Pelican Bay State Prison: War Zone Marquette Steffke CJA/314 August 27, 2015 Gary Howard Pelican Bay State Prison: War Zone Pelican Bay State Prison is well known for an intriguing reputation. The reputation is withheld through gang leaders whom desire to enter the doors and dominate others while gaining an even better reputation for themselves. The prisoners within Pelican Bay commonly set a goal to gain entrance to this prison because it is more like a reward than a punishment. Gang leaders and members gain more strength and skill upon admission. This prison represents the theory of social structure due to the environment the criminals enter allowing them to continue down a negative path.
Prisons have been utilized as a means to punish individuals for crimes committed since 1790 in the United States. The philosophy behind how punishment should be administered to inmates has flip-flopped back and forth from the harsher forms of retribution to the milder forms of rehabilitation. Prisons have experienced a booming population, worker exploitation, and medical reform for the inmates. Prisons serve a well needed part of the criminal justice system, yet they are the least thought of part of the criminal justice system. References Banks, C. 2005.
In the United States corrections system, rehabilitation has been a consistent effort for years. While world history shows techniques such as banishment, torture, and other forms of corporal punishment, the United States has adopted a system of deterrence, rehabilitation, and focus on the offender. As laws, codes, and legislation become more and more complex, increasingly diverse and somewhat unpredictable, the dimensions of today’s offenders grow as well. America’s modern day offender is no longer the “scum of society” nor the noticeable anomaly to what is considered a civilized individual. Today’s prison systems have proven to be a collection of diverse individuals, some brilliant, some talented and some possessing sets of skills uncommon to even the most successful of free individuals.
Prison Life and Strategies to Reduce Recidivism Student’s name: Institution: Prison Life and Strategies to Reduce Recidivism Introduction All societies in the world acknowledge the fundamental role that prisons and jails play in ensuring that law breakers receive the punishment they deserve. At the same time, prisons offer the offenders an opportunity to reform and become better people in the society. In the United States, an estimated two million inmates are housed in jails and prisons of the country. Statistics indicate that a large percentage of these prisoners is comprised of people who have been imprisoned in the past, as well as, those who have not been inmates in the past. The issue of prison conditions and the impacts they have on the future lives of inmates has attracted significant interest in the American society.
Prison Industrial Complex Today in the United States we are seeing a change in state of incarceration, according to prisonpolicy.org, since 2010 be have seen the prisoners released exceed prison admissions. This in fact is a major transformation because since 1977 releases have not exceeded admissions. One can view this in a positive aspect by thinking that the United States has finally started shifting their policies away from this asinine system of incarceration but in fact this may only be ploy to systematize a greater portion of our population. Even though release rates have grown, the United States still imprisons the highest percentage of its population. So in actuality, today, we are institutionalizing the greatest number of citizens in our history.
There are STG’s that were created outside of the prison walls and were formed on the inside as those members became incarcerated. There are STG’s that are active both inside and outside of the prisons. No matter what kind of gang it is, every gang presents serious problems and concerns for the prisons and for law enforcement outside of the prisons. Of the numerous gangs that operate in the prison systems today there are a few that are larger and better known then others. Some of those larger gangs include, The Aryan Brotherhood, The Black Guerilla Family and The Mexican Mafia.
The number of inmates released early from prison to community supervision or parole has dramatically decreased. Types of crimes for which offenders are convicted and sentenced to prison has not changed significantly since early 1990s. Almost 70 percent of all convicted offenders admitted to DOC have been sentenced to three years or less and most of those (47 percent) for one year or less. The court has not significantly changed its sentencing practices in imposing prison terms, but recently there has been an increase in the number of sentences of between five to 10 years and a decrease in sentences of one year or less. Violent crimes generally receive the longest prison sentence (about six years) and drug offenses the next longest (almost four years).
Punishment in the United States Corrections System The United States Corrections system has been responsible for the handling of all offenders of society since the formation of this nation. For the early times the methods of punishment were very harsh and cruel. The conditions of imprisonment were unimaginable and were often referred to as inhumane. Throughout history our corrections system as well as government has evolved into what many would call a more proficient justice system. This report will help describe many steps of this evolution as well as many of the missteps that have occurred.
An article in LA Times explains, “In the interim, sending inmates to fire camps is the most cost-effective way to curb early releases of inmates, officials said” (Para 11, 2013). Making sure these non-violent and non-sexual offenders still pay their debt to society and still make room for the serious offenders to stay in prison their whole sentences. Moving inmates to fire camps is not the only way to reduce the population in prisons. LA County Sheriff Department made a deal with the city of Taft in Kern County to outsource some long-term inmates. An article in the Los Angeles Daily News the County Chief Executive Officer Bill Fujioka said “the additional jail beds are “critically needed” because realignment required inmates diverted from state prisons to serve their entire sentence in county jails, leaving the Sheriff’s Department scrambling for space for its other inmates” (Para 5, 2013).
Jails tend to be considered the lowest security confinement. Jails play a bigger role in the criminal justice system than most people think. A prison does not come in to play until after an offender is sentenced. However, the jail will be used throughout the whole criminal justice process up to sentencing and sometimes after sentencing. Jails are used in the beginning of the criminal justice process to house suspects that are arrested for crimes.