Prison Reform Research Paper

989 Words4 Pages

Does it make sense to lock up 2.4 million people on any given day, giving the U.S the highest incarceration rate in the world. More people are going to jail, this implies that people are taken to prison everyday for many facilities and many go for no reason. People go to jail and get treated the worst way as possible. This is a reason why the prison system needs to be changed. Inmates need to be treated better. The government treats prisoners as if they are nothing in this world. The U.S prison system needs to be reformed by building new and better prisons and making it more humane and fair. Looking back to the prison history. Incarceration has not always been a common form of punishment. Back then people wanted to reform and change the way …show more content…

In order to do this they need to make new centers to help prisoners inside better themselves. In Alabama prisons may soon shut down 14 of its prisons for overcrowding, neglect, and violence in the state’s correction systems. In the prison St. Clair Holman in Alabama the prison system makes prisoners act different. There is no safety, security or supervision. “We have people being killed, sexually assaulted, raped, stabbed on daily basis at St. Clair, Holman, and multiple facilities; it’s a systemwide problem,” said Charlotte Morrison, a senior attorney at the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), which represents Alabama prisoner.” Within this quote we see that in St. Clair prison, inmates get raped and stabbed. These are reasons why prisons should be reformed. Prisoners shouldn’t be hurt for whatsoever problems. Conversely, Penal Reform International article suggested different reasons to reform prisons one that stood out to reform the particular prison in Alabama was this, Provide a healthy, safe environment. “Spaces that are filled with sunlight, outside views, therapeutic color schemes and normalized materials, encourage inmates’ participation, reduce stress, incidents and assaults and decrease staff absenteeism.” Considering the fact that prisoners in Alabama are brutally hurting each other in their cells, we can conclude that if prisons provided a safe environment bad …show more content…

Prison is not the best place to be in, you’re held in jail for breaking the law and you get punishment. Though the punishment is very cruel. Anyone would have felt unsafe being with other criminals and locked up with no way out. In the same article as the previous on, about St. Clair Holman in Alabama it stated, “On the night of March 11, prisoners’ frustration over living conditions at Holman finally boiled over. Aguard responding to a fight between inmates was stabbed. When Warden Davenport arrived at the scene, he was stabbed too. For several hours, up to 100 prisoners took over a dorm, setting fires and carrying makeshift weapons.” What the author is trying to say is that inmates became so frustrated with the fact that their dorms are to packed that they decided to make a riot. Setting fires and running around the cells with makeshift weapons shows how highly these prisoners hate their living conditions. In order to help this prison in Alabama they need to change how things are. Additionally, in order to help prisoners to civilize they need centers in the prison to help them. Prisoners inside be able to talk to someone about their issues. Dr Marayca Lopez from penal reform international wrote a article about ‘How to build for success: prison design and infrastructure as a tool for rehabilitation. “A new generation of rehabilitation centers should provide spaces that reduce stress, fear and trauma; spaces that