The Pros And Cons Of Prison Rehabilitation

First degree murder, a charge that will typically land one life in prison; Second degree murder, a charge landing the defendant 25 to life. Seemingly though, it appears as if these charges are hardly given in locations with the most devastating murder rates. Most notoriously is the area previously known as “South Central”. Depicted as a warzone to many, and a home to the inhabitants of Southern Los Angeles, California. These inhabitants are victim to a vicious cycle of violence and imprisonment; a cycle that traumatizes children and pushes them to their limits, and eventually into gangs. This vicious cycle is set into place for the same reason as many other malevolent and destructive practices, purely for the profit. A money making scheme revolved

How is it so that prisons spanning the United States are overcrowded and unable to house incoming inmates, prompting the construction of more, and typically private, prisons? The prison system has failed to be a rehabilitation program for those serving short sentences that need it, and punishment for others that have committed serious crimes and serving life sentences, and is not much more than a job creating scheme; those who are serving short sentences are typically housed into private or local prisons, which earn less money per day than state prisons, and therefore are supposedly unable to provide rehabilitation or education programs (Blow). Without the capability, or in reality, the desire, to rehabilitate individuals released from prison with short sentences, these individuals are likely to break the law again, and live their lives like a very rigged game of Monopoly, unable to purchase any property to make money, and going straight back to jail. In all seriousness, the aforementioned population are living the cyclic life of being trapped in a corrupt institution, an institution blind to suffering, but wide-eyed for the prospect of cash. Private prisons, otherwise known colloquially as for-profit-prisons, fit their urbanized name fairly well, and function in the most economically efficient way, regardless of the consequential circumstances that could surround the prisoners. In Louisiana, rural sheriffs took advantage of what they envisioned as a money making opportunity, exemplified through the quote “…most of the prison entrepreneurs were actually rural sheriffs. They saw a way to make a profit and did.” (Blow). These sheriffs saw and bought into the prison system, aware of the control and power they could obtain through the grievance and trauma of others. The police knew they had to create more institutions to house criminals that fulfill police arrest