I believe that convicted felons should be allowed to vote upon release from prison because they exercise good judgment: in addition, withholding their rights to vote would be a violation of the United States Voting Rights act of 1965 and the eighth amendment of the Constitution. I think that some, but not all ex-convicts should be allowed to reinstate their voting rights. This should be judged on a case by case basis according to the crime they committed. Also, it should be based on the magnitude and severity of their crime. At the very least, they should attend and complete a special designed program, go through a waiting period, and take a drug-screened testing regularly before they get their privileges restored.
Americans have little sympathy for prisoners complaining about the conditions or of they are being abused in any way. Many Americans believe that prisoners have lost all rights when been convicted of any crime. I also think that many Americans have no idea what goes on in the prisons. Incidents that happen in prison aren't televised like it would be outside the prison walls. Plus what happens in prison doesn't effect society.
William Penn, the governor of Pennsylvania in the late 1600's, realized that these types of punishments were too severe and were not fit punishments for the crimes being committed. He led the Quakers to only use death sentences for murder, provide food and housing for inmates without fees, allow for hard labor instead of imprisonment, and started using jails instead of stocks. (Seiter, 2011, pp. 20-21) The Walnut Street Jail was the very first penitentiary in the United States built in 1773. Inmates had to wear masks if they were going to be seen by other inmates so that other inmates wouldn't recognize them outside of prison walls.
In this paper, I will discuss the effect that capital punishment has on deterring criminal activity. Capital punishment is the execution of criminals by the state, for committing crimes, regarded so terrible, that this type of punishment is the only acceptable punishment for the crime committers. For decades now, there has been an ongoing debate over the death penalty in America. The chief argument in favor of death sentences is the fact that it can be used as a deterrent. Deterrence is the idea that executing the murderers will decrease the rates of homicide by discouraging future murderers.
This principle applies regardless of whether the medical care is provided by governmental employees or by private medical staff under contract with the government. Restrictions on prisoners’ access to publications cannot be arbitrary; they must be “reasonably related to legitimate penological interests.” That said, in practice, courts often will accept the judgment of prison authorities in deciding whether censoring a publication is reasonable. Over the last two decades corrections systems have increasingly relied on solitary confinement as a prison management tool – even building entire institutions called “supermax prisons” where prisoners are held in conditions of extreme isolation, sometimes for years or decades. But solitary confinement jeopardizes our public safety, is fundamentally inhumane and wastes taxpayer dollars. We must insist on humane and more cost-effective methods of punishment and prison management.
Probation may have been a good idea when it was first went into effect but, I do not feel that probation is structured and does not work for the most part. I feel probation is controlled by politics. I think probation is given to reduce the problem of overcrowding. I also feel that when there is not enough evidence but the judge has to reprimand to look good in the eyes of society that probation is offered. In the future, I feel probation programs should be changed and only offered to first time offenders or crimes that are considered low on the poll.
America has to wake up and realize that the current structure of our penal system is failing terribly. The government has to devise new ways to punish the guilty, and still manage to keep American citizens satisfied that our prison system is still effective. In this essay I will talk about what it cost to send a person to prison, why prisons fail and other ways to punish nonviolent offender Frist, I will talk about what it cost to put a person in prison. The government spends approximately $80,000 to build one cell, and $28,000 per year to keep a prisoner locked up. That's about the same as the cost of sending a student to Harvard.
- 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.
“When prison environments become unduly painful, they also become harmful, and prisoners carry the effects or consequences of that harm back into the society once they have been released “(Haney, 2009). This is unfortunate however, it is merely reality and we must not close our eyes to this issue. Overcrowding “While building or expanding prison capacity can reduce overcrowding, the decision to build is out of the control of those who work in particular prisons” (Improving Conditions in Overcrowded Prisons, 2007). Since building additional facilities is out of the question due to lack of funding I have created a few programs that can possibly be implemented to help prevent future overcrowding. There are other alternatives besides incarceration available to our present inmates.
The main thing that is hurting our country right now is violence, when you read the news about Chicago they had more murders then the soldiers in Iraq due to gang violence. Furthermore if the police love arresting criminals they should arrest all the thugs and send them to prison because they are the problem. Arresting somebody for drugs is not that Title: Non-Violent Criminals Should Be Punish With Fines serious for being put behind bars that person should pay a fine for his or her punishment. Non-violent criminals have a recidivism rate of 3% according the Department of Justice. In other words a non-violent criminal has a slight chance of repeating the same