Prisons and Punishments
Do you ever think about life behind iron bars? Locked up in a six by eight foot cell with another
prisoner. Those who have committed a severe enough crime are sentenced to spend a portion of their lives in horrendous prison conditions. Prison conditions should not be an additional punishment. While some prisons have adequate standards, prisons around the world let their inmates suffer in horrid conditions: violence, sexual abuse, and overcrowding are some of the many.
By the end of 2013, there were nearly 1.6 million people incarcerated in the US, forty six percent of these people have been involved in a form of prison violence. Types of prison violence can include murder, manslaughter, forcible rape, theft, and aggravated assault. Poor prison management is a large factor in the cause of these violent acts and nothing is being improved to deter such acts. With statistics on prison violence so high how does one except a prisoner to become rehabilitated? With poor prison management comes high violence rates; “violent prison conditions deter inmates from re-entering society successfully.”(Wikipedia Prison Violence) Violence in prisons is the beginning of a long line of many other problems.
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“In 1974 Carl Weiss and David James Friar wrote that 46 million Americans would one day be incarcerated; of that number, they claimed, 10 million would be raped.”(Breaking out of...the Eight Amendment) A prison that is up to standard should not let their inmates fall into situations with a potential of sexual abuse. Poor prison conditions cause inmates to feel out of control; to regain control many inmates sexually assault fellow prisoners. When an inmate is sexually abused it can negatively impact their psychological state, causing them to have trouble forming themselves back into society. Smaller prisons with an excess amount of prisoners is where this problem becomes more