Sentencing And Prison Practices In Germany And The Netherlands

Germany: An Alternative System

Germany is an example of a country that has effectively reduced its total people in poverty, and kept prison populations at low levels. In the report Sentencing and Prison Practices in Germany and the Netherlands, Germany’s criminal justice system is organized around “resocialization and rehabilitation”, not law and order that is in the United States (Shames 2013). The authors researched Germany and the Netherlands policies around criminal justice. Germany’s Prison Act aims to “enable prisoners to lead a life of social responsibility free of crime upon release, requiring that prison life be as similar as possible to life in the community”. Furthermore, only a small percentage of “convicted offenders are sentenced

Given the data I collected and my knowledge on sentencing laws, prison programs, and poverty reduction policies, I will advocate for a three pronged policy that address larger systemic issues facing our criminal justice system. My policy would address sentencing laws, social access for formerly incarcerated people, and transformative prison practices that would remove the closely associated link between mass incarceration and

We must focus our prisons around rehabilitation, just like Germany does. My policy would require all prisons to host multiple personal development programs at their sites. Job training centers, adequate health centers, educational opportunities, and other programs must be included within the prison reforms if we want to see people changed when they reenter society. These programs would be a start to a whole entire systemic change in the way we view the purpose of our prison system. Our recidivism rates are certainly high; incarceration is a revolving door for most people. If prisoners are not given any support on the inside, it is more than likely they will not get any help on the outside, especially when it was the community conditions that send them there in the first