Rehabilitation In Prison

Rehabilitation in Prison Prison is one of the main sources of punishment as well as rehabilitation in the United States and began as penitentiaries designed to form a more perfect society but quickly became overcrowded, understaffed and dangerous places. The prison system of today fails to meet the needs of the current situation in the United States and requires the cooperation of the public, prison officials as well as the government to fix our broken prison system. Prisons in the United States are currently not focusing enough on rehabilitation and using outdated methods causing psychological trauma leading to a higher chance of criminals returning to a life of crime.

Two of the main problems of the prison system in the United States

Solitary confinement not only fails to rehabilitate but often times causes extensive damage to the minds of the incarcerated. It is no secret that solitary confinement has adverse effects on prisoners and can lead to mental breakdowns as well as suicide. In an article by Alayna Demartini titled “Long Terms in Solitary Can Warp Minds, Critics Say” guest speaker and director of the Human Rights Watch, Jamie Fellner asserts that “Leaving inmates alone for days with little or no outside contact can be harmful to their psychological health”(Demartini 3). The inmates that are the worst damaged are those who enter solitary with an existing low mental health as well as juveniles are at high risk of psychological damage. Not only is this method not effective but prisons across the states are making prisoners spend months at a time inside solitary confinement. A study done by the Star Tribune Newspaper in Minnesota reported that “in the past decade more than 1,600 inmates in that state had spent half a year or more in solitary confinement. More than 400 had been isolated in their cells for more than a year”(Miller 2). These numbers are disgraceful due to the fact that it can take just a few hours for prisoners to calm down in solitary confinement after an altercation. These long stints with little to no human interaction can bring even the most sane men to the point of

With little to no education or job training paired with the stigma around hiring criminals, ex-prisoners are not likely to find housing nor a job upon release. Also, children of the incarcerated are left to deal with unstable homes and are more likely to go to prison themselves than the average youth. A major problem facing prisoners today is what to do once they are released. The majority of the people being arrested are between eighteen and twenty-five years old. Many are going away before they get a chance at a steady job or before they graduate college and are returning to the world unprepared and out of place. If instead of sitting in a cell all day they were put into classes they may one day be able to return as a contributing member of society. Prisoners are being locked up and returning to a completely foreign place. For many inmates“ Prison doesn’t stop at the barbed wire fence, and it doesn’t end on a release date”(Shenwar 4). Many prisoners do not have any family to turn to and without the ability to get a job that leaves them only the option of returning back to their life of crime and quickly ends up with them right back where they started almost like they never even left. Mikael Karlsson describes it as “Everybody wins when a released inmate stays away from crime and reincarnation. The savings to taxpayers are huge. The monetary gains for society are immeasurable when individuals work and pay