England and France were amongst the first two countries to design penitentiaries in response to the growing criticism where extreme public violence as the means of a deterrence of a crime. Hence, the basis of a penitentiary was that it was the punishment within the detention itself and the “penitentiary ideal” itself was the extreme isolation of the criminals from society, their daily lives supervised extensively and physical labor was compulsive (Browne, 1995). So based on these penitentiary ideals, hardened criminals need to be separated from others to keep it safer, and give others the chance to reform and put back into society. Penitentiaries were established with a certain goal in mind. There were several reasons behind this.
When the death penalty was no more the jail suffered overcrowding which led to riots, escapes, and prison guards were attacked. The Pennsylvania Prison Society and the Philadelphia Society for Alluarting Misers of Public Prisons stepped in to solve the overcrowding issue by building Pittsburgh Western Penitentiary and Cherry Hill Prison. Today there are 1,200 prisons in the United States and overcrowding is still an issue. Lawmakers believe in three main goals of the correctional system: 1. Punish those who are found guilty of the
This false impression is what the general public views as, life behind bars. In the criminal justice system, prison plays a vital role in deterring citizens from committing offences. The images held by the general public, due to the media’s account of the prison system, are enough to prevent most people from committing crimes. This representation in movies and television programs is often false and misleading, portraying the prison system as a dangerous place where criminals are sent to pay for their crimes. Criminals are constantly shown living in fear of other inmates or working tirelessly on roads or laundry mats.
When used, the Three Strikes law treats all crimes the exact same way, which makes the law unjust. For example, someone who raped and murdered a twelve year old girl would receive the same exact punishment as someone who was caught with marijuana. Many people want to put a stop to situations like this, but every day these trials are taking places. The media then tries to persuade the citizens into believing the law is effective by broadcasting different trials that put the person in prison. But, they do not tell the public that they are being put in prison for stealing “videos or pizza” (Messerli).
So, why do people continue to break parole and end up back in jail? There are prisoners who are released, but they don't return to prison. Yet, the majority of prisoners released do go back to jail. The rate for re-arrest is so high because criminals think they're not going to get caught or they're so emotionally desperate or psychologically distressed that they don't care about the consequences. This apathetic attitude might not even matter, because around 90% of the men never get out of prison alive.
America's prisons have been called "graduate schools for crime." It stands to reason: Take a group of people, strip them of possessions and privacy, expose them to constant threats of violence, overcrowd their cell-block, deprive them of meaningful work, and the result is an embittered underclass more intent on getting even with society than contributing to it. Prisons take the nonviolent offender and make him live side by side with violent offender. They take the nonviolent offender and make him a hardened criminal. America has to wake up and realize that the current structure of our penal system is failing terribly.
They will withhold critical evidence from the defense team and will resort to immoral if not illegal tactics in their investigation of the offense. Their personal opinion is that they actually do not care if the defendant is guilty or innocent, they just want a conviction. They want to extract their pound of flesh. Also researchers have determined that some of the causes of prison overcrowding are harsher penalties for criminal activities, changes to laws that make new actions illegal, high recidivism rates and needed improvements to the penal system. Once the causes of crowding have been fixed researchers can begin to address the problems it causes and deal with them.
Ethical Considerations for the Investigator and Prosecutor in Homicide and Rape The investigator and prosecutor play very critical roles, roles that are only fairly fulfilled if all parties are as ethical as possible. Failing to act ethically can lose a case, set a criminal free or could even mean someone innocent going to prison. While ethics in every single type of case are important we are going to examine homicide and rape. Both homicide and rape leave the public hungry for answers. We must be sure that finding those answers are done ethically from the crime scene to trial.
Society is safer but not these prisons and jails. These criminals are going to go right to prison, fight, have wars and kill each other. That is a whole other problem in itself. Additionally, Correctional officers are more at risk for danger because they must monitor all of these Inmates. More stress, chaos, and contact among inmates and staff.
- an incarceration rate unprecedented in U.S. History. Is incarceration in the US is one of the main forms of punishment for the commission of a felony and other offenses. When there are over a million people incarcerated throughout the United States, the ethical treatment of prisoner’s rights must be analyzed. Throughout the years many modifications have been made to accommodate inmates and preserve their human rights. We, as a society has done enough regarding this issue because the punishment don’t even fit the crime now.