, whipped, put in the stocks, or even sentenced to death, no matter their age or gender. Prisons were meant to be places where criminals were put for short periods of time, usually until their trial or until they paid their taxes or loans. However, over time, people started saying that the death sentence was highly unethical and not good for children, who would watch these public executions, and started petitioning for a change. Prisons started being built with the intent of reforming prisoners by keeping them isolated and doing physical labor, giving them more time to reflect on themselves.
On the one hand, we have a very short period, albeit by using very rigid and painful measures, not to destroy the old system, but to build a solid foundation on which those who deserve the penalty will pay it. On the other hand, those who dispense justice will not even think that the law has the rank, status, and most importantly the price. The main goal of reforming Criminal Justice is a prosperous society where the right and duty of a single citizen have unquestioning force for State itself and each individual
In prisons today, they are large, guarded, organized penitentiaries that rehabilitate prisoners in a controlled and heavily guarded environment while also doing it in humanitarian ways. This system of prisons allows people who have committed crimes to learn from their mistakes and become better people after their sentence. This wasn't always the case, however, before the antebellum period, prisons were unorganized, poorly funded, and run, and their morals were completely based on physically harming prisoners to “teach them a lesson.” Before this movement, the crime rates across the United States surged with a large increase of immigrants moving to the country. Due to this, there was a large need for a change in the prison system so reformers
How has the concept of incarceration evolved over time?(1500-2000 words) In this paper I will be demonstrating how prison has transformed over the past two decades. Michael Foucault is one of the most important and influential humanistic and social scientific disciplines. He published the “ Discipline and Punish” book , and suggested in order to achieve effective control by stating “to punish less, perhaps; but certainly to punish better”.
The issue of mass increase in the number of aging inmates has become a major concern for the government agencies and researchers. This is based on the resulting social and economic impact that the growing population of elderly inmates impose. As Rikard and Rosenberg (2013) notes, the trend of rapidly increasing population of prisoners above fifty five years is likely to go higher unless the current federal and state laws are reviewed to come up with a possible solution to deal with the associated impacts of the elderly population in prisons. According to the research conducted on the causes of this trend, it is noted that the shift of sentencing from rehabilitative to incapacitating sentence after the Vietnam War can be attributed to be the cause of the current situation in prisons in addition to resulting to overpopulation in correctional facilities.
The true evil in this situation is the unreasonable length of sentencing now, considering that longer sentencing has been shown to have a negligible effect on crime. This strategy of increasing prison terms falls under one of prisons three categories for preventing crime which are punishments, corrections and deterrence. The theory behind more severe punishments is that it would deter people who do not wish to be penalized. Looking at the causes for decreasing crime rates from 1990 to 2013 the percentage that increased sentencing and incarceration contributes, is on a steady decline, falling from a percentage of 7 to as low as 1 percent (“What caused…”). Along with not being sufficiently effective at stopping crime, greater sentencing and fewer chances to be released has created a costly problem.
Punishment is defined as the deliberate infliction of pain on a person for the sake of attaining revenge (Gilligan, 2000, p. 746). The social construct of punishment is prison; it is putting the wrongdoer behind bars. Society seeks revenge, and revenge can be prison. Penitentiaries or prisons are institutions, the main purpose is to inflict pain on people for the sake of revenge (Gilligan, 2000, p. 746). Furthermore, punishment tends to be subjective and irrational in comparison to being objective which would remove the emotion.
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).
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.
There is a worldwide trend in the use of penal imprisonment for serious offenses as capital punishment has been renounced by an increasing number of countries. Harsh punishments include capital punishment, life imprisonment and long-term incarceration. These forms of punishments are usually used against serious crimes that are seen as unethical, such as murder, assault and robbery. Many people believe that harsher punishments are more effective as they deter would-be criminals and ensure justice is served. Opposition towards harsh punishments have argued that harsher punishments does not necessarily increase effectiveness because they do not have a deterrent effect, do not decrease recidivism rates and do not provide rehabilitation.
