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United States Prison System Essay

1030 Words5 Pages

What do you think you know about the United States Prison System? Do you have the information you need in order to decide? This paper will give you the information necessary on the past, present, and future of prisons in order to make a sturdy opinion of the United States Prison System and whether or not it is headed in the correct direction. Starting way back in time as just a temporary holding tank, prisons have evolved dramatically over the years to become black holes of corruption. There needs to be a complete re-evaluation of the views people hold with regard to prisons and think about the future keeping in mind what they could be. Going many years back, even before the 1700’s, jails were still considered a place you didn’t want to …show more content…

Conditions in these institutions were really bad and they were also unproductive. This led to outrage in the late 19th Century which sparked the “reformatory” movement. This was a period when the prison’s role in society began to be restructured. The goal was to redefine the prison’s role as that of “reforming” inmates into model citizens that can rejoin normal society as functioning, productive people. In order to achieve this goal prison systems began providing inmates with education, work, and counseling. This was a great step in the right direction for the prison …show more content…

Whether it be restructuring the way we send people to jail, or restructuring the prison system the current system is not effective socially or economically, for the prisoners or for the country as a whole who is supporting them. Sources say that some courts are experimenting with sentences that allow criminals to remain out of prison for lesser crimes. This helps to free up space in the jails and allows people to remain a part of normal society. The latter half of that is important because it takes less readjusting back to normal life after. This makes it so we have more productive members of

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