More handpicked essays just for you.
Argumentative essay on whether solitary confinement should be abolished in U.S. prisons
Theories outling solitary confinement
Studies on prison systems
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
How would you feel if you were thrown in an American prison in the horrendous state they are in today? Many people are content with the prison system we have. In the essay, “Why Prisons Don’t Work,” Wilbert Rideau, an African American man who was convicted of murder at age nineteen, challenges this complacency with the system and claims prisons do not change the convict from the person they were when they committed the crime. Putting uneducated people who made silly, impulsive choices in jail is not the way to make a community safer. Prisons do not offer good rehabilitation programs for inmates.
Imagine being trapped in a damp, dark, cage as a form of punishment for something that seems completely out of your grasp. Prisons were understaffed and as barbaric as it gets the people charged with crimes were whipped. The primary cause for their creation was to keep the crooks from harming any people right? Everyone in solitary confinement is treated the same way but not everyone came for the same reason. In fact, mentally ill people were considered to be harsh maniacs which did not receive treatment for a long time.
It’s Just Punishment One of the first arguments supporting solitary confinement is the idea of punishment. When prisoners misbehave while serving their sentence, they may be put into solitary confinement so as to be punished for this misbehavior. This activity may include fighting, gang violence, or even drug affiliation. Many believe that this solitary confinement will aid in the reformation of the prisoner’s character, by allowing them time to reflect on their actions, or moreover, it is the best option available when no other form of punishment is successful.
Solitary confinement is the act of housing a convict for 22-23 hours a day in an isolated cell, completely free from any human contact for an extended period of time. Going from days to possibly decades while sitting in these cells. There are more than 80,000 men, women, and children in solitary confinement in prisons across the United States according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Not including thousands more in jails, juvenile facilities, immigration detention centers and military prisons. After experiencing confinement some inmates suffer from negative mental health effects that can possibly lead to suicide.
Solitary is still used today in prisons but as a punishment, and the prisoners aren’t keep for long periods of time because of the dangers it could cause to their mental
Why the prison system is flawed The american prison system is flawed and should be changed because it is very expensive to keep it running the way it is, the prison system is helping gangs grow and it can be fixed it is possible. I believe that it needs to change so that cities will have more tax money to fix other things and the people who don't deserve to get released won't be. The prison system is very expensive for taxpayers because they have to pay to employ the officers, they have to pay for the building, the tools, the food for them to eat, there clothing and bedding.
Unfortunately, there are racial disparities in the United States in the legal system. Prison sentences imposed on African American males in the federal system are nearly 20 percent longer than white males convicted of similar crimes. The 1994 Crime Bill signed by President Clinton established mandatory minimum sentences. African American and Latino offenders sentenced in state and federal courts face greater odds of incarceration than white offenders who are in similar situations and receive longer sentences than whites in some jurisdictions. Research has shown that race plays a significant role in determination on which homicide cases resulted in death sentences.
Prison Problems in the U.S. The United States have the biggest incarceration rate in the world. Our prisons are full of convicts, rapists, and murderers. One of our biggest problems are is that we don't have enough money too feed them and keep a roof over their heads. Another issue is the proportion of middle aged men in our country are either black or hispanic.
I know most inmates get jobs within the jail that pay very little like 20 cents an hour so imagine an inmate barely having enough to purchase some soap or food, then they have to face the challenge of having to pay for their stay? On the other side I also understand the Civil rights side which is the side I 'm going with, although their argument is very weak. It doesn 't necessarily create a barrier to rehabilitation, if anything it just puts a huge strain financially and it could possibly make people never want go back to jail. Lastly whether or not they paid taxes in the past, shouldn 't matter, what matters is if they pay taxes after their incarceration maybe that way the government can get some money back from an inmates ' previous
While at St. Gertrude, Rose would often wander away and have sexual encounters with men. Staff noticed her condition worsening during her time at the school. Dr Bertram S Brown, the former Director of the National Institute of Mental Health, documented that “a neurological disturbance or disease of some sort seemingly had overtaken her and it was becoming The United States incarcerates more people than any other developed nation. While the U.S. population has doubled since the 1950s, the population in state and federal prisons has swollen by over eight hundred percent during that time period. Several policies have resulted in the today’s mass incarnation rates, causing absurd financial strains to state and national budgets that deflect taxpayer money from much needed services, in order to pay for the housing of incarcerated individuals.
Solitary confinement began as a standard punishment of the penitentiary system in the United States in the nineteenth century. It was a response to the philosophical transformation influenced by the Enlightenment, that sought to distance punishment from brutality (Cloud, Drucker, Browne, & Parsons, 2015). The penitentiary system was developed as a more humane alternative to the torture and executions that were happening in England (Cloud et al., 2015). Instead of having corporal and capital punishment, such as public hangings and whippings, individuals were confined to their own cells (Guenther, 2013). Supporters, such as the Quakers, believed that this confinement would force the individuals to confront their own conscience, and they would
To give a little history on sentencing, jails, and incarceration, it was invented by Quakers, members of the Religious Society of Friends, a faith that emerged as a new Christian denomination in England during a period of religious turmoil in the mid-1600 's and is practiced today in a variety of forms around the world. To members of this religion, the words "Quaker"and "Friend" mean the same thing(). The modern prison was invented by the Quakers in the late eighteenth century to provide an alternate to the cruel ways in which criminals were then being punished in the United States-by death mutilation, flogging, or public humiliation, among others (Davis 17). . Imprisonment is a better idea than death or any kind of torture which seemed like
The health care system services in the prison has many flaws in the services that they provide for the prisoners, which can varies among individual by sex, race, and others account. According to Young (2000), “The majority of women in U.S. prisons belong to groups which systematically experience race, class, and, of course, gender oppression. On an individual level, the institutionalized nature of oppression means that people are not afforded the same opportunities to pursue economic, social, and personal well-being” (p. 220). The rate of incarceration females in prison and jails per 100,000 were black females 260 per 100,000, Hispanic females 133 per 100,000, and White female were 91 per 100,000 (US Department of Justice, 2015).The health
Prisons can be used as a tool of political repression to punish what are deemed political crimes, often without trial or other legal due process; this use is illegal under most forms of international law governing fair administration of justice. In times of war, prisoners of war or detainees may be detained in military prisons or prisoner of war camps, and large groups of civilians might be imprisoned in internment camps. However, the concept of the modern prison largely remained unknown until the early 19th-century. Punishment usually consisted of physical forms of punishment, including capital punishment, mutilation, flagellation (whipping), branding, and non-physical punishments, such as public shaming rituals (like the stocks).
Suppose there is a man, this man is married and also has three children whom he provides for. Now imagine another man, this man is a criminal and is sentenced to 55 long years in prison for his crimes. Based on the second description one may think this man would have committed a violent or at least very damaging crime. In reality, the crimes committed were not violent and some may argue, not even damaging. The aforementioned men are one in the same and describe the case of Weldon Angelo.
