Together these factors have dramatically altered the nature of day-today prison life and inmate culture. Today’s prison life is much better than past times. I think it’s barbaric that prisons used to torture their prisoners, and they had no say in anything. Although today’s prisoners still don’t have much of a say in what occurs inside prison, they know they won’t get tortured like prisoners in the past. I’ve always heard that during the Industrial Revolution, many prisoners were used as free labor, but I never realized how much money the prisons actually made from this kind of labor.
Determinate sentences involve sentences that have a fixed or flat time (Jirard, 2009). Determinate sentences play a large part in the increasing number of individuals in prison, which, as you can imagine, puts more strain on prisons financially. In the past two decades, we have become increasingly “tough on crime” which has helped to decrease crime to a certain extent. According to an article in the New York Times (2008), the US has fewer than five percent of the entire world’s population, but almost twenty five percent of the world’s prisoners (Liptak & , 2008). The author of the article goes on to say that people in the US are sentenced to do time for crimes that would not produce such a sentence in other countries.
Less than 25 percent of the average daily population of sentenced offenders is incarcerated; the majority are supervised in the community. For the past 20 years, Connecticut's prisons have operated at or over capacity despite the addition of thousands of new beds since 1990 and a steady 10-year decrease in crime and arrest rates. Department of Correction lacks both a sufficient number of beds to house total inmate population and an adequate system of high security beds to manage high-risk population. Correctional system is hampered by inaccurate population projections and lack of a needs analysis of total offender population, but in particular of the inmate population. The number of inmates released early from prison to community supervision or parole has dramatically decreased.
Even DOSA (Drug Offender Sentencing Act) which says they get half time upon completion of drug counseling, most inmates are unable to complete. However, due to budget cut this leaves inmates or the state to pay for the costs which cost even more than doing it inside the institution. Recidivism, which means to recommit crime, is over 90 percent for drugs offenders even with treatment. Without treatment or education offenders are committing more crime and most of the inmates are going back to prisons. If there are more good programs that would work for these inmate and guide them throughout, each individual should have the responsibility to complete the program and earn something from it.
Incarceration costs are much higher, normally running around $18,100 per year per inmate, with another $43,756 needed just to build a new cell block. With the information provided I believe the theory of the non-traditional approach of the electronic monitoring is a good way to go to help save money and help local cities on their debts as well. These are in my personal opinion a great approach to the system. The second NON traditional approach with the prison system I’d like to address is the MRT which is a focus on changing how inmates think and make decisions. Counselors hold group sessions twice weekly with 8 to 15 clients per group so that it’s more of a personal feel for the inmates they can better focus on the topics and not feel as pressured.
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. This problem has been around since prisons were created and is a growing problem today. This problem needs to be addressed before it gets way out of control. There was a study offered by the Pew
Housing approximately 500,000 people in jail awaiting trial who cannot bail costs $9 billion a year. Most jail inmates are petty, nonviolent offenders. Twenty years ago most non-violent defendants were released on their own recognizance (trusted to show up at trial). Now most are given bail, and most pay a bail bondsman to afford it. 62% of local jail inmates are awaiting trial.
Within the realm of correctional officers, the largest obstacle is not the inmates but the politics that exist in the facility. There seems to be an officer culture within a culture and many times it becomes difficult to decipher. Another issue is communication within the correctional facility between individuals who possess different roles. Many times information does not get relayed properly or to the appropriate individuals so no one seems to be on the same page. An ongoing concern is that officer’s power has seemed to be almost eliminated and that causes problems with inmates and hostility amongst staff.
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.
The difference between the numbers of criminals who reoffended considering the length of their time in jail is 7.2%. These numbers are so small, that instead of justifying the prison system, it works against it. There are other arguments against jails. Jails are expensive, since they support a large number of socially incapable individuals for many years. Furthermore, far too many institutions are overcrowded.