INTRODUCTION The United States incarcerates a greater percentage of the population than any country in the world (CBS, 2012). According to the US Bureau of Justice Statistics, over 2.3 million adults were incarcerated in federal and state prisons, and county jails in 2013. There are an additional 820,000 people on parole and 3.8 million people on probation (Wagner & Rabuy, 2016) Jail and prison differ primarily in regards to the length of stay for inmates.
In recent years, many prisons have been working on programs to aid prisoners, with minor offences, to have a smooth transition back into society. One way to improve the prison system is
When society is not accepting the newly released prisoner, it makes them feel like they don’t belong, so they go back to their old ways,which involves reoffending. For instance, when a person has served a long-winded sentence,it could be hard to convert what society is now versus what it was before. In addition, programs are provided to reduce the rate of recidivism, but the effectiveness of the program is the bigger issue. Programs tend to be generalized and do not meet the needs of an inmate on an individual level. Also, the program could lack the essentials such as funding and proper staffing.
Kalief Browder was an African American man who was arrested for allegedly stealing a backpack. While waiting for his time to go to Trial, he was held on Rikers Island where he spent most of his time in solitary confinement. Also during his stay at Rikers Island he was constantly beaten and starved. Three years after he was released out of prison he committed suicide. In this case like most, being locked up and treated inhumane later on drove him to take away his own life.
On the contrary, they continue to misbehave as the way that had them chained up. Rehabilitating from crime is similar to recovering from drug abuse, the most effective way to cut off from further engagement is to keep anything related out of reach. Yet, the prison has done the opposite, no prisoner can reform under such circumstance. Prison is supposed to put an end to criminal activities but it turns out to be the extension; crime keeps happening in and out of the prison and criminals stay as
What are the traditional and practical approaches for the agency’s dealing with the problem? Traditionally, the courts have been rather lenient and have allowed many of the members of the VBBC gang to plead guilty to lesser charges, rather than go to trial and risk wasting time and resources not getting a conviction. There have however, been a few instances where specialized agencies such as the ATF and DEA have collected sufficient intelligence to raid and seize evidence which has resulted, on two separate occasions, members of the VBBC being arrested and later convicted on felony charges. Results of the traditional agency approach? Allowing members of the VBBC gang to plead guilty to lesser charges, has resulted in a number of negative
United States Prisons: A Mental Cage The United States is one of the world’s most recognized and powerful superpowers since its industrial and commercial production along with their nearly limitless military budget make them practically invincible. This demonstrates the power of the United States on foreign soil and problems, yet many internal problems in the United States are left disregarded and neglected, simply thrown away. Citizens and lawmakers remain silent on several key social issues and on one of the biggest shameful topics of neglect, America’s incarceration rate.
One of greatest threats to the United States today is terrorism. Currently, terrorist organizations are seeking to recruit human sources within the United States. “The danger to America’s security is, therefore, not the number of adherents to Islam in prison, but in the potential for small groups of true believers to instigate terrorist acts, either by other prisoners once they are released, or by existing cells in the community”(Hamm, 2007). One major concern is that U.S. correctional institutions may become a source for such recruitment. This type of recruitment is highly likely.
Title When thinking of a prison the first thing that comes to most people’s minds is the prisoners and how they are treated. What most people don’t realize is that the prisoners are treated better than one would think. Don’t get me wrong it’s no five star hotel, but it is nicer than most schools are. The reason is that it costs $54,865 per prisoner in the state of New Jersey. Right now the state of New Jersey is only spending $19,211 per student.
Deterrence and Recidivism Crime prevention is a key aim of the criminal justice system. Offenders are incarcerated in prisons in a expectation that they will feel punished enough to learn from their mistakes and not commit further crimes, this is called deterrence and is a main goal of prisons today (Daly, 2003). Prisons in their current form are often overcrowded, anxiety inducing, restrictive and have been found to exacerbate the mental health of offenders (Matthews, 2016). In saying this, research by Crank and Brezina (2012) suggests that some offenders find prison ‘easier than being on the street’. Crank and Brezina (2012) conducted a study where they surveyed a large group of inmates and questioned them on their views of being incarcerated.
The problems affect their choices about doing right or wrong. The inmates need a push, when returning back into society
Subject to realistic limitations then, former inmates should be able to do their time, work hard and create a new law-abiding life with goals and dreams just like the rest of us. This was an encouraging sentimentality behind the passing of the Second Chance Act signed into law by George W. Bush in 2008, “The Second Chance Act Programs are designed to help communities develop and implement comprehensive and collaborative strategies that address the challenges posed by offender reentry and recidivism reduction” (U.S. Department of Justice, 2012, p. 1). Unfortunately, the dark clouds looming over this Act are the realities of incarceration and the forming of long shadows over former inmates. This alone greatly reduces the ability to work their way up. The problems faced once leaving prison compound the wages and skill lost during the period of incarceration.
With over 2 million people going and staying in prison a year it is important that when they leave that they are an active member of society. If there is an improper prison system in place then the released prisoners can be worse for society than before. When people can’t get proper
But prison’s ability to deter crime is uncertain at best. The first time criminals go to prison they can’t even think about what spending years in prison is like. Research shows that for career criminals, going back to prison isn’t that intimidating
In this last decade crime has been decreasing by large numbers in some areas, while staying steady in other parts of the country. Nevertheless, the number of individuals going to prison for drug offences has skyrocket. The prison system is a current disaster and is currently affecting millions of citizens in the United States. I choose this social problem, because the number of people affected by prisons and the ridiculous mandatory minimum sentences for drug offences is scary, insane and problematic. I would like to find out what caused this epidemic to happen.
