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Redefining The Prison System Essay

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Recommended: Roles of the Prisons

Terra Bartholomew
Lorrie Ross
Eng 102
3/17/2023
Multiple Proposal Research Paper
Redefining the Prison System
It is assumed that in America, the land of the free, the justice system would be free from systematic problems but it’s not. The justice and prison systems are malfunctional and almost always inhumane to their prisoners. These systems have solutions to their inadequacies, and can be changed, however. One of the biggest systematic problems with the prison and justice systems is the monetization of prisons. They have turned most of all American prisons into incarceration for profit schemes run by corporations. Because of the monetization and privatization of prison, the focus of prisons is corrupted. The purpose of a prison is theoretically, …show more content…

This is mainly because prisons do not focus on what they should be focusing on. Their program is made to punish prisoners, not rehabilitate them. The driving force behind this is society’s mentality that prisons should not ‘go easy’ on criminals, but that they should punish them thoroughly for their wrongdoings. As a result, the prison program focuses on fixing errant behavior and not addressing the mental issues, often childhood trauma, a criminal has that often leads to criminal behavior. They are further traumatized by being constantly dehumanized and being allowed no personal safe space inside the prison. (Bloom and Bradshaw, 1-2) By actively maintaining that program, they hurt a very statistically likely already hurt person more and more, depending on how long the prisoner’s sentence is. This does not make them ready to re-enter society in any respect, and quite often just trains them to be better criminals. Often young criminals who are given a long sentence grow up inside the prison and get taught how to be a better criminal by older prison mates. To change a person who has committed crime into a repentant person, you need to rehabilitate them. Find out how or why they were hurting in the first place, try to heal them of that. As well as educate them on better ways they could …show more content…

“The Progressive Programming Facility: A Rehabilitative, Cost-Effective Solution to California’s Prison Problem.” University of the Pacific Law Review, vol. 48, no. 2, Apr. 2017, pp. 449–73. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=122658402&site=ehost-live.
Reid, Melanie. “The Culture of Mass Incarceration: Why ‘Locking Them up and Throwing Away the Key’ Isn’t a Humane or Workable Solution for Society, and How Prison Conditions and Diet Can Be Improved.” University of Maryland Law Journal of Race, Religion, Gender & Class, vol. 15, no. 2, Fall 2015, pp. 251–92. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=115790489&site=ehost-live.
Scott, DeWitt. “Developing the Prison-to-School Pipeline: A Paradigmatic Shift in Educational Possibilities During an Age of Mass Incarceration.” Journal of Correctional Education, vol. 68, no. 3, Dec. 2017, pp. 41–52. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=146987529&site=ehost-live.
White, Delrisha. “Capitalism and California’s Urgent Need to Reform the Prison Volunteer Program.” Harvard BlackLetter Law Journal, vol. 35, Apr. 2019, pp. 73–76. EBSCOhost,

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