Walnut Street Jail Janice Tighe Harrison College History of Criminal Justice Mr. Royer 10/17/11 As a Criminal Justice student it is important to know and understand some of the history of our Criminal Justice system. One aspect to know would be the history of our correctional system, in particular the Walnut Street Jail. Before the creation of the Walnut Street Jail life for prisoners was cruel and inhumane. As our text states “By the late eighteenth century, men, women, and children were till mixed together in many American jails. Before the birth of the modern penitentiary at Walnut Street (Philadelphia) in 1790, prisoners endured unimaginable squalor” (Roth, 2011, p. 86).
I personally believe that American prisons can be quite harsh when it comes down to how the prisoners are treated. A lot of factors come in to play when you look at the conditions of our prison systems. Such factors are population, cleanliness, the rules of the prison, and most importantly the severity of the punishments. The first thing I am going to discuss is the population. Ever since the populations of prisons have gradually increased over 2 million inmates, many prisons are becoming overcrowded.
When someone has been in prison for so long and they are not properly rehabilitated, they go back to prison because it is how they know life to be, like it is there home. the combination of repeat offenders and new offenders leave the prisons overcrowded and dangerous. Prison is suppose to be a form of punishment and rehabilitation, not a way of life that is welcome. These inmates are seeing it as a way of life because it is so overcrowded, they are not taught any
That experience gave me a whole new aspect of the people behind the law. There are many ethical issues/problems in the prison system that needs to be evaluated (in my opinion). Ethical Issues/Problems #1 (Officers against Inmates) Inmates are placed with different levels of crimes. For example: Inmate Jones is doing time for murder in the 1st degree (Level-High Classified) and Inmate Smith is doing time for robbery in the 2nd degree (Level-Medium Classified). These two inmates along
Recidivism is a big problem I this country, too many inmates return back to prison after being released. Many citizens are affected by this as well as the x-convicts and their families. Many children of convicts grow up without their father and could end up in prison themselves. It seems that these x-inmates have no chance to be reformed. This problem exists because there are not enough programs to help inmates be reformed and the little programs that are available they are implemented only after the inmate is released and not in the prison itself.
New Asylums Ever since the development of asylums in the U.S., the mentally ill have been housed in these hosipitals. However, due to a number of different reasons, such institutes have been closing down. The lack of these mental facilities in todays society has been a growing concern; such closures have lead to mentally unhealthy ending up in prisons instead. The documentary, New Asylums, aimed to shed some light onto the many concerns regarding this use of prisons to house mentally ill individuals. When the mental health facilities were shut down, police and prisons are left to deal with the mantally ill patients.
However the real impact of the law was filling prisons with non-violent offenders for decades at a time. This has caused the need for more jails and facilities to treat these people we imprison, taking
Criminal Justice April 4, 2011 Term Paper For many years, abuse in prisons has been a serious issue and over the years, the abuse has only gotten worse. We see on the news of this happening in other countries but many Americans do not realize this is happening in our country as well, right under our noses. Some of the most unimaginable things take place in prisons not too far from where we live. Everyday, inmates undergo a variance of different forms of abuse. According to www.hrw.org, some forms of abuse are being beaten with fists and batons, stomped on, kicked, shot, stunned with electronic devices, doused with chemical sprays, choked, and slammed face first onto concrete floors by the officers whose job it is to guard them.
Does imprisonment fulfil those aims and purposes? Studies worldwide have shown that imprisonment does not work in terms of stated objectives. The stated objectives are to reform the criminal. In the majority of cases, the prison population is largely made up of re offenders. Donna King (Smart Justice) described her experience in jail as “Each prison sentence I went through, my crimes got bigger.
The discussion could be is that criminals are being handled well, but some say that they are not being handled like criminals. However, when you think back many years ago, criminals had no rights what so ever. The wardens ran the prison as they saw fit. As for the criminals back in the day, they would be taken out and stoned, beat, and even killed. But with the ethical treatment of criminals these days has a gentle and healthier living circumstances.